Bright as an egg yolk


Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia: German engineering, Italian design, and on this Cuban example,
 a British-themed licence surround.
   IT TAKES courage – even in Cuba – to paint your ride chrome yellow. Few cars look their best in this colour, taxi cabs and pizza delivery vehicles notwithstanding.
   But for a select number of well-designed machines – think Iso Grifo or Ferrari 250 SWB – the result can be eye-poppingly wonderful. See me, it says, and acknowledge my beauty.
 
VW made the Karmann-Ghia from 1955 until 1974. Post-1959 models
had higher headlights and larger grille openings.
  You won't find an Iso or Ferrari parked under a Cuban palm tree – I don't think – but you might come across this Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia Coupe. It has a few scars and patches, but wears its bright-as-egg-yolk hue like a royal mantle.
   Headlamp placement reveals this as a "low-light" Karmann-Ghia, assembled between 1955 and 1959 at coachbuilder Karmann's plant in Osnabrück, Germany.

Steering wheel, seats are non-original.
   With the buzzy flat-four engine and swing-arm rear suspension of its Beetle sister model, the Karmann-Ghia was never a true sports car. But with styling by Carrozzeria Ghia (perhaps only Italian designs can truly be yellow), it looked as sweet as anything on the road.
   Still does.

More than 480,000 coupes and convertibles were produced at factories in Germany and Brazil.
   See another Cuban Karmann-Ghia and read about the rather unlikely contribution of famed Chrysler stylist Virgil Exner at CubanClassics.

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