The Origins of the Karmann Ghia. he Origins of the Karmann Ghia

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1 The Origins of the Karmann Ghia he Origins of the Karmann Ghia Well it was designed by Luigi Segre at Ghia wasn t it?? - it says so in all the books and even on the intro page to the KGOC(GB) website. And I quote:- The VW Karmann Ghia was born through the desire of W. Karmann GmbH to produce a sports bodied car upon a reliable and tested chassis. The plan and body designs were approved by VW in 1954 when they confirmed that a supply of chassis would be made available. The first models went on show at European Motor Shows at the beginning of The design work was carried out by Luigi Segre of Ghia in Turin to whom Karmann had turned to in view of the popularity of the Italian design studios at that time. However I was recently lucky enough to be loaned a copy of the excellent publication VW Treasures by Karmann published in 1985 written by Jan P Norbye - wherein he argues quite different origins for our cars albeit never denying that the Luigi Segre Design is the accepted tale. He argues that the origins pre- date Segre s involvement with Ghia and can be traced to the involvement of VIRGIL EXNER as a designer at Chrysler who bought in Carrozeria Ghia s Italian expertise to add desperately needed pizzazz aimed at enlivening Chrysler s moribund product offerings immediately post WW2. Exner had apprenticed under legendary designers Harley Earl and Raymond Loewy before landing the job of developing the primitive Chrysler styling department in Inspired by his new position, Exner set to work designing a line of dream cars which he planned to have constructed by Ghia. The first product of the Chrysler - Ghia alliance was the PLYMOUTH XX500 which was slab sided four door saloon but one which nevertheless showed what could be done and resulted in a contract Carrozeria Ghia to develop further concept

2 cars for Chrysler group (which included Plymouth). To quote Exner Though Ghia was better known for its styling than as an industrial sub-contractor there was no thought at that time of using Ghia as a design consultant. The Chrysler show cars were Exner designs and Ghia s job was simply to get them built. This long line of Chrysler specials with bodies made in Italy began with the K-310 of 1952 This was a stylish coupe that reflected Exner s passion for sophisticated European design and interestingly sports a similar swage line to the D elegance Sometime in 1950, drawings and a clay model were sent to Ghia, by Chrysler, of a model designed by Exner, which would become known at the D elegance and be introduced in This car is often perhaps misguidedly claimed as the origin of the Karmann Ghia but as is so often the case it s not that simple. Having said that Virgil Exner remained convinced that his design had been borrowed. Looking at the picture above it is clear that there are certain similarities, indeed it s easy to argue that the KG was simply a scaling down of the massive D Elegance which was over 6m long and powered by a large (5.8 Litre) V8 Lump mounted up front.

3 Exner offered his explanation as follows I had the D elegance being built over in Turin. Of course, we had prepared a very detailed model for them to work from. At that same time they were working on prototypes for VW for what became the KG. They had done two or three but Karmann was still not satisfied. This plaster model of mine went in and lo and behold when the KG came out it was right down to the fraction The picture is further complicated by the fact that Ghia sought and were granted Chrysler s permissions to produce and market the D elegance coupe. It evolved into a new model called the GS-1 and about 400 were sold through Chryslers French importer and distributor one M. Charles Ladouche. (More of him later) Indeed some claim that Volkswagen acquired manufacturing rights to this design, which was then downscaled by Ghia to fit the chassis of VW s small, 1930s-era Beetle sedan! At the same time in Europe there were detailed discussions going between the mighty VW empire and Herr Wilhelm Karmann himself where, as he put it in an interview with Jan Norbye I had numerous discussions with VW executives in Wolfsburg on the subject of a sports convertible using the Beetle chassis. We were of course producing the Beetle 4-seater convertible at the time using the main body panels of the Beetle. This was talked about as something quite different, more in the way of a roadster. These discussions were happening in the early fifties and wore on until late 1952 with little in the way of definition of the vehicle indeed the term Roadster was often dropped altogether. Karmann concept designs were submitted to VW throughout this period but They were not quite satisfied said Karmann. I must say that, due the Beetle s chassis configuration and dimensions, it was a very difficult job to create a good looking sports car body for it! Enter Snr. Segre Importantly for our story it is clear that Carrozeria Ghia were not involved at this stage. However Wilhelm Karmann & Luigi Segre had met at the various annual auto shows and a friendship had grown up One day I explained to him (Segre) my thoughts about the VW Sports Car and asked him to make a prototype says Karmann He did not say yes I will do that - in fact he promised nothing but I could see that he was intrigued

4 It would seem the Dr Karmann thought little more of it until he visited Paris in 1953 for a meeting with Luigi Segre and Charles Ladouche (who was also the main French import agent for VW). It emerged that Luigi Segre had separately cajoled Ladouche into letting him have a standard Beetle without notifying either Karmann or VW! Segre had surprised Karmann by presenting a prototype but a coupé not a convertible. Before the end of 1953 Karmann had arranged to present the prototype to Dr Feuriesen who was at that time VW s head of sales. His immediate reaction was Now that has class! Importantly this statement provides dates which fix the timing of the prototype presentation as during the period when Ghia were making the Chrysler GS-1. Up to this time nobody in Osnabruck even knew about the discussions let alone had knew anything about the project. The Karmann engineers saw it as a 1:1 scale model and, after their initial surprise, began to examine the potential of building it based on the Beetle chassis. They soon realised that although the front and rear suspension could be utilised an entire new floor structure require additional width and would need to have its own door sills and other reinforcement. As the engineering work was being undertaken the (now) famous Dr Heinz Nordhoff visited and following some initial scepticism and no doubt some horse trading - a deal was struck where VW would supply Export Model Beetle chassis, the Karmann organisation would produce the bodies and interiors and provide the final assembly services. Thereafter they would deliver the final product to the VW sales organisation which would be in charge of distribution To Be Continued.. Peter Skinner

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