1953 Chrysler Special GS-1 by Ghia

This car was the result of two totally different companies working together, collaborating if you will, Chrysler, which made grand spectacular cars in the late 20s and 30s. They decided to branch out and do something totally different in 1934. It was the first unit body car, first car to be designed in a wind tunnel. It was called the Chrysler Airflow. Despite the Airflow being better than any car on the road at the time, and I know I'm going to get backlash for that comment, so I'm going to expand a little bit. They drove this car off of a cliff for crying out loud. It rolled over a couple of times and drove it away. It was the revolutionary car that nobody wanted. The buying public hated the car at the time. The public voted with their wallet, forcing Chrysler to make a more traditional car. It was Chrysler's first real major failure. It was only produced from 1934 through 1937. After 1937, Chrysler put their head down and just made more conservative cars staying in their lane, so to speak. All that would change when Virgil Exner would get hired by Chrysler in 1949 by Boss Kett, a.k.a. KT Keller. Before this, Exner worked for Pontiac, then went on to work for Raymond Lowy in 1938. But tension grew between Lowy and Exner, Lowy being the man on the sign, the guy with his name on the sign, owning everything while paying people below him to create it. It really didn't sit well with Exner. Lowy Studios would design Studebakers in the late 30s through the early 1950s, and a lot of those designs were Virgil Exner's designs. Anyway, KT Keller hired Exner to be chief designer of Chrysler's all-new Advanced Styling Studio, which was a brand new division inside the Chrysler Corporation set up for Exner, much like how General Motors created the color section for Harley Earl. Boss Kett hired Exner to breathe new life into Chrysler, because in Keller's eyes, Chrysler's were looking kind of dull. Exner partnered with Ghia of Turin, Italy, who wasn't doing all that great at this point in time. Ghia dates back to 1916, was founded as an automobile design firm as well as a custom coach builder. Once the high-end coachwork days were a thing of the past, Ghia would build lightweight aluminum bodies for Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and Lancia. During World War II, the factory would get destroyed. It was rebuilt, but the stress of the war, losing his factory, not sure what the future was going to hold was too much for founder Giacito Ghia. I apologize if I pronounce his name wrong, I'm not very good at pronunciations. He would die of a fatal heart attack in 1944. After Ghia's death, the company was sold to Mario Blono and Giorgio Albert. Anyway, the partnership brought to life more than two dozen idea cars, or concept cars, which were fully functional, road-ready designs. They were concept cars built in limited production. These cars were the precursor to the Dual Ghia, which was funded by Eugene Casserole, and that's a whole story within itself. The full story is in this episode right here, you can check it out after this episode's done if you wish. Cars that came out of the partnership included, but not limited to, the 1951 Chrysler K, which was a nod to KT Keller 310, 1952 Chrysler C200, 1952 Chrysler DeElegance, which is a design that was directly influenced the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, 1953 Chrysler Special slash CB Thomas Special, which our feature car is, 1954 Plymouth Explorer, Chrysler Aero Series from 1953 through 1954, which evolved into the Dual Ghia, 1955 Chrysler Falcon, 1955 Chrysler ST Special, 1956 Chrysler Nordsman, which is the car that sunk with the SS Andrea Doria, 1953 Dodge Storm Z250, which gives me facial Vega vibes, what do you guys think? 1957 Chrysler Ghia SS Super Sport 400, among many other designs. The car on screen right now is a 1953 Chrysler Special. This particular car was at Worldwide Auction, Auburn, Indiana two years ago back in 2024. I teased this car on the channel a little bit, but then I lost the footage, but now I just found it again and I figured it's the best time to show it. The car went across the auction block and didn't sell. Chrysler would build just 18 Chrysler Specials, and as the story goes, CB Thomas, who was president of Chrysler's export division from the 40s to the 50s, he's the guy responsible for the Chrysler-Ghia partnership. Without CB Thomas, it probably wouldn't have been the Chrysler collaboration that we know it today. He was able to get commission for the production of six cars. Ghia was able to get the other 12 for a total of 18 cars. It's important to note, though, the very first car was a little bit different than the rest. Slightly shorter wheelbase, fastback style car. The second one, the one that was commissioned by CB Thomas, was built on the New Yorker chassis and it had more of a notchback style. Let's talk specs. 204.5 inches long, around 76.25 inches wide. It rides a wheelbase of 125 inches. It weighs around 4,005 pounds. Price. Coming up with a price figure for this car is really hard because they didn't really offer them in the U.S., but they say that it was around $10,000, which is a super interesting price when you think about it, because that's what the Continental Mark II cost a couple years later. Anyway, $10,000 would be equivalent to you spending $125,062.92 in the year 2026, and this was a one of 18 car with a Mopar Powerplant Italian body. It's unbelievable. It has unbelievable leather seats for the price of a good to decent truck now. That's insane. Moving on to engine. Only one engine powering this car. 331 cubic inch displacement Hemi V8, 5.4 liters. It was good for 180 horsepower at 4,000 RPM, 340 pound feet or 460 newton meters around 2,800 RPM with a bore of 3.8125 inches and a stroke of 3.625 inches. Compression was seven and a half to one with five main bearings. On the positive side, they only made 18. Only eight are documented to survive, so they're super exclusive. Rich leather interior, great dashboard, Mopar Powerplant and running gear. They are absolutely showstoppers. When you see one in the crowd, it's almost like you have to pinch yourself. Am I dreaming kind of moments against it? To me, it's not the best looking of the Chrysler-Ghia collaboration cars. It kind of has the face of a fish, but that's in my opinion. Bodies are rust prone. Body parts are extinct and they would have to be made. All right, now it's time for would you rather. Of the Chrysler-Ghia cars, which one of these would you rather have? This is not fair by any stretch of the imagination. 1954 Dodge Fire Arrow 4 or 1953 Chrysler Special or 1952 Chrysler DeElegance. I'm going to leave this here for a minute. If you need more time, feel free to pause the video. On to the second scenario. 1954 Plymouth Explorer or 1953 Chrysler Special or 1956 Chrysler Norseman. Once again, going to leave this here for a minute. If you more time, feel free to pause the video. On to the final scenario. 1953 Dodge Storm Z250 or 1957 Dual Ghia or 1957 Chrysler Ghia SS or Supersport 400. Once again, going to leave this here for a minute. If you need more time, feel free to pause the video. Thank you all so much for coming out and watching this. If this was your first time ever checking out the channel, welcome to What It's Like. I'm your host Jay, a real person. Or as John Marley 2550 put it, this channel is a lifeboat in a sea of ----. The sea of ---- is all the AI channels that are popping up that are claiming to be real channels, but aren't. Anyway, if you dig automotive history like company stories, cars, engines, transmissions, you're going to totally dig this channel. Be sure to check out the catalog. There's over 875 videos made by human all organically, not with AI. Thank you so much for checking this channel out. If you have any cool stories pertaining to a Chrysler idea slash Chrysler concept car, put in the comment section. Best memory, best story will be pinned to the top of the comment section. Thank you all so much for what you bring in the comment section and until next time, toodaloo.