"We're big fans of the jet age. And this stunning Ghia-bodied Fiat 8V 'Supersonic' is a high point in the design style that has become known as 'jet age'. Mid 20th century was a stone-cold high point for industrial design: "
Fiat 600 Jolly by Ghia
images courtesy RM auctions
It’s never really occurred to us to aspire to an apartment in Monaco, or a Cabana in some bond-villainish kind of tropical island, full of bikini-ed Amazons and dodgy Lotharios, with digits and teeth made of aerospace materials. But if we ever would have done we would have fantasized about installing a salmon pink cutie like this Fiat 600 Jolly by Ghia.
But this was no bond villain’s island runabout: rather the chairman of Fiat’s yacht tender. The result of suave and loaded Gianni Agnelli’s desire, this piece of automotive camp was offered to the public in limited numbers from 1957. Based upon the standard Fiat 500, the Jolly came with reinforced bodywork with a byzantine ‘Surrey’ top, wicker seats straight off the patio and no doors. It was built by Ghia – before Ford bought up the brand and debased the noble Carrozeria into a trifling trim level – and so it boasted excellent build quality and an appropriately high price tag, more than double the cost of a standard 500. That’s erm, Jolly pricey. Sorry.
Whoever it was, you have to salute his jaunty steeze.
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