The Guanci, an American Dream

Posted by John Mellberg January 03, 2021

The Guanci, an American Dream

An American supercar, capable of taking on the competition from Europe and elsewhere, has long been a dream of various entrepreneurs throughout the course of US history. One such venture was launched by industrialist John Guanci, whose company manufactured industrial furnaces, in the 1970s. Dissatisfied with the poor workmanship he perceived in many of the European sportscars he had owned, he decided to develop a sports car using American technology that would be as comfortable as it was reliable.

Development work on Guanci's sports car began at his facilities in Woodstock, Illinois (USA) in 1978. The Team of engineers and designers working on the SJJ-1 included Bob McKee, Mike Williams, Steve Norcross and Dick Kleber. A very rigid monocoque steel and aluminum chassis was made by Bob McKee, who had previously built Can-Am racing cars, as well as the Howmet turbine-powered racecar. Engineering on the suspension and drive-train was the responsibility of Dick Kleber, well-known for his work on the mythic Vector sportscar. He devised the mid-engine configuration with a transversely placed V8 and transaxle, behind the passenger compartment of the car. Alessandro de Tomaso, best known for the Ford V8 powered DeTomaso Pantera, was also involved as an advisor.

A design rendering of the Guanci

The styling was done by Mike Williams who had worked for Chrysler and Jeep and was clearly inspired by the contemporary wedge-shaped designs of Giugiaro and Pininfarina. Still, his design was original in its own right, placed in a distinctive American context, and having near perfect proportions. The body was done in Fiberglass by Steve Norcross of Dragonfly Cars, who also made the NTM race car.

The car featured high quality components like a stainless steel floor-pan, independent suspension with nickel cadmium plated stressed steel components, aluminum A-arms in front, spherical rod ends coated with Teflon and, of course, disc brakes at all four corners. The drive-train consisted of a standard 5.7 liter L82 Corvette V8 engine and other mass produced components, most notably the Oldsmobile Toronado based automatic transmission.

The SJJ-1 at its debut

At its 1979 introduction, at the Chicago Auto Show, two cars were shown, complete with a hefty price tag of US$ 54,000 which was the equivalent of about 10 Ford Mustangs. The car was christened the SSJ-1, which stood for "Super Sport J (e.g. John Guanci) model number 1". One car was immediately sold after its introduction and the Guanci enjoyed a lot of favorable media attention and exposure.

Unfortunately, the venture was already in trouble as one of its main financial backers had died and finding additional funds proved almost impossible, as gas guzzling V8 powered cars were considered a dying breed by then. The fact that General Motors was unwilling to offer Guanci drive-train components at a discount was certainly another likely factor. So, production of the Guanci SSJ-1 ended after just two cars; the customer car and a red one, which was retained by John Guanci himself.

The original pair of Guanci SJJ-1 examples

However, the story wasn't quite over. In the early 1980s a third car was constructed, powered by a turbo-charged 3.8-liter V6 engine with 185 bhp and a maximum speed of 140 mph. It was marketed for US$ 63,000 and planned production was lowered to 15 cars annually. Ultimately there were no takers and the third Guanci, in silver, was truly the last of its kind.

Today the first prototype, equipped with a 5.7-liter V-8 engine, is now in the Netherlands, and the remaining two cars are owned by John Guanci.

Sources:

Wikipedia (Germany)

Jalopnik

American Dream Cars