What an absolute beauty!
A beautiful 1955 Chrysler Ghia ST Special created quite the buzz when it crossed the auction block during the 2023 Mecum Kissimmee auction. As a result, nobody was too shocked when the car pulled down a high bid of $700,000.
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Arguably one of the most beautiful cars to ever wear the Chrysler name, the Ghia ST Special wasn’t exactly a high-volume model. In fact, a mere 4 were made, 2 going to customers in Italy and 2 going to customers in France. So it’s a big deal when one of these changes hands because it’s such an infrequent occurrence.
That’s not all which makes the Chrysler Ghia ST Special so amazing. It was the final design to come out the collaborative efforts of Virgil Exner, a legendary stylist in the automotive world, and Luigi Segre, chief of Ghia. Charles Ladouch, a French Chrysler importer, designed the car, which looks stately but not overdone.
A nut-and-bolt restoration complete in 2014 allows this Chrysler Ghia ST Special to truly shine. Presentation is everything, especially at an auction, so that surely helped with driving the bidding process.
This particular car was displayed at the 1955 Turin Motor show, dazzling attendees with its Copper and Ivory exterior over Havana leather interior, complete with an Ivory dash. It now wears the period-correct wire wheels, perfectly capturing the flavor of the car scene in Europe in 1955.
If anyone dares to drive this Chrysler, they’ll find the 331 Hemi V8 provides wonderful power thanks in part to the 4-barrell carb, especially when consider what era this was created. A 2-speed Powerflite automatic transmission makes this ride easy to handle along with factory power steering and power breaks.
You can find the lot listing for this car here.
Images via Mecum Auctions
