The story of Ghia – part 1
The beginning In tracing the genealogy of coachbuilding firms, it turns out that they originated in the early years of the last century as…
The Asimmetrica was either begun by Exner very late in his tenure at Chrysler, then completed by Ghia, or was solely a Ghia design project, in the manner of the earlier Chrysler Specials they had independently produced for European clients. Its styling was toned down from the extreme XNR, including a four-passenger interior, a full windshield, and a more conventional tail and rear deck, without the large fin, but was still recognizably a sibling, due to the use of the XNR’s original bucks for many of the body panels. Like the XNR, it was based upon a largely stock Plymouth Valiant chassis, engine, and drivetrain, but with the Hyper-Pack features of cast-iron split headers and a Carter AFB carburetor, similar to the infamous NASCAR Valiants.
Controversy similarly surrounds how many of the Asimmetricas were produced. General consensus is that a run of 25 was planned, but that at most only two roadsters were completed. The first appeared on Ghia’s stand, identified as simply the Asimmetrica (with no assigned manufacturer), at the Turin Motor Show in 1961. It is believed that the Turin show car was later shown at Geneva, where it was purchased by Georges Simenon, the French author of the Maigret detective novels, as noted in David Burgess-Wise’s Ghia: Ford’s Carrozzeria and Simenon’s own Intimate Memoirs.
The beginning In tracing the genealogy of coachbuilding firms, it turns out that they originated in the early years of the last century as…
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