The Red Monkey

eBay Find of the Day: Sensational ex-Rat Pack Dual-Ghia L6.4 Barris Kustom

by Frank Filipponio (RSS feed) on Mar 3rd 2010 at 6:39AM

1962 Ghia Barris Kustom – Click above for high-res image gallery

While perhaps not a household name, there was a time when the Dual-Ghia brand was the epitome of cool. Eugene Casaroll formed Dual Motors in the 1950’s to build production versions of Chrysler’s Virgil Exner-designed Fire Arrow show cars. Casaroll worked with Carrozzeria Ghia in Italy to build the restyled vehicles on Dodge chassis using Chrysler engines for motivation. Because of Ghia’s contributions to the exterior styling, the cars were sold under the Dual-Ghia banner. Altogether, 117 D-Gs were sold from 1956-1958, mostly to the rich and famous.

As his health floundered, Casaroll concentrated more and more on his other business interests leaving Dual Motors Chief Engineer Paul Farago in charge of developing the follow-up model. The L6.4 was introduced in 1961 with a bigger 335-horsepower 383 engine, fresher styling and a big bump in price, going from $7,600 to a whopping $13,500. Only 26 L6.4s were sold before the company was finally shuttered for good in 1962, but those Dual-Ghias found their way into some interesting hands. Well-known Dual-Ghia owners included actors Desi Arnaz, Glenn Ford and Sterling Hayden, U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson, and a certain group of legendary entertainers known as The Rat Pack. Dean Martin had one. So did Frank Sinatra. Eddie Fisher owned a Dual-Ghia. Even Peter Lawford had one. In fact, Lawford once owned the very car you see above.

This particular 1961 Dual-Ghia L6.4 is even more rare than most of the other 25 examples made, as one of eight cars modified by legendary Kustom Kar King George Barris. It was the second L6.4 produced and shares the prototype’s lower roofline, but was also remodeled by George Barris at his Kustom Coachworks when it arrived in Hollywood. According to the eBay Motors listing, the headlamps were remodeled into flush oval Euro Headlamps (the original design were traditional ovals), and the turn signals were subtly hidden inboard behind the grille.

One of the regular Dual-Ghia L6.4 models recently sold for better than $400,000 up in Pebble Beach, so the current price of just over $100,000 seems like a steal. Of course, the reserve hasn’t yet been met. There are still three days left to scrape together a little extra scratch if you’re interested in reliving your Rat Pack fantasies. Check out the listing for even more details and take a peek at the gallery below for more high-res images.

Gallery: Barris Kustom Dual-Ghia on eBay Motors

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[Source: eBay Motors]

Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Auctions, Chrysler, Luxury

Tags: 1962 Dual-Ghia, 1962 Dual-Ghia L6.4 Barris Kustom, 1962Dual-ghia, 1962Dual-ghiaL6.4BarrisKustom, Barris Dual-Ghia, Barris Kustom, Barris Kustom Dual-Ghia, BarrisDual-ghia, BarrisKustom, BarrisKustomDual-ghia, dual ghia, Dual-Ghia, Dual-Ghia Barris, Dual-Ghia Barris Kustom, Dual-Ghia Kustom, Dual-ghiaBarris, Dual-ghiaBarrisKustom, Dual-ghiaKustom, DualGhia, eBay, ebay Find of the Day, eBay Motors, EbayFindOfTheDay, EbayMotors, Kustom Dual-Ghia, KustomDual-ghia

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This is one damn sexy car.

From Kevin Yamamura of The Bee Capitol Bureau:

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said in a report today that Caltrans’ Capital Outlay Support program is overstaffed and recommended that the state eliminate 1,500 full-time positions if the department cannot justify its staffing needs.

The Capital Outlay Support (COS) program is responsible for environmental review, design and construction oversight of highway projects, among other responsibilities. LAO found that costs were higher at Caltrans than for comparable projects in other states and local transportation agencies.

“We reviewed Caltrans’ COS budget for recent years and found that the program’s budget lacks sufficient workload justification,” the LAO report states. ” In order to gauge the reasonableness of the department’s COS requests for staffing and funding, we evaluated the program using several different methods. The cumulative evidence from our review shows that the program is over-staffed and lacks strong management.”

