Dual Motors Corporation
Eugene Casaroll was the owner of Automobile Shippers, Inc., a Detroit trucking firm that transported most of Chrysler Corporation's cars from the factory to dealers and distributors in the fifties and sixties. In addition to Automobile Shippers, Casaroll owned Dual Motors Corporation, which had built Dual engine tanks for the war effort during WWII.
He was also the driving force behind the Dual Ghia car. Impressed with the Fire Arrow, built by Chrysler's Italian builder Carrozzeria Ghia of Torino, Italy; he acquired the design and production rights to the car from Chrysler. Casaroll then hired well-known Detroit stylist and car builder, Paul Farago, to produce with Ghia a more practical version.
Dual Motors only existed as a car builder for eight years, but in that time they were able to combine the essence of Virgil Exner's uniquely American design with Ghia's hand built Italian coachwork called the Dual-Ghia. These over the top cars were based on a modified Dodge chassis using a 315 cubic-inch Hemi V8. Sadly, the cost to build a Dual Ghia car exceeded the selling price of $7,646 and only slightly over 100 were built.
Performance was excellent, especially in the cars powered by the high performance, Dodge Hemi D-500, a 315 cubic-inch V8. Only 30+ are believed to still exist. Over 1,500 man-hours were said to have been spent building each car. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and many other Hollywood celebrities owned one. Ronald Reagan owned one, which he lost in a high-stakes poker game with then-President Lyndon Johnson.
In 1958, Dual Motors created a prototype of the Dual Ghia 400, which was based on the Chrysler Dart Diablo Concept. The car was to be the 1956-1958 Dual Ghia replacement. It debut at the 1958 New York Auto Show, and while it wasn't for sale, he was made an offer he couldn't refuse. The health of Casaroll began to fail and he chose to concentrate on his shipping business.
In 1961, Casaroll again worked an arrangement with Ghia to produce the 1961-1963 Dual-Ghia L 6.4. Dual Motors stopped producing cars in 1963 after a limited run.
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