Ghia City Car
The Ghia City Car is the only surviving example from the short period when Ghia was owned by Alejandro de Tomaso, just before the company was acquired by Ford.
It embodies the late-1960s and early-1970s fascination with ultra-compact urban transport modules—vehicles designed to cope with the growing traffic congestion choking Europe’s narrow, medieval city centers.
As one of the earliest micro-people-mover studies developed by Ghia and other European designers, the City Car focused on fitting the greatest number of occupants into the smallest possible footprint. Like many concepts that followed, it used a very small engine.
In hindsight, the car anticipated the concerns that would soon take center stage during the 1973 energy crisis. When the City Car was built in 1970, engine management systems were still a distant dream; the prevailing solution to emissions and efficiency was simply to use tiny engines tuned to deliver maximum output at all times.
The planned powerplant was a 500cc engine, enough to move four passengers and their luggage—nearly half a ton—thanks to the rear-mounted layout and the compact body designed around it.
As Ford’s J Mays later observed, the city-car concepts of the 1970s, including Ghia’s, were “ten to twenty years ahead of their time.”
With its reverse-hinged doors and rear hatch, the Ghia City Car is an improbably efficient package. It measures just 54 inches wide and 101 inches long—only a few inches larger than a standard 4×8-foot sheet of plywood—and sits on a wheelbase of only 5 feet 3 inches.
Though currently a non-running concept, it survives in impressive condition: the doors and hatch function properly, the metal body is straight with good panel gaps, and even the glass windows remain intact. Riding on tiny 10-inch cast-alloy wheels with 145 SR 10 Goodyear tires, it is still very presentable, with only minor paint flaws on the nose and small stress cracks near the windshield posts.
Despite showing its age, the City Car highlights both Ghia’s design vision and the craftsmanship of the Turin artisans who brought it to life. As a one-off motor show concept, it would meet the entry standards of top-tier concours events—and, if accepted, would stand out even among Ferraris, Lincolns, and Rolls-Royces. Such an opportunity is nearly impossible to buy at any price.