LAO further concluded that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s three monthly furloughs have had little apparent impact on the COS program’s productivity.

“The department’s inability to estimate the impact of the furlough program indicates overstaffing in the COS program,” the report states. “Because the furlough program was not accounted for when the current-year staffing request was developed, the 15 percent reduction in resources should have a quantifiable reduction in outcomes of the program, such as achievement of project milestones. Given that there is little concrete evidence that the program’s output has declined due to furloughs, the program appears to be overstaffed by as much as 15 percent.”

LAO said eliminating 1,500 of 10,359 COS positions would save roughly $200 million in special state and federal funds that could be used for project construction, though it would have no direct impact on the state’s general fund budget. The Analyst’s Office recommends that the Legislature require Caltrans to justify its need for all of those positions. If the department can’t do so, LAO said the Legislature should cut those jobs.

UPDATE (12:45 p.m.): Bruce Blanning of Professional Engineers in State Government called the LAO report “outrageously irresponsible.” Blanning said that the LAO’s recommendation would punish Caltrans workers for working hard despite Schwarzenegger’s furloughs.

“What (LAO) has said is that Caltrans delivers its projects in the face of the furloughs, but because there has been an approximately 15 percent furlough and Caltrans is delivering projects on time, it must be overstaffed by 15 percent,” he said. “That is ridiculous. Caltrans is getting its work done, getting projects out capturing federal funds, and he’s criticizing them for it.”

In response to LAO’s criticism that Caltrans has not provided sufficient information to justify the department’s staffing needs, Blanning said, “The main thing Caltrans is doing is getting projects out, building infrastructure and relieving traffic, rather than taking measurements of how many people it takes to perform functions.”

Touring Superleggera Flying Star: The Coachbuilt Shooting Brake Returns

The Bentley Continental Flying Star wasn’t built by Bentley, but rather Italian coachbuilder Touring Superleggera for a customer with exceptionally good taste and a need to haul golf clubs at 200 MPH.

Based on the Bentley Continental GTC convertible because of its re-inforced chassis and lower body, Touring Superlegerra grafted on the roof, elongated the doors and fitted a new electric-opening hatch. The rear seats were retained, but fold down to increase load space. The company says its owner will use the three-door 560 HP W12 to “join hunting parties” and go golfing.

After this first customer, Touring Superleggera plans to produce 20 more cars at the totally reasonable sum of $800,000. Don’t want to have the same car as the Sheikh next door? They’ll basically build anything you want.

Send an email to Wes Siler, the author of this post, at wes@jalopnik.com.

30 Very Rare (and Very Cool) ‘Star Wars’ Photos

by Erik Davis Mar 2nd 2010 // 10:32AM

Filed under: Fandom, Images

Writing a ton about Star Wars over the years — as well as watching the films more times than I can count — you’d think I would’ve seen it all by now. Or, alternatively, you’d think that nothing would surprise me when it comes to our friends from a galaxy far, far away. Well, think again — because as I scrolled through Total Film’s gallery of 30 awesomely rare Star Wars photos, my mind was kinda blown, and though I’ve seen behind-the-scenes images from the film before, these sort of hit you in that intimate spot before whispering, “You know you weren’t supposed to see this, right?”

The gallery includes priceless images like Harrison Ford (as Han Solo) practicing his Greedo kill, C3PO enjoying a smoke in full costume between takes, Kenny Baker (the guy who played R2D2) out of costume with a Darth Vader helmet on, Chewbacca all laid out on the floor in costume form and Luke practicing his final blow to Darth Vadar as a bunch of crew members look on — not to mention shots of classic scenes from angles we’ve never seen, like an overhead view of the gang rushing toward the Millennium Falcon after rescuing Princess Leia in the original film, or a shot of Luke and C3PO from behind as they enter the Mos Eisley Cantina and observe the strange crowd.

If you’re a Star Wars fan, you will not be disappointed by what you see here, and I guarantee even the biggest fans haven’t seen some of these images. Check out a few of our favorites below, and the rest over at Total Film.

Gallery: Rare Star Wars Images

[via Movieline]

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Tags: c3po, cinematical, harrison ford, HarrisonFord, rare star wars images, RareStarWarsImages, star wars, StarWars

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