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Known locally as “the Ferrari of Dubrava”, this car was for decades an automotive legend in eastern Zagreb: a red coupe seen on the road some forty years ago, later parked under a tarpaulin in a yard, then left derelict in the bushes. Only once information became easier to find online did it become clear that the car was not a Ferrari at all, but a Ghia 1500 GT.

Its first owner lived in Dubrava, and the trouble began after his death. The brother who inherited the car did not know how demanding a hand-built body can be to keep alive — despite its production Fiat 1500 mechanicals — and the car deteriorated beyond use. The present owner, a body and paint specialist who ran workshops in Croatia and Germany and is now retired in Karlovac, heard the story of the abandoned “little Ferrari”, went to see it, and struck a deal for it without even knowing the model.

The restoration took more than twenty-five years and was carried out largely by the owner himself, without documentation and without contact with other owners of the type; photographs of other cars found online often served as the only reference. The shortened Fiat 1500 chassis meant many mechanical parts could be adapted, including some from the later Polish Fiat 125p, but bumpers, glass, mirrors, trim and interior had to be sourced worldwide or made from scratch — so the usual originality criteria do not really apply here. The car has been road-registered in Karlovac since 2019, on a fitting PV plate, and is regularly driven to classic car events.

Production of the model began in late 1962 and 846 cars were built until 1966, first sold as the Fiat 1500 Ghia GT and renamed Ghia 1500 GT in 1964. This is an early example, presented as a 1962 car, although the chassis number points to 1963.

Source: “Fiat 1500 Ghia GT: napušteni ‘Ferrari’ iz Dubrave ponovo vozi na hrvatskim cestama”, Jutarnji list / Autoklub, 14 August 2026 — text Dino Milić-Jakovlić, photographs Željko Puhovski / CROPIX (sponsored content produced with CVH). Read the article.