I’ve mentioned before that I’m a fan of what Jay Leno refers to as “hybrid” cars, or vehicles with European styling and American drivetrains. Cars like the Iso Grifo, Monteverdi High Speed and De Tomaso Mangusta. I also love prototypes, and today’s Good Find Friday car, the Guanci SJJ-1 GT, checks both boxes.

There’s little information on the Guanci SJJ, aside from a few blog and forum posts on the internet and some magazine articles from the period. This is likely because Guanci Automobiles, Inc. was a rather short-lived venture spanning the late 70s and early 80s. John Guanci owned a business in Chicago building industrial ovens, like the ones that cure auto paint.

The story goes that Guanci, like car guys before him and after, was disappointed by the sports car options available to him in the mid-70s and decided to create what we couldn’t find. He built a small team of talented car folk including Bob McKee, noted race car constructor, to help him produce a civilized and well-built mid-engine sports car. The vehicle was lovingly named after Guanci’s children with the “SJJ” referring to Susan, John and Joseph respectively.

As I understand it, Guanci built two different series of prototypes with refinements and improvements made each iteration. Sadly, it would appear that the venture ran out of time, money or ambition as the car never made it to the intended production stage. This likely explains why almost no one, including me, has heard of a Guanci.

Today’s car is part of the second run and is currently listed on Facebook Marketplace with an asking price of $48,000. This Guanci SJJ 1 GT was apparently refurbished by Casey Putsch, who runs an automotive enthusiast channel on YouTube. There’s a short but interesting video where Casey discusses his story of becoming caretaker for the car.

The fiberglass exterior of the Guanci SJJ-1 is rather attractive, and its side profile is perhaps its best angle.  A graceful arc from the rear bumper extends to the roof, where it transitions to a steeply sloped windshield, followed by a hood line that swoops low to the slim front bumper. To me, the profile evokes cars like the De Tomaso Mangusta and Lamborghini Bora. The doors, or at least the windows and mechanisms are from a Chevrolet Monza.

Notable exterior features of the Guanci SJJ-1 include a scalloped intake just behind the driver’s door, flying buttresses with screened grills in the traditional quarter window location, 2-piece hatchback for engine and trunk access, and very cool retractable headlight covers that lower down in front of the lights. The rear features a slim rear bumper with tail lights separated by a reflective blend panel featuring the Guanci name. I can’t place the tail lights, so if anyone knows please share!

At some point a man named Jim Quick joined the team from Bob McKee’s operation and became their full-time do-it-all engineer to construct the prototypes, which may have included this car. The chassis appears to be a welded steel frame with aluminum panels bonded in various locations (based on one of Casey’s videos). Casey refers to it as an aluminum monocoque, which doesn’t jive with period sources on how these cars were constructed.

No photos of the suspension are included, but based on period descriptions, the car originally featured upper and lower wishbones with coilovers at each wheel with a single front anti-roll bar. The front hub carrier was Corvette-sourced with a custom bracket in the rear, per Motor Trend. The car rides on Oldsmobile Aurora alloy wheels, but originally it seems these cars rode on 16” x 9” Center Line Champ 500s, though Casey’s suggestion of Torque Thrusts would also look good.

The interior is pretty cool, with Scheel seats (not Recaros, as Casey says in a video) upholstered in beige and blue corduroy with leather trim that extends to the door panels. The dashboard and automatic transmission shift lever are also pulled from an Oldsmobile Aurora.

Moving to the engine bay, a transverse-mounted 4-cam V8 from an Olds Aurora was fitted at some point to replace a supposed Buick V6. Interestingly, I believe Corvette L82 V8s were the original power units for these cars.

The car runs, drives, and stops based on videos but I’d suspect it probably will need continued sorting over time to become a regular driver or a safe conveyance to concours or car shows.

I am no expert on Guanci history and have performed the amount of research I found necessary to provide some context to a pretty short Facebook listing. The car in the classified looks nearly identical to the feature vehicle in the 1985 Motor Trend test drive of the Guanci SJJ-1 GT. That car was said to be the #4 prototype, but other sources say there were only 3 produced.

It’s possible the #3 and #4 prototypes were nearly identical with different development options implemented. It’s also possible that Motor Trend was in error on which prototype they tested. I do not know if records from Guanci exist or if there is good tracking on what happened to the various prototypes, so we’ll have to trust the info from Casey, which presumably came from John Guanci’s son. If I were to purchase this car, I’d definitely want to dig into that, but it wouldn’t prevent me from adding it to my collection.

I love this car! It’s pure 80s-ness and rarity works on me. Looking at the article from 1985 on this generation of Guanci SJJ-1 GT, if I were to obtain this car I would 100% return it to the look it had at that time. This may be controversial, as some may feel the car’s current state is part of its history. I personally find the original look of the dashboard, interior, and wheel package to be far more attractive and interesting. What to do drivetrain-wise? Well, that’s a whole other subject.

If I could spring for it, I definitely would. What do you think? Is this rare prototype worth the ask?

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