Italy in the 1950s produced some pretty outlandish
automotive designs – and a fair few of them came from Ghia. Few were as
striking, as this one-of-a-kind Abarth coupe that's now up for sale.
In something of a forecast of mergers to come
decades later, Ghia rebodied this 1953 Abarth 1100 Sport (itself based on the
Fiat 1100) alongside the much larger Chryslers it was building at the same
time.
With a nose like a jet airplane and streamlined
bodywork to match, it debuted at the 1953 Turin Salon and surely stunned the
gathered crowds.
Ghia subsequently sold the concept car to one Bill
Vaughn in the US, who rebadged it as the Vaughn SS Wildcat and displayed it at
the New York Auto Show in 1954. Vaughn claimed it was powered by a V8 with
overhead camshaft instead of the four-cylinder engines with which all other
1100s were fitted – the nameplate representing the engine's displacement in
cubic centimeters.
The concept car was then “lost in time,” according
to RM Sotheby's, until it was discovered in a barn in 1982. Its current owned
bought it in 2010 and spent the next five years comprehensively restoring it to
original condition.
Upon its return to the scene in 2015, it won
best-in-class at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, losing out for
best-in-show to a 1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Cabriolet – the vast majority
of winners coming form the pre-war period.
It'll be offered for sale in Monterey, California,
this coming August, where it's sure to fetch a suitably high price.
