Low-flying Ford Beatnik Bubbletop is back on sale (22 photos + 1 video)

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This car, according to its creator, looks like it's moving even when it's not moving. The violet metallic perfectly emphasizes the fantastic contours of the Beatnik Bubbletop, flattened to the road, with blind wheel arches, covered with a transparent hemisphere instead of the usual roof.

New York customizer Gary "Chopit" Fiotto cut out the car he had in mind right away, without sketches or drawings - the desired image was formed in the process of work. The donor was a standard 1955 Ford, of which, however, very little remains.

With the exception of the Ford hood and some trunk parts, the body paneling was hand-formed from sheet steel and welded seamlessly using the oxy-acetylene welding method. The front bumper with integrated dual fog lights once belonged to a 1959 Cadillac, the rear one - to a 1958 Cadillac. The fins crowning the rear with parking lights were borrowed from a 1960 Chrysler, while the diagonal headlights contain a hint of the sideways glance of a 1958-1960 Lincoln.

The car's engine is a 6-carburetor small-block Chevrolet V8 with a volume of 5.7 liters, working in tandem with an automatic transmission. Following the canons of the genre, all external surfaces of the engine are polished to a mirror shine.

The 1988 Lincoln Town Car chassis used for the project was supplemented with air suspension, allowing you to change the ground clearance from the lowrider level to quite reasonable values, so you don’t have to be too afraid of speed bumps and potholes.

The Lexan dome (the same bubble top) without cutouts on a hot sunny day could easily turn the ride into torture for the driver and passengers, but the author wisely took care of this issue by equipping the interior with an effective Vintage Air climate control system. The cut-off steering wheel resembles an aircraft steering wheel, and the speedometer sticking out in the center is a work of art in itself. Only the Alpine multimedia panel with a screen for those sitting in the back looks like an alien inclusion inside this retro magic.

It took four years to build the Beatnik Bubbletop, after which, since 2005, Fiotto's brainchild has been literally strewn with awards from all sorts of beauty contests and tuning festivals. Ten years ago, the auction price of the car was 165 thousand dollars, how much will be given for it now will be known at the Mecum auction on September 20. The reason for changing the owner is generally sad: the previous owner left this world, and now his collection is put up for sale.