A Short History Of The VW Karmann Ghia (cont.)

Feuereisen exclaiming “Now that [the Ghia>, has class!” backed up with a slightly more considered “A very beautiful car, but much too expensive” from Nordhoff, Karmann countered this by question “How can you say that? I have not even told you what it costs.”

Karmann put forward a proposal and the project was given the go-ahead, Karmann would build the cars, and VW would sell them. Development continued, and somewhere along the line the new coupe gained the two distinctive “nostril” grilles that would become part of the cars identity. In 1955 the first Type 14 rolled off the production line, complete aside from one small point, the new car didn’t have a name.

July 1955 saw the new Coupe revealed to the press, still as yet un-named, various Italian names were considered, but in the end Dr Karmann decided on Karmann-Ghia.