Evaluation: One of around 50 built. Featured in several magazine articles. Good older paint and chrome with some light age and detail scratching. Slightly dirty wheels and tires. Good, lightly worn interior. Solid, straightforward older restored example of a rare Italo-American hybrid.
Bottom Line: Essentially a Plymouth Barracuda Formula S dressed up in a fancy Ghia suit, the 450SS was hand-built and sold exclusively through a Hollywood dealer for about the price of a Ferrari when new, so it has always been exclusive. It was also the last car to come out of Ghia’s 20-year fling with Chrysler, which had included Virgil Exner’s memorable show cars from the 1950s as well as the Dual-Ghia and the Ghia L6.4.
The price for this car was more than we would have expected, but with something like three-dozen of these cars left they don’t come up often and the Vegas bidders jumped at the chance to have it.