Chrysler California Ghia Hardtop, 1958
Chassis No.: AC68736MD $198,000 | Sold • Odometer: 49,226 miles • Engine: V-8 • Transmission: Automatic • Exterior: Black • Interior: White • Body: Hardtop • Hand built by Gordon Vann’s Speed Shop in Berkeley, California • Designed by Ghia in Italy • Comprehensive restoration completed in 2025 • 392 CI dual quad Hemi V-8 engine with 25 miles since rebuild • Automatic transmission • Black exterior • White interior with Black piping • Bucket seats front and rear • Power windows • Chrome trim • Full size wheel covers • Wide Whitewall tires • Multiple magazine issues included featuring the California Ghia • “Motor Life” October 1958 issue • “Custom Cars” 1960 issue • “Mopar Collection Guide” April 1991 issue • “Hemmings Classic Car” October 2024 issue During the late 1940s, K.T. Keller, president of Chrysler, began to recognize that the stoic styling of the company’s products was hurting sales. As other manufacturers began embracing more dynamic designs, vehicles produced by Chrysler lagged behind. To turn this around, Chrysler looked to Ghia and Pinin Farina in 1949, giving each a new Plymouth chassis from which to produce what would become known as “Idea Cars.” Chrysler was very impressed with the Ghia product. Chrysler also hired Virgil Exner to help revive Chrysler’s ailing image, his job being to oversee a small team that worked with Ghia to produce these special Idea Cars. While concept cars, one-off cars that usually weren’t drivable, were still a relatively new idea, the Idea Cars were produced as fully functioning cars to test the public’s reaction and hopefully change the overall public perception of Chrysler. Exner and his small team designed Idea Cars and sent the drawings to Ghia along with the proper chassis. Ghia then hand-built the dreamy cars and sent them back to Detroit. The first Chrysler Ghia Idea Car was finished in late 1951 and called the K-310, the K denoting K.T. Keller. The second car was the C-200 convertible. While Exner resigned from Chrysler in 1961, he continued working with Chrysler and Ghia through the 1962 Chrysler Turbine Car. During that time, a small handful of special Idea Cars were produced, and though all of them are exceedingly important in automobile history, this 1958 Chrysler California Ghia is arguably among the most special. The initial design work was performed by Ghia, and it completely mesmerized Harry Dundore of Baltimore, Maryland, who was a supplier to the Italian coachbuilding firm. The car, for whatever reason, remained as a sketch at Ghia, but Dundore took a side profile sketch to Gordon Vann of Gordon Vann’s Body Shop in Berkley, California, to turn it into reality. Using the chassis from a 1957 Chrysler 300C and a massive 392 CI Hemi V-8 engine, Vann and his team imagined and conjured up the body from the sketch, crafting an interior to match its stunning futurism. Unlike Ghia, which preferred to build its bodies of steel, Vann relied heavily on John Lee to craft an aluminum body for the one-off car. Because the only design reference provided was a side profile sketch, Vann had a lot of liberties to create the car, working not so closely with Dundore, who stayed largely in the background, allowing Vann to “do his thing.” With few specifications from the client—it must be low, it must use the 300C chassis, it must have a supercharger, it must use Stewart-Warner gauges, the interior must have four bucket seats and be upholstered in white leather—Vann was pretty much left alone to create the dream car. Vann and his team were met with a number of challenges along the way to completion, but through imagination and creativity, the car came to be. The interior was a work of art, largely created by George Annereau in Oakland, California. His career began in 1897, ensuring exceptional experience and skills that dictated the leather needed to upholster the car only come from the backs of the hides, as apparently the belly, neck and tail hide is too coarse-grained. Five hides were needed to upholster the seats, door panels, headliner and crash pad; the leather alone cost $673.84, roughly $7,300 today. An additional $432.72 was spent on foam rubber, carpeting, fiberglass insulation and other odds-and-ends for the interior. The full leather headliner was spectacular, but the weight required extensive reinforcements and modifications to the roof. The four bucket seats were very spacy and unique, but they had to be modified from what Annereau delivered because Vann’s head hit the headliner. The seat stands were removed, and the seats, with aluminum frames, were bolted directly to the floor. The work behind this Chrysler, known in Chrysler and Ghia circles as the Vann Chrysler and the Chrysler California Ghia, is astonishing to say the least. When all was said and done, the final cost of the car was nearly $12,000—around $134,000 today. Considering the comprehensive custom build, Ghia penning the original design, the aluminum and leather used, and the Chrysler 300C chassis with a supercharger, it wasn’t really all that bad of a price. In the same year, the top-of-the-line Cadillac Brougham cost more than $13,000 and was a factory-built car. Fresh off a comprehensive restoration completed in 2025, this 1958 Chrysler California Ghia Hardtop was designed by Ghia in Italy and hand built by Gordon Vann’s Speed Shop in Berkley, California. The dual-quad 392 CI Hemi V-8 beneath the hood has seen just 25 miles since a rebuild and is backed by an automatic transmission. With its story documented in several magazines over the years, the California Ghia is a one-off, custom-tailored car, the likes of which will likely never be seen again. https://www.mecum.com/lots/1148467/1958-chrysler-california-ghia-hardtop/
