The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
The K-310 is a dream car presented in 1951 by the US car manufacturer Chrysler. At the presentation K.T.Teller, president of Chrysler, declared that this prototype opened “new horizons for the future”. Designed by Virgil Exner, then director of Chrysler’s design department, the K-310 was built in Italy by Ghia of Turin. In 1950 Ghia had built the Plymouth XX-500, thus giving way to a long series of concept cars made in Italy for Chrysler, of which the K-310 was second.
The Chrysler K-310 represents, for the letter “K”, the then president of the company K. T. Keller, and the “310” for the power of the 331 cubic inch V8. However, the new stock version produced only 180 hp. Aesthetically, the K-310 adopted a European style, with integrated and curved rear fenders. The front grille is reminiscent of American design. The K-310 was well received, Chrysler and Ghia then created a convertible version, called C-200, unveiled in 1952. The C-200 was also designed by Virgil Exner. He and his small team designed the car at Chrysler Corporation in Detroit, Michigan. It was built by Carrozzeria Ghia. The car had the power of an American Chrysler V8 in an Italian sports car style body. The interior was covered in black leather and the exterior two-tone paint scheme was pale green and black. The gun-sight taillight design was featured on later production Chrysler models. The Chrysler K-310 never went into production, not least because the company was in financial difficulty.
There are in the history of companies, just as in the history of nations, certain fateful episodes, which have an influence on the course of events well in excess of their actual importance. Chrysler’s request to Ghia to build for them, to their design, a special body on a Plymouth chassis, is one of these episodes.
The beginning In tracing the genealogy of coachbuilding firms, it turns out that they originated in the early years of the last century as…
