Evaluation: One-off built for the Turin show in 1957, and a follow-up to the Dart shown there in 1956. Based on a 300C chassis. Sold to Dual Motors (who built the 1956-58 Dual Ghia) in the US and shown on the Dual stand at the 1958 New York Auto show, hence the Dual badges currently fitted. Reportedly sold to its first private owner after he handed Dual’s owner Gene Cassarol a blank check, resulting in a $15,000 sale price. He drove it regularly and put around 38,000 miles on it. The odometer currently reads a possibly accurate 49,730 miles, which is a wild figure for a high-finned one-off show car.
Always maintained but never restored. Won a class award at Pebble Beach last year. Decent chrome but heavily cracking paint all over the body. Paint chipping off the wheels. Scratched, lightly pitted window frames. Worn, stretched leather front and back but otherwise sound interior. Unrestored and still a striking automobile as it sits. Should you restore it to the show car shine it used to have? Or leave it as-is and preserve some history?
Bottom Line: At this point, with its preservation already awarded, it would be a shame to wipe it away in favor of a sparkling concours redo. It’s already been a gleaming show car. Let it be the undisturbed piece of design history that it is. Besides, at 819 grand it is already very expensive.
Rumor is this car was owned by a Packard Parts house in NJ in the `1970s. It was advertised in the local Want Ad Press for sale.
Very cool to see the car again. My uncle Alex freeman was the very first owner. As a child I remember walking by it in his garage