DUAL-GHIA

Dual Motors Corp. (1955-1958)
Detroit, Michigan

This is a Dual-Ghia hood emblem (c1957)   mjs
Size: 65mm diameter    MM: None

Chrysler engaged the Italian coachbuilder, Ghia, in the early 1950's to produce some Dodge based concept car designs using the design skills of Virgil Exner and Luigi Segre. The result was the Firearrow concept supercar with prototypes produced in 1954. However, Chrysler decided not to put the Firearrow into production. 

Eugene Casaroll, who operated a car delivery service for Chrysler and had a specialist car manufacturing company called Dual Motors, secured the rights to the Firearrow designs and engaged Paul Farago of Ghia to develop the Firearrow design into a production friendly automobile. The first prototype was shown at the Grosse-Pointe Yacht Club in Detroit in June 1955 under the Firebomb name. The final refined version was the superbly styled Dual-Ghia, which was introduced at the International Automobile Show in New York in 1956.

The Dual-Ghia was a four-passenger convertible, although at least one coupe model was also built, and was powered by a Dodge V8 engine. The Dual-Ghia was a very expensive automobile and was mainly bought by celebrities. Eugene Casaroll was losing money on each Dual-Ghia sold and decided to cease production. The plan was to build 150 Dual-Ghia cars a year but, in the event, only 99 cars (some references say 117 cars) were built over the two years 1957-1958 before production was halted.

Chrysler also had two bespoke show cars built by Ghia. These were based on the Dart and the Super Dart 400 and were shown at the Turin Motor Shows in 1957 and 1958, respectively. The 1958 Ghia built Super Dart 400 show car was bought by Eugene Casaroll and was badged with Dual-Ghia emblems on the hood and hubcaps and shown at the 1958 New York Auto Show, although Dual Motors had no involvement in the production of this car. 

Ghia in Italy later decided to produce a second generation model using a Chrysler V-8 engine which displaced 383 cubic inches or 6.4 liters. Twenty-six of these Ghia L6.4 supercars were built between 1961 and 1964. Dual Motors again had no involvement in the production of the Ghia L6.4.

Emblems

The Dual-Ghia displayed a round emblem showing the crossed flags of Italy and the USA mounted on the hood, see the 1957 surviving Dual Ghia convertible shown below:

Dual-Ghia convertible (1957)  bonhams

Dual-Ghia hood emblem (1957)    bonhams

The emblem in the mount is the Dual-Ghia hood emblem shown above at the top of this post and again below. This Dual-Ghia hood emblem is extremely rare.

This is a Dual-Ghia hood emblem (c1957)   mjs
Size: 65mm diameter   MM: None

The Ghia name and emblem was also attached to the body side of the Dual-Ghia, see example shown below:

This is the Ghia body side emblem (1957)   bonhams

There were some variations in the Dual-Ghia hood emblem through the various development and production stages. 

The following is a slightly different Dual-Ghia hood emblem seen on a surviving 1958 production model, which would also be extremely rare:

This is a Dual-Ghia hood emblem (1958)   mycarquest
Size: Unknown

The "Dual-Ghia" name was also displayed on the steering wheel center, sill plates and hubcaps, see examples shown below:

Dual-Ghia steering wheel center emblem (1958) bonhams

This is a Dual-Ghia sill plate (1958)   bonhams

This is a Dual-Ghia hubcap (1958)    bonhams

The Ghia L6.4 produced in the early 1960's by Ghia was not badged as Dual-Ghia because Dual Motors had no involvement in the production of this car. Twenty-six Ghia 6.4L cars were built but only one originally had a hood emblem. Some of the other surviving Dual Ghia 6.4L cars later had high quality reproduction hood emblems added, see example shown below:

This is a reproduction Dual L6.4   kmc
Size: 67mm diameter