Long before the Chrysler TC by Maserati, Italians were building cars using the American brand’s equipment.
One of them was the 1962 Ghia L 6.4 created by the famous coachbuilding firm Carrozzeria Ghia.
The elegant coupe used Chrysler’s 300 hp 383-cubic-inch V8, TorqueFlite 3-speed automatic transmission and other components that were blended with a custom chassis and its all-original body. The car was priced at $13,000, which would be approximately $130,000 today, and just 26 were made.
The stunning car counted among its owners the likes of Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, and Dean Martin, the last of whom couldn’t get an order for a new one, but bought it used from Ball’s husband, Gary Morton, according to Bonhams.
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One of them was sold to a member of the Kuwaiti royal family and remained with them until last year when it was purchased and imported to the United States. The car features Rosso Rubino paint and English saddle leather upholstery, along with luxurious for the day features like power windows, power locks and a pushbutton radio.
It now has 28,888 miles on its odometer and is scheduled to cross the block at the Mecum Auctions event in Harrisburg, Penn., on July 27.
Mecum hasn’t put an estimated valuation on it, but it was previously offered at its Indianapolis auction in May and received a high bid of $185,000.
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Another one was sold for $577,500 at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction way back in 2016, so the market for these appears to be fickle. According to Hagerty, top condition examples are worth $445,000, but there haven’t been any recent sales to help update that figure.
