Few collaborations have yielded the kind of beauty
that Chrysler and Ghia’s did in the 1950s and ’60s. And if you’re sweet on
putting one of its creations in your garage, RM Sotheby’s sale in Monterey will
be the place to be this August.
Not only will the auctioneer be selling off a rare
1955 Chrysler ST Special at the Pebble Beach sale, but now it has consigned an
even rarer specimen. It’s a 1961 Plymouth Asimmetrica Roadster – or rather the
Plymouth Asimmetrica Roadster, we should say. Because it’s the only one of its
kind ever made.
Over a decade before Ford took it over, Carrozzeria
Ghia partnered with Chrysler over the course of 15 years to produce an array of
show cars – based on Chrysler mechanicals and designed by its chief stylist
Virgil Exner, but bodied by Ghia in Turin.
The Asimmetrica roadster was one of them, so named
because of its unusually lopsided design, with an engine bulge and intake in
front of the driver and a sort of short fin behind. It was powered by a
2.8-liter straight six producing all of 101 horsepower, and was based (at least
stylistically) on the XNR show car that preceded it by two years, but was never
put into production. Which may have been for the best, because it was hardly an
elegant and well-resolved design. But it was certainly unique. And on that
basis alone, we’re glad that it survived.
If you are as well, and have the money to put where
your heart is, best show up at the Monterey Conference Center the weekend of
August 24-25. There it will be sold to the highest bidder, with no reserve.
