Full Description
This car dates back to the first phase of the Gatsby Coachworks. The vehicle was registered in 1985 and produced with a very special design, probably unique, being carved with four doors with Convertible bodywork. The cabin comes from MG Midget, while the chassis looks like a sedan in the 80's, with a GM v8 5400 cc.
The car is in very good condition and ready to use. Black and white bi colour cargo ice, light-coloured interiors with tan soft top. Everything is perfectly functioning.
The car is sold with title and import tax duties received and ready to be registered in UK. 12 months MOT will be provided.
History of the Gatsby
Gatsby Coachworks Ltd was founded in 1978 by Sky Clausen and Larry Munson in San Jose, California. The company was founded as a small boutique coach builder specializing in the production of neoclassical cars inspired by the 1930s style and, in particular, the cars of the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, from which it is named.
The first product model was the Cabriolet, a neoclassic produced on a chassis / mechanics, at that time, recently constructed. The Cabriolet used the body of the passenger compartment as the MG Midget body, then installed on a chassis from 1977-79 Ford Thunderbird or Mercury Cougar. The 30's style of the car does not match the reproduction of any original car in particular.
Gatsby started the production of complete, turnkey cars, produced on specific customer requests. In the early 1980s, the price of a Gatsby Cabriolet amounted to approx. 65,000 USD. The next model (Gatsby Cabriolet II series, which was distinguished from the first for some marginal variations of body / interior detail) was sold for 42,000 USD.
Production peaked in the early 1980s, when up to 50 new cars were produced per year. By 1982, the launch of the "do-it-yourself" kit started, with prices ranging between 2,600 and 3,000 USD for the base kit up to 6,650 USD for the Deluxe Kit, a strategy that made the Gatsby Cabriolet kit much more accessible to the public with respect to the complete car.
Production was gradually reduced in the 1990s, following the trend of most well-known neoclassical manufacturers. In 1997 Gatsby was sold to JPR Cars, Ltd. of Gloucester, Virginia. The new company, focusing on production basically on kits, has introduced some modifications to simplify its assembly. In 2003, a new kit called Gatsby Griffin was introduced to be installed on a Ford Mustang (year model 1980). The Gasbys produced today would amount to approx. 500 units.