Herb Adams ‘Vivant 77’

Another car drawing massive crowds at Pebble Beach was the ‘Vivant 77’ created by Herb Adams as a side project while he worked at Pontiac in the mid 60s. The alloy-bodied concept started with a small-scale model, and then Herb began building the rolling chassis in his garage. He used a spare Pontiac 370 v-8 paired to a Tempest transaxle, and the car had Corvette suspension rolling on 8 lug Kelsey-Hayes Bonneville/ Grand Prix wheels.

Herb built the chassis himself, but to bring the sophisticated body shape to life he used the talents of three Brit bodymen known as “The Beatles of Troy, Michigan”… These guys had been metal crafters on drag cars for the likes of ‘TV’ Tommy Ivo, Don Garlits, and Connie Kalitta. The trio agreed to make the Vivant’s Alfa Romeo BAT-inspired curvy aluminum body as a rolling advertisement for their impeccable work, and for a fraction of what it would have cost Herb to use GM guys to do the same work. The car made it’s debut at the 1966 Detroit Autorama, where it was very well received, but after a few years Adams had to sell the car to cover some debts he had amassed while racing in Trans-Am. The Vivant disappeared for over 35 years until it was discovered in a barn, and now fully restored for Pebble Beach where it took 1st place in the ‘American Dream Cars of the 1960s’ class!