The story of the Ghia 450 SS begins in late 1963, when film and television producer Burt Sugarman, a friend of John DeLorean, former fiancé of actress Ann Margret, and true man-of-action at just 26 years of age, fell smitten with a Ghia-designed Fiat 2300 GT coupe.

Contacting Ghia directly, Sugarman pitched his plan for a convertible version utilizing an American V-8 powerplant.

Given Carrosserie Ghia’s longstanding relationship with Chrysler, a deal was struck for the automaker to supply Plymouth Barracuda Formula S drivetrains to be fitted into a semi-monocoque steel chassis hand-built by Ghia.

Borrowing almost everything from the Barracuda, even going so far as to issue an edited Barracuda owner’s manual with each car, Ghia then draped the 450 SS in an unmistakably Italian design with intricate compound shapes, contours, and curves throughout.

Introduced at the 1966 Turin show, the 450 SS had a lofty price tag of $13,000 and was retailed only through Sugarman’s exclusive Beverly...