David, with that story You surely must either work for the US government, sit on the City Council, or are related to my ex-wife. Clint Carter '59 Crown aka Laurie's Pink Lady ps Is there a chat session tonight? ----- Original Message ----- From: <David.Whitney@xxxxxxxx> To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 12:28 PM Subject: IML: '58 Imperial factory photo on ebay > > > > > > This is the ultra-rare "Furberia" Imperial. Ghia coachworks received an > order from a troupe of Hungarian circus midgets in Buda-Pest after they > learned they had pooled to purchase a winning ticket in the Italian lottery > in September 1956. Fed up with sharing a train with smelly critters, some > of which had more than two legs, but unwilling to give up the lifestyle > they loved, they decided they would spend the rest of their working lives > traveling in the highest style from town to town with the circus. > > Ghia coachworks spent hundreds of man-hours fabricating and assembling the > parts necessary to reduce the 129-inch convertible chassis and 2-door coupe > body to Liliputian proportions and removing all evidence of luxury. The > 392-cubic-inch V-8 engine was removed and replaced by a 500-cc two-stroke > motorcycle engine because high-octane gasoline required by the hemi's 10:1 > compression ratio was not available anywhere behind the Iron Curtain. The > new "Imperialists" had specified replacement Fiat badges in their order so > as to avoid restrictions against importing Capitalist ostentation to their > homeland. But before the magnificent car could be delivered, the troupe > was arrested on charges of being sympathetic to the Nagy government and > never heard from again. > > KGB agents, one of whom is pictured in the ebay photo, produced > sufficiently official looking documentation to convince Ghia to release the > coach, which was long rumored to have been stored in an underground missile > silo near Boris Yeltsin's Black Sea dacha. > > Many people don't know, but this was the car that cemented the > Chrysler/Ghia deal. After Virgil Exner saw what the Italian craftsmen had > done, he reportedly said, "If they can do this, they can do anything!" > > Hee hee hee, > > David > > > >