Detomaso - Guanci SJJ1 GT ??

I believe it is a kit car made by a company called Guanci Automobiles. They make a lot of cheap kit cars, and some were based on the Mangusta. I remember hearing about them years ago.

The listing on ebay says it has the original 350 Chevy Motor. No Detomaso came with a Chebby motor, did they?

I could be wrong though.........Lord knows it wouldn't be the first(or last)time

I think the owner(seller) takes offense to the kitcar reference. Here's a snipet from his ad:

"Alot of people keep asking, "Is this a kit car"?..........LOL. Absolutely Not!!!! As a matter of fact I have now added the 1985 Motor Trend Magazine front page covering this car. Remember, my car is the only car ever sold but there is one other prototype, but it is owned by John Guanci himself and it is red."

Watch your back, kats!

Josh

Looks like it was built off a old Chevy Monza from the 70s. The door and door handle look identical to a monza spyder I owned many years ago.

Check this out guys..........

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/auctionresults/common/cardetail.asp?id=156792


This car sold at the Barrett Jackson auction in 1996 for a whopping $15,225.

There is no mention or connection with Detomaso anywhere.

$65,000? He must know something we don't! I bet it cost a lot to replace those '74-'77 Mustang tail lights.

Michael

quote:

Originally posted by kats:
Check this out guys..........

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/auctionresults/common/cardetail.asp?id=156792

Great detective work. Prime example of caveot emptor. But what it does say is that DeTomaso marque is being elevated. This guy didn't try passing it off as a Lambo or ferrari. Of course they made their own engines and such. Maybe he figured that would be too obvious.


This car sold at the Barrett Jackson auction in 1996 for a whopping $15,225.

There is no mention or connection with Detomaso anywhere.

My mama always told me, if you got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all.

I'll shut up now!

The car has not been driven much if any since it sold at the auction. I looked through my Detomaso books and didn't see it either. He did have a buy it now for 35k a week or two ago. I guess he picked Detomaso out of the thin air?

Wow, there is no mention of Detomaso on the Qvale Mangusta either is there?? Even though he was the leading man on the car from the get go. LOL, it's ok I sold the car for $75,000 to a museum in London England. And yes, I do know more than you guys do about the car. Heck, they didn't even realize in 1996 at the auction who the designers were....lol Funny crap huh. Anyway, I probably should not have sold the car it probably will be worth over $200,000K within the next 10 years. They seem to think so at the museum that purchased it in London. And remember Barrett Jackson wasn't what it is now in 1996 either. It has picked up within the last 4 years. Before that you heard of Barrett Jackson but now they are known to sell cars to dummies that pay big money.....lol. I could buy the same cars they buy for almost half the price........lol. And for the person who commented on the tail lights I have this reply. How about those 351 motors in the pantera? Is that a bad thing too? Anyway, you don't know what you got till it's gone I guess. Heck, I owned a Shelby Cobra GT500 in 1970 and sold the darn thing for $4500.00. If I only had her now. She could take refuge in between my DB7 and my 360 Spyder. Ashame.....!!

Hi!!
Congrats on your sale. What's the name of the museum you sold it to? If this car is an authentic deTomaso, I'm sure the museum would like to have it documented by a reputable source like PI.

How did you make the connection with deTomaso?

Tell us more!
Thanks,
Josh

Haha...LoL- you guys crack me up!

I did some picture browsing and the car seems to be a kit-car version of a Maserati Ghibli

Ok, It's simple you are a idiot Motorcity72. Motor Trend magazine did a write up on the car in the march issue of 1980 so it's definitly not a kit car.....lol. Search that way and you will find it on the front page.

Alejandro De Tomaso met John Guanci through one of John's best friends, Tom Tjaarda(De Tomaso's American car Designer) and was asked to help with some input on John Guanci's car the SJJ1 GT. John Guanci knew a lot of people in the racing car industry that De Tomaso also knew so they collaborated with famed Can-Am race car builder & racer Bob Mckee to help them in the design.

Heck, they were all mutual friends anyway so it seemed natural to get together, build a awesome car and play some golf also. It wasn't really out of his way because he also was working on another car design know as the Daihatsu Charade that was to go into production in the early 1980's to be sold exclusively to the Japanese market. He was about to discontinue production of the 2 door Longchamp anyway and the Daihatsu was a interesting project for him. Bob Mckee was working on the Daihatsu project also so collaborating on the SJJ1 GT seemed natural.


Only 2 SJJ1's were ever produced. 1 car was a 6 cylinder turbo car and the other was a 8 cylinder GM custom built 350. They had a order already for their first car and Frank Thurner had already paid down half on the car which was $25,000, but wanted more HP. So they custom built the GM 350 for him. I owned the 8 cylinder car and the other was owned by John Guanci's son.

So the answer to the question of how did I make the connection on the car was actually from pictures that I saw of the car being built. De Tomaso is actually in he pictures with John Guanci and Bob Mckee. I knew right away that I had found something very rare so I purchased the car. I sold the car to the owner of the Southward Car Museum which is in Wellington, but the owner said the car was going in his private collection that he has in London England.

I appreciate all the questions you guys had. I guess it doesn't matter anymore because the car was picked up yesterday so it's gone now anyway. Just thought you guys would be as interested in the history as I was.

Cya, Jeff H.

I would say that just because he got some advise from Alejandro and had a picture of him by the car would be a stretch to have the car include the DeTomaso name to it. Is there any proof that the Detomaso factory built anything for the car?

I am not sure but in some of the pics of the car being built De Tomaso was actually working on the car himself turning wrenches.....lol. It doesn't really matter anyway anymore because the car is gone now. Evidently the museum that bought the car knew more about it than I did because they have every model that De Tomaso has ever built including the other red SJJ1. They were all over this car like stink on crap. I have never seen anyone jump on a car so fast. Anyway, good car collecting everyone.

Cya, Jeff

The museum must have decided not spend so much money on the car as it is for sale again on ebay this week with a buy it now of $27500.00

I recently purchased the Guanci. The car was in pretty good condition but after iu got the car I found out that the low miles meant the car needed come upgraded maintenance. I basically rebuilt . When I first saw the car, Mangusta stuck out. The I notice some Pantera lines. Who cars a lot of designs of other cars have come from other companies. The Lexus and Mercedes. And now there is a guy called Fisker who used to design cars for Mercedes and BMW and has developed his own car that basically looks like a Mercedes and BMW 6 series. The Guanci original idea was a great idea. Im selling my one due to back problems getting in and out so look out for it on ebay.

I own the Guanci Sjj1 now. I just rebuilt the motor to bring it up to speed. The car needed some good maintenance. The car looks like a new car,performance in excellent. Powerful car and very muscular. The interior was cleaned up a bit and unfortunately due to back problems I have to sell the car. If you know of any interested parties let me know.,

Geoff / Calabasas CA