Ghia Sapcar 1955 info request
Hello All
There is a lot of great expertise on this site from all over the world ,so hopefully someone has new information / photos for the topic below
There is definitely an interesting story waiting to be uncovered !
I'm helping a friend research Ghia / Sapcar in the 1955 period
At least 4 cars were built by Ghia to designs by Giovanni Michelotti ,these cars all had SAPCAR script badges positioned above a Paris crest badge.
SAPCAR possibly stood for Societe ? Automobile ? Paris ?...etc
( I don't believe that SAPRAR ,which produced accessories for Renaults in the same period has any connection to SAPCAR )
There was quite a bit of turmoil at Ghia in the mid 1950s which adds interest !
These Ghia / Sapcar cars have been previously been puzzled on here ;
1) MG TF "Everest"
2) Panhard coupe
3) Panhard cabriolet ( This car was a convertible version of coupe )
4) Renault 4CV
(This car is unusual for Ghia in that a production bodyshell is so heavily modified instead of building a new one )
It seems all cars were built out of complete cars as opposed to bare floorpan/chassis
The 4cv & Panhard cabrio were each photographed with the new Ghia coachwork in Turin & had Paris (75 suffix) registrations.
The Ghia MG & Panhard coupe competed in one of the biggest concours d'elegance events of the 1950's ,which was held at Enghien near Paris. In June 1955 these 2 Ghia cars attended & had consecutive Parisian temporary garage registrations , 1152 WW 0 & 1153 WW 0.
These registrations were issued in books of 10 to the garages ,so the cars came from the same garage. The MG won a prize. Later the MG had a TT 75 registration which was a Parisian "Temporary Transit" issued to foreigners.
The MG was once owned by Prince Hassan II of Morocco who presented the car to French actress Etchika Choureau .
The prince was a keen auto enthusiast & it's possible he was involved with Sapcar.
Morocco gained independence in 1956 ,so such cars wouldn't have been a priority !
Having researched period publications etc extensively ,none of the cars seem to have been at any of the main motor shows ,such as Turin ,Paris ,Geneva ,Brussels etc. which is unusual.
Nor is there any promotion in magazines which I've seen of Sapcar or the cars themselves, aside from photos in magazine coverage of the 1955 Enghien concours d'elegance.
There were promotional "postcards" produced .
They used Ghia photos for these ,taken near the works in Turin.
It would have been expensive to get these 4 one off cars built by Ghia & it is possible that the intention was to build small series of each car.
Who were Sapcar & what happened ?
Over to the detectives on AP !!
