The Italians don’t do everything right, but if they’re good at anything, it’s churning out brilliant stylists. They’ve been doing it for a long time. No matter where in the world you are, and whether you’re looking for someone to design a suit, a sofa, or a sports car, you’re going to eye that boot-shaped country in the Mediterranean. Automakers have done so countless times.
Pietro Frua may not be a household name, even in the car world, but this Turinese pen-for-hire was both prolific and talented. He shaped Maseratis, Lamborghinis, BMWs, and Rolls-Royces. He did dozens of other sports, luxury, and GT cars, too, over a career that lasted from the 1930s all the way up to the late 1970s. He even conceived special bodywork for such blue-collar cars as the Chevy Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, and Dodge Challenger, as well as multiple Peugeots, Panhards, and Fiats.
One other such creation is a humble Ford Escort 1300, on which he draped a delicious one-off coupe body, sort of the automotive equivalent of a La Marzocco espresso machine inside of a Waffle House. The sexy little Ford just sold for CHF28,750 (about $36K) at an auction in Switzerland. Which, frankly, sounds cheap.
Frua was born in Turin in 1913, apprenticed at Fiat, then worked at Stabilimenti Farina starting in his early 20s. Work during the war was scarce but, envisioning opportunities in a postwar world, he bought the shell of a bombed-out factory in 1944 and converted it into a body shop. After building beautiful and futuristic barchetta coachwork on a Fiat 1100 chassis, he built some bodies for Maserati on the A6G platform, and by 1957 his operation had been absorbed by Ghia, who appointed him head of design. There, he penned the Renault Floride/Caravelle, but the stint at Ghia was short-lived, and by the early 1960s, he was running his own independent carrozzeria once again.
Listing all of Frua’s creations in detail would fill a book (and it has), but the designs that made it to production include the original Maserati Quattroporte, Mistral and Kyalami, as well as the AC 428, Momo Mirage and several models for both Monteverdi and the German company Glas, before it was bought out by BMW. But there were so many more concept cars and one-offs, including several stunning BMWs and Citroëns, an odd Mercedes 230SL shooting brake, an E-Type Jag, an S-Type Jag, a Lotus Elan, a Porsche 914, the Lamborghini Faena, the Volvo 1800 ES “Rocket” and a Maserati 5000GT for Karim Aga Khan, to name a few.
Speaking of Aga Khan, he also commissioned a special Maserati Quattroporte, based on the Indy platform and styled by Frua, who showed it off on his stand at the Paris Salon de l’Automobile in 1971. Next to it was the Escort.
Called the Escort Monte Carlo, it would certainly look at home on the streets of Monaco, even if the Ford bits were meant for the streets of Manchester. The low-slung curves contrast with the upright shape of a standard Escort, and there are hints of Ferrari 330 in the sloped rear and the front of the nose. The tail also echoes some of his other designs for Glas, even though Frua retained the stock Ford taillights. But other than the body, some interior upgrades, and a sharp set of Cromodora wheels, there don’t appear to be any changes underneath. Its 1.3-liter four makes, maybe, 70 horsepower.
There isn’t much history as to who or what inspired the Escort Monte Carlo, or why Frua went to the trouble of making an economy car look like an exotic one, but according to Bonhams, the wife of a Swiss architect bought it directly from Frua. The subsequent owner kept it from 1980 to 1998, and the third kept it from then until 2016. It was also reportedly restored in 2003, with a color change from the original metallic brown to the current metallic red. It’s always difficult to tell just from photos, but the engine, paint, and interior all look a bit tired, so the car is probably in #3 (“good”) or #3- condition. Usable, then, but not a concours queen. Bonhams estimated it would bring between CHF57,500 and CHF69,000, but it sold at no reserve for about half the low estimate.
“Unique” is right up there with “iconic” among the car world’s most misused words, but the Monte Carlo really is one of a kind. It’s also beautiful, and cool, and credited to a brilliant, respected Italian designer. So for this very special, historic Ford Escort to bring about as much as a run-of-the-mill EcoBoost Ford Mustang was an absolute steal in our book.
