By Dean Larson

Photos: Seller, eBay

While it’s clearly inspired by pricier exotics from Ferrari and Lamborghini, the uniquely curved body and compact roofline of the Intermeccanica coupe is instantly recognizable. It’s attractively styled, and executed in steel with an American V8 powertrain. But this unique two-seater lived multiple lives, titled the Griffith 600 initially, but also built as the Intermeccanica Omega, Torino and Italia.

Intermeccanica had a few projects on its portfolio by 1966, but a new venture with Jack Griffith of Griffith cars would be the most ambitious yet. Turin-based Intermeccanica would construct the new Griffith 600, an all steel two-seater with chassis work by ex-BRM designer John Crosthwaite, and a body designed by Robert Cumberford of GM fame. The Griffith 600 was powered by a Chrysler V8 and showed great promise, but Griffith ran out of funds after 10-14 examples were built.

A new customer named Steve Wilder picked up where Griffith left off, and the new iteration would be powered by a Ford driveline and called the Intermeccanica Omega. Final assembly was taken over by Holman & Moody in the U.S., but only 33 examples made it stateside.

After repeated difficulties in financing and cooperation with other firms to complete the cars, Intermeccanica brought all construction of the car home to Italy, and sought funding through an Italian bank. The new turnkey Intermeccanica Torino was shipped stateside and sold through a U.S. distributor in New Jersey. The Tornio name was short lived though, as Ford had trademarked the term, and Intermeccanica finally settled on the Italia name. Production soon reached 100 to 120 cars per year, and the company soon added a successful roadster model, the Italia Spyder. Built through the early 1970s, roughly 500 cars in all were constructed.

With such few cars examples in the grand scheme of things, these Intermeccanicas are few and far between, especially the hardtops it seems. But with only 33 Omegas built, this 1969 model on eBay is a rare find. From the seller’s ad, it looks like the car was ordered and a deposit was made at the New York Auto Show in ’69. That owner would hold onto the car for some 50 years, and the car is now offered by a dealer on eBay.

But the latter of these years have not been especially kind to the Omega, and the seller notes that the car has rust and needs a full restoration. Cosmetic rust covers most of the car’s exterior and structural rust is evident on the lower portions of the body. Other than that, the car is fairly complete and should be a fairly straightforward restoration — provided there isn’t a ton of rust hiding underneath.

Located in Bethel, Connecticut, the seller is asking $48,500 for the car — a healthy chunk of change for a project vehicle. And based on the Italia hardtops we’ve seen, it’s probably about $18,500 too much, unless you could prove the Omega namesake adds substantial value. Prices for restored cars are all over the map, but most Spyders are valued between $120,000 and $170,000.

See the seller’s ad here on eBay.