History Herb Adams 'Vivant 77'

Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post:

Herb Adams 'Vivant 77'

Continue reading the Original Blog Post

 

Man that thing is sweet! So glad it's been restored.

 

Although not as radical, you can definitely see the influence that the (Giuseppe "Nuccio" Bertone designed) Alfa Romeo "Berlinetta Aerodynamica Technicas" had on Herb Adams when designing the "Vivant 77":

left to right: 1953 BAT 5, 1954 BAT 7, & 1955 BAT 9​

 

Beautiful design! Do you have any photos showing more of the rear of the car? Does it have any taillights in the rear? Or any photos of it when it was discovered in the barn?

 

NOTE:

The 1965 Pontiac Vivant Herb Adams Roadster is currently owned by HAMBer @mrbhotrod [i.e., Dr. Mark Brinker (& his wife Newie) of Houston, Texas].

Here's some more pics of the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Class R (American Dream Cars of the 1960s) 1st Place winner:

photo credit: Ollie Marriage


photo credit: Nathan Leach-Proffer


photographer unknown


photographer unknown


photo credit: © Kimball Studios
​

 

A Pontiac fans dream. Pontiac is dead, long live Pontiac.

 

See the pics in my post above ^^^.

Maybe not from the day in the Ohio investors found it in storage ... but here's a couple of (circa 2009) pics of the car that @Foul (Daniel Strohl) ran in his Hemmings "Lost & Found" column:

image from March 2009 issue of Hemmings


image from December 2009 issue of Hemmings​

... and here's some pics of the un-restored "Vivant 77":

​

 

three Brit bodymen known as “The Beatles of Troy, Michigan”…
Ringo always gets shit on! ......nice car for sure....Mark

 

These are also from around 2009.

 

I don't like that the restorers created a false reality. The car seems to have had a simple dynoc (spelling?) fake wood dash and fiberglass buckets in white as originally built. Yes what is there now is beautiful but it is a modern creation.
The other entries are original '60s cars and were cheated out of first place. The Vivant should not have been allowed to be voted on.

 

I've long admired the Vivant's design as it's quite elegant and evocative of jet-age styling without resorting to rocket symbolism. Designs like this are a sterling example of the kind of bodies I'd like to see a company like Factory Five offer beyond the Cobra bodies to fit onto their excellent, easy to build chassis. Just make sure the intellectual property owners are taken care of financially (Herb Adams family I'd suppose?) and start cranking 'em out as an option.

 

One more, courtesy of Sports Car Digest.

 

It's a Pontiac, what else can I say! That thing is tiny ( or those guys are Big)!

 

O K. So what were the names of The Beatles of Troy?

 

Check out Octane magazine #175 / January 2018. Cool 7-page feature about this Vivant with really awesome pics.