 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1916; 109 years ago (1916) |
| Founder | Giacinto Ghia |
| Headquarters | , Italy |
Key people | Felice Mario Boano |
| Services | automotive design,coachbuilding |
| Owner | Ford Motor Company |
| Parent | De Tomaso (1967–1970) Ford of Europe (1970–present) |
| Subsidiaries | Ghia-Aigle |
Carrozzeria Ghia SpA (established 1916 inTurin) is an Italianautomobile design andcoachbuilding firm, established byGiacinto Ghia and Gariglio as "Carrozzeria Ghia & Gariglio". The headquarters are located at Corso Guglielmo Marconi, 4,Turin. The company is currently owned byFord Motor Company and focused on the European market throughFord's subsidiary in the region.
Through the years, Ghia has produced many bodies for several automobile manufacturers such asAlfa Romeo,Chrysler,Ferrari,Fiat, Ford,Jaguar, andVolkswagen.
Ghia initially made lightweight aluminium-bodied cars, achieving fame with theAlfa Romeo 6C 1500, winningMille Miglia (1929). Between the world wars, Ghia designed special bodies forAlfa Romeo,Fiat, andLancia, one of the most famous was theFiat 508Balilla sports coupe (1933). The factory was rebuilt at Via Tomassi Grossi, after being demolished in an air raid duringWorld War II (1943).After Ghia's death (1944), the company was sold toMario Boano and Giorgio Alberti. TheGhia-Aigle subsidiary was established inAigle, Switzerland (1948).[citation needed]
Following differences between Boano and the company'sNaples-born chief engineer and designer Luigi Segre, Boano left the company in 1953 and ownership passed to Segre in 1954. Under the ownership ofLuigi Segre, between 1953 and 1957, Giovanni Savonuzzi became Direttore Tecnico Progettazione e Produzione Carrozzerie e Stile and established Ghia as the most influential proponent of that Italian styling that came to define automobile design trends worldwide.[1] The decade between 1953 and 1963 saw many foreign firms ordering Ghia designs, such asVolkswagen (theKarmann Ghia) and Volvo. Chrysler and its designerVirgil Exner became a close partner for 15 years, resulting in eighteenChrysler Ghia Specials (1951–53), the K-310, theChrysler Norseman, theImperial Crown limousines (whose notable owners includedJackie Kennedy andNelson Rockefeller), and others. There are even a few Ghia-bodiedFerraris. Ghia also participated in the short-livedDual-Ghia venture. Production by Ghia was always in very low numbers, giving the company's products even greater exclusivity than those of the other Italian coachbuilders.[citation needed]
In June 1953,Pierre Lefaucheux,Renault's chairman, requested Carrozzeria Ghia assistance with theRenault Dauphine.[2]
In 1953, Boano left for Fiat, the factory moved to via Agostino da Montefeltro, and Luigi Segre took over. Ghia then brought inPietro Frua, appointing Frua as head ofGhia Design (1957–60), designing theRenault Floride. After Segre's death in 1963, Ghia was sold toRamfis Trujillo in 1965, who in turn sold the company in 1967 toAlejandro de Tomaso, owner ofa rival design house. De Tomaso never managed to run Ghia profitably and in 1970 he sold his shares to theFord Motor Company. During this transition period, Ghia had partial involvement in theDe Tomaso Pantera, a high-performance, mid-engined car using a FordV8.[citation needed]
From then on, the Ghia studios were an integral part ofFord of Europe's styling operation – producing mostly concept cars although some production models were styled by the firm – the most notable being theFord Fiesta Mk1 in 1976, which was penned by Ghia'sTom Tjaarda. Aside from this, the most publicly visible sign of Ford's ownership of Ghia has been its use of the name to denote the luxury trim level of its European models for many years (below).[citation needed]
After the Dual-Ghia project had ended, the more up-to-date Ghia L6.4 appeared in 1961. Fewer Mopar parts were used, but the car's bespoke nature meant an astronomically high price and when production ended in 1963 only 25 (or 26) cars had been built. The car's 6,277 cc (383 cu in) Chrysler V8 has 340 hp (254 kW) SAE, and suspension and transmission parts were also hand-picked from Chrysler's production line. Both the front and the rear seats consist of separate buckets.[3]
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At the1963 Turin Show, Ghia showed theFiat 2300-based Ghia G230 S. Unlike the Fiat 2300 Coupé, also designed and bodied by Ghia, the two-seater G230S was built on a tubular spaceframe which was designed and built by specialists Gilco. Four examples were built, two coupés and two convertibles. Ghia's ownerLuigi Segre had pushed for the creation of this car, but after his sudden and untimely death the G230 S never entered production. However, in 1965 film and television producerBurt Sugarman saw a picture of the G230 S on the cover ofRoad & Track magazine and convinced Ghia to build another car using a similar design.[4]
The result was theGhia 450 SS, continuing Ghia's collaboration with Chrysler by using that company's recently introduced 273-cubic-inch (4.5 L)"LA" V8 engine with 235 hp (175 kW). So many of the car's parts and systems came from thePlymouth Barracuda that the earliest cars came with a Barracuda manual with some pages crossed out.[5] The 450 SS used the same design language as the smaller G230 S, but its hand beaten steel panels sat on a more traditional and sturdier ladder frame. Unlike the smaller car, the 450 SS was a 2+2 design, offering vestigial rear seat accommodation.[4] It was only built as a two-door roadster, with a standard hardtop included. Over the years, many have creditedGiorgetto Giugiaro with this design,[6] but he only left Bertone for Ghia in late 1965 – too late to have much impact on the 450 SS, which was actually designed bySergio Sartorelli. Giugiaro did revise the grille, front bumper, and rear before the car was presented.[5] Presented at Turin in 1966, 57 examples were built until late 1967 (with late examples registered as model year 1968), although various sources state numbers as low as 52.[5][6]
From 1973, the Ghia name became Ford's toptrim-level in its mainstream model range. The trend began in Europe and North America (Mustang II,Granada,Capri,Cortina,Escort, and laterFiesta,Sierra, Sierra Sapphire,Orion,Scorpio,Mondeo,Focus all had Ghia trim levels), but soon spread worldwide, particularly to the South American (with the Argentinian Ford Falcon and Taunus, the BrazilianFord Del Rey and versions of Escort, Focus and Mondeo) and Asia Pacific markets (with theFord Laser,Fairmont, Fairlane andTelstar). One notable exception to this convention was the Scorpio model in the United Kingdom, which was essentially a rebadged Granada Mk3, slotting in above the Ghia in the model lineup. This lasted until the major facelift of 1994, when the Granada name was dropped and replaced by Scorpio for all variants, at which point the Ghia model resumed its position at the top of the range.[citation needed]
In the British market, however, the practice of using the Ghia name in such a capacity was finally phased out in 2010. TheTitanium name has instead replaced Ghia as the flagship trim level, and is now used globally across all of Ford's markets to denote the top trim level. The BritishFord Fiesta retained the Ghia trim designation for the longest period of any model: 31 years 8 months, uninterrupted, from February 1977 to November 2008. In the rest of Europe, the Ghia trim was discontinued as well. Starting in 2013, theVignale branding started being used by Ford to designate the top trim levels.[7] The Ghia studios has produced variousconcept cars under the Ford banner.
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