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Ghia Gilda Streamline X Coupé: Coolest Chrysler Ever Made
jalopnik.com ^ | 5/01/09 3:00pm | Peter Orosz

Posted on 03/03/2015 10:19:35 AM PST by Red Badger

As the first day with Chrysler in bankruptcy dawns, let’s look at a mad car from an era when the automaker was set to conquer the very skies: the jet-powered Gilda coupé.

There is something definitely wrong with the heat exchangers of Italian air conditioners. Granted, they have fans in them and machines with fans will never be silent but cooling a small building by Lake Como should not require a jet engine.

There, I said it—and as if on cue, this orange-silver concoction from half a century ago rounds a bend and motorvates leisurely down a service road. The noise is deafening, high, piercing, slightly dangerous.

The Gilda—named after Rita Hayworth’s famous role in the 1946 film of the same name—is not a Chrysler in the way a 300 or a Hemi engine is, but it would certainly not exist without the company.

Chrysler’s executives commissioned it in 1955 and it was designed by Giovanni Savonuzzi of Italy’s Ghia coachbuilding firm. The car was shaped to take a gas turbine, but it was never fitted with one: the Gilda toured the show circuit with a 1.5-liter OSCA four-pot, then was handed over to the Henry Ford Museum, where it sat until purchased by a Californian eight years ago for $125,000.

Scott Grundfor, the car’s new owner, had the car restored and fitted, as originally intended, with a gas turbine. It’s a perfect complement to the styling, which, as you can see in our gallery, is perhaps the most extreme example of Fifties jet plane car design. A weird one-off from an era where ultra-high speed transport seemed to be just around the corner. And when Project Orion was not the name of a space program set to retrace our achievement from forty years ago, but stood for a set of spaceships powered by atom bombs.

Yeah, the Fifties were cool.

Postscript: Chrysler’s partnership with Ghia in designing a jet car culminated eight years later in the Chrysler Turbine Car, a test run of 50 automobiles powered by the A831 turbine engine making 130 HP at a very un-V8 60,000 RPM. While the cars were reliable, they never made it into production, and died quick EV1 deaths.

Photo Credit: Natalie Polgar and Peter Orosz



TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Hobbies; Science
KEYWORDS: 1955; auto; automotive; chrysler; ghia
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To: Clay Moore; fanfan; ColdOne; Cyber Liberty; null and void; Tax-chick; Anoreth; Monkey Face; ...

Old Cars Ping, to UT. :)


41 posted on 03/03/2015 1:32:11 PM PST by moose07 (The Camels have reached the parking lot. Shields up!)
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BFL


42 posted on 03/03/2015 2:03:33 PM PST by zeugma (The act of observing disturbs the observed.)
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To: Red Badger; moose07

Swoopy!

Thank you, gentlemen, for the post and ping.


43 posted on 03/03/2015 2:13:50 PM PST by TheOldLady (Pray for Obama... Psalm 109:8 -- Look it up...... I donate monthly. Do you?)
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To: Red Badger

With that aerodynamics, I don’t think it would have been very stable at say 100 mph.......Nevertheless, pretty cool


44 posted on 03/03/2015 2:17:40 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (Uncle Sy: "Beavers are like Ninjas, they only come out at night and they're hard to find")
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To: Hot Tabasco

Probably try to fly..........................


45 posted on 03/03/2015 2:19:39 PM PST by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Hot Tabasco

Probably try to fly!...................

46 posted on 03/03/2015 2:21:00 PM PST by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Red Badger

It never rained in Gotham City in the 1960s.


47 posted on 03/03/2015 2:29:46 PM PST by xp38
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To: xp38

Super Criminals don’t like to get wet...............


48 posted on 03/03/2015 2:32:02 PM PST by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Red Badger

Minor detail.


49 posted on 03/03/2015 3:12:47 PM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: moose07

I’m not on any old cars ping. Am I???


50 posted on 03/03/2015 3:19:30 PM PST by Shimmer1 (Did you ever notice: The Roman Numerals for forty (40) are XL.)
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To: smokingfrog
You’d think they could get more than 130hp out of a jet engine. Of course you would probably have to refill the tank every 10 miles.

Tailgaters would not be a problem. Just kick on the afterburner and flambé them!

51 posted on 03/03/2015 3:48:38 PM PST by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: nascarnation

You are right, I got the wrong photo.

Both those races are available on YouTube. I have watched every 500 from 1960-present day on YouTube.


52 posted on 03/03/2015 4:37:32 PM PST by arbitrary.squid
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To: Shimmer1
on any old cars ping.

Not Any old Cars Ping, No. :)
T'was a General Ping to UT for Old Cars.
You can be removed from said Category if you desire.

53 posted on 03/04/2015 8:22:15 AM PST by moose07 (The Camels have reached the parking lot. Shields up!)
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