The Never-Heard-Of Guanci SJJ1 GT Sports Car Now Up For Sale At Louwman Exclusive

One of my favourite things is to discover true automotive obscurities, and I recently came eye-to-eye with something I had never seen before, and I doubt many of you will have seen or even heard of either. When strolling through the showroom of Louwman Exclusive, the Dutch sports- and supercar importer that also offers a selection of rare vintage cars, I stumbled upon the Guanci SJJ1 GT. Although parked next to a Lamborghini Countach, something struck me in the simple yet sleek design. Intrigued, I asked about the car and learnt its full and rather fascinating story!

The story of the Guanci SJJ1 GT begins with entrepreneur and car enthusiast John Guanci envisioning a radical new American-made sports car. One that would offer something that was pretty much non-existent. Guanci saw an opportunity in the market for a mid-engined American-made sports car, something that was very much a European thing instead of an American one at the time. Sure, there was the Ford GT40 in the 1960s, and a whole range of concept cars from the likes of Chevrolet, AMC and others, but that was pretty much it. From 1960 to 1969, Chevrolet built the Corvair, which had an air-cooled flat-six engine in the back, but that can hardly be considered a sports car. Over in Europe, cars like the Lamborghini Miura, and Ferrari 308 made automotive headlines, so why the hesitation by the Americans? Remember, it took Chevrolet seven generations of Corvette sports cars before daring to go for a mid-engined layout for the C8!

But with all such projects, the biggest question is where to start. To put his money where his mouth was, John Guanci enlisted the help of legendary racing engineer Bob McKee (who built the Howmet TX) to build the chassis, former Chrysler designer Mike Williams to design the body, Dick Kleber (of later Vector fame) to develop suspension and brake components and a few other well-known names to consult on the project, including Alessandro de Tomasso.

The gaunci sjj1 gt

With such a team of well-rounded and capable partners, John Guanci started his dream project in 1977. After two years of development, the first two cars that were completed were shown to the public at the 1979 Chicago Auto Show, hosted in Guanci’s hometown. The car received the name SJJ1 GT, named after his wife, Susan and son, John Joseph. Upon its release, not only did the public love it, but the press was very positive about it as well. And judging by what was presented, deservedly so!

The SJJ1 GT was built on an aluminium monocoque chassis, on par with its main intended rivals from across the pond. The compact sports car had a wedge-shaped front section, a central cabin for two, and the engine in the back. The fibreglass body has a very sleek profile, with hints of cars like the Maserati Merak and the DeTomaso Mangusta. The front is highlighted by a low and wide grill section, with a pair of hidden headlights above it. When they are turned on, a panel folds down to reveal the double headlight units. Think of it as a reverse pop-up headlight system, sort of like the single one in the Aston Martin Bulldog, and you get the idea!

To accentuate the sleek profile, there’s a crease line running from the very front of the car, over the wheel arches and underneath the side windows, to abruptly end at the back. The design is surprisingly clean, with only minimal accents and breaks to give it character. Around the back, a kammback tail houses double horizontal rear lights with a pair of upswept exhausts and in typical 1970s style, the engine cover is louvred. The rear side windows are tucked into the body and give way to the fuel filler cap and so on, and there’s a vertical air intake for the engine just below that. The whole exterior is drawn up in fibreglass, so it’s free of any rust, and it looks to be in amazing and very original condition.

On the inside, there are two Recaro sports bucket seats wrapped in black leather. The interior is quite basic, but everything is there. A series of instruments and gauges is lined up neatly from left to right, and the central console flows down neatly into the transmission tunnel. A glass panel separates the driver and passenger from the engine in the back, which was sourced from Chevrolet. The transversally mounted 5.7 litre L82 V8 produces about 270 horsepower, which means the SJJ1 GT should be quite a quick car, even almost half a century on!

Guanci planned a production capacity of 50 cars per year, at a price of USD 54,000. To put that in perspective, a Corvette would cost a fifth of that back in the day, so the Guanci SJJ 1 GT was fighting an uphill battle right from the start! Sadly, it never came to be, as shortly after the car was presented, one of the financiers and partners of John Guanci passed away, and the project ground to a halt. Simultaneously, the 1979 US oil crisis caused prices for oil and gas to skyrocket, basically killing off pretty much all interest in such cars overnight. An attempt to resurrect the brand with a slightly revised third SJJ1 GT in the early 1980s also failed, ending Guanci’s dream for good.

This car, the second and last one built, has remarkably survived all those years and racked up a very low 1,476 miles only! It’s now for sale at Louwman Exclusive, for a price of EUR 119,950 excl VAT. The car is on a US title, so if you want to drive it in Europe, you do have to go through the process of officially importing it and having it approved for EU road use. However, I commend anyone for doing so, as it’s a stunning example of a car that showed great potential but was ill-fated due to bad timing and unfortunate circumstances.

For more details, please visit LouwmanExclusive.com.

Editorial Note: The information used and images portrayed in this article are sourced from and used with permission of Louwman Exclusive, for which we are thankful.