Documentation

The Ghia 1500 GT shares its mechanical platform with the Fiat 1500 sedan, which means many mechanical parts are interchangeable and relatively available through Fiat parts specialists. Key shared components include:

Ghia 1500 GT chassis numbers are not specific to the model: they are taken from the Fiat 116 series, the sequence used for the Fiat 1300 and 1500 saloons on which the car is based. The number is stamped on the body and on a plate on the firewall.

Because Fiat numbered that series chronologically, a chassis number can be dated. We built the correspondence from nine Fiat 116 cars whose number and year are both documented — saloons rather than coupés, since a saloon was registered within months of leaving the factory. A linear fit on those nine points gives r² = 0.96 and a rate of roughly 137,000 numbers per year; the fitted line starts in late 1961, which is when the Fiat 1300/1500 was launched. Seven of the nine points fall within three months of the line.

Two independent checks land where they should. Chassis #0071661, the prototype, dates to May 1962 and was shown at the Turin Motor Show that November — the expected coachbuilding delay. Chassis #0394674, the highest number in this registry, dates to September 1964 and carries a 1964 Italian carta di circolazione.

What this dates is the Fiat chassis, not the finished car. Ghia drew on batches of chassis delivered in advance, so a coupé was completed some months — sometimes more than a year — after its chassis left Mirafiori, and was often registered later still. Years derived this way are marked (est.) throughout the registry; a documented year always takes precedence over the estimate.