4. Momo Mirage
The â60s marked a big change in the global car industry. There was a bigger influx of European cars, mostly sports coupes and compacts, to the American market. As a result, several American car manufacturers decided to produce models that combined European style with dependable American technology. And one of the most interesting, but unfortunately, doomed attempts was the fantastic Momo Mirage.
The Momo Mirage was the brainchild of New York`s Peter Kalikow and his friend Albert Momo. Kalikow was a wealthy car enthusiast and Momo was a Jaguar dealer, so the two developed a close friendship around cars. In the late â70s, they wanted to build their own car company. The plan was to produce exclusive coupes with Italian styling and bodies, but with Chevrolet`s V8 engines. It is a hybrid of Ferrari and Rolls-Royce with a Chevy V8 engine.
They contacted the famous Italian designer, Pietro Frua, who agreed to design and build the Momo Mirage. Unfortunately, the Momo car company started in the early â70s just before the economic recession, which affected the car market. They never completed their plan to build 25 Mirages per year. Frua only completed five cars, three of which are still in the possession of Peter Kalikow.