This is a rare 1968 Intermeccanica Omega, it’s a little-known Italian-American sports car that was developed to rival the Corvette, as well as the many other high-end GT cars coming out of Italy and Britain at the time.
The Omega has a fascinating history, we’ve outlined the highlights below, and Intermeccanica remains in business today as an automaker based in Canada, though sadly they aren’t (yet) producing a modern version of the Omega.
Fast Facts: The Intermeccanica Omega
- The 1968 Intermeccanica Omega was a low-volume Italian-American GT created to compete with the Corvette and contemporary British and Italian grand tourers. Although little known today, it arose out of Intermeccanica’s transition from tuning parts to complete cars during the optimistic, fast-moving sports car market of the 1960s.
- Intermeccanica was founded in 1959 by Frank and Paula Reisner in Turin, initially producing performance parts before moving into their own cars. Early efforts included the IMP microcar and the Apollo GT, which used Buick V8 power and helped establish the firm’s reputation beyond aftermarket components.
- The Omega evolved from the Griffith 600 after Jack Griffith’s finances faltered. Steve Wilder then continued production under the Omega name, with only 33 built. Intermeccanica later revived the concept as the Italia, using Ford V8 power and achieving its greatest commercial success.
- Roughly 400 Intermeccanica Italias were produced between 1966 and 1972, often mistaken for C3 Corvettes today. The 1968 Omega shown here was restored in 2019 to factory specification, retains documented history, and is now offered for sale in Europe with original U.S. paperwork.
A History Speedrun: Intermeccanica
Intermeccanica was founded by a friendly Hungarian-born Canadian guy named Frank and his wife Paula in 1959. They moved from Canada to Torino, Italy and named the company Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica. Initially they produced performance parts and tuning kits for European cars from marques like Peugeot, Renault, Simca, DKW, Puch, and Fiat.
This is a rare 1968 Intermeccanica Omega, it’s a little-known Italian-American sports car that was developed to rival the Corvette, as well as the many other high-end GT cars coming out of Italy and Britain at the time.
In 1960 the company built a Formula Junior car with a rear-mounted engine, but their first low-volume production car was a little 500cc Steyr-Daimler-Puch vehicle using part of a Fiat 500 chassis called the IMP. 21 were made, and one of them managed a class win at the Nurburgring.
The first full-sized car with an Intermeccanica body was built by a company in the USA using a Buick aluminum V8, and all-Buick running gear. It was called the Apollo GT, it was assembled in the USA, and in 1963 it was exhibited at the Turin Automobile Show. 111 Apollos were built, and it’s remembered today as the car that really launched Intermeccanica as “not just” a tuning parts company.
Things began to speed up for Intermeccanica in the mid-60s. Their Apollo 2+2 was judged best in show at the 1965 New York Automobile Show, they also built an interesting Ford Mustang station wagon prototype which was presented to the Ford Motor Company – although it was never picked up for production.
The Intermeccanica Italia Spyder
The Intermeccanica Italia Spyder is an Italian-American sports car that debuted in 1966, it was commissioned by Jack Griffith, the man behind the earlier Griffith Series 200, who wanted a larger sports car that would appeal to a wider market.
Griffith didn’t do anything by half, and so he hired veteran racing engineer John Crosthwaite, a Formula 1 and Indy 500 chassis designer, to develop a new steel chassis for his car. The body was styled by automobile designer Robert Cumberford who was heralded for his work on the Intermeccanica Italia in the years that followed.
Power is provided by a Shelby-spec 4.7 liter (289 cubic inch) Ford V8, similar to the one used in the Shelby GT350 Mustang and the Shelby Cobra 289.
The Arrival Of The Omega
The car would be initially named the Griffith 600, however after 14 sales it became clear that Jack Griffith lacked the deep pockets needed for larger volume sports car manufacturing, so Steve Wilder stepped in and continued production with a new name – the Omega.
33 Omegas would be built before similar financial issues brought production to a halt. At this point, Intermeccanica organized funding through Credito Italiano in Italy and continued production as the Intermeccanica Torino. This was soon put to a stop as Ford had the trademark on the Torino name, and so Intermeccanica switched over to the Intermeccanica Italia name.
The Italia would be powered by Ford V8s, with early cars getting the 289 V8 used in the Mustang and later cars getting the larger-displacement 351 V8. Power was sent back through either a 4-speed manual or optional 3-speed automatic transmission to the rear wheels.
Approximately 400 examples of the Intermeccanica Italia would be built from 1966 to 1972, some claim the number was as high as 500+ units. It was by far the most successful production car ever made by the firm.
The Intermeccanica Italia and its descendants are largely unknown today, though they do attract plenty of attention when they come up for sale, with people often mistaking them for modified C3 Corvettes much to the chagrin of their owners.
The 1968 Intermeccanica Omega Shown Here
The car you see here was restored in 2019 to original factory specifications which was carefully documented with photographs showing the before, during, and after of the car.
The car you see here was restored in 2019 to original factory specifications which was carefully documented with photographs showing the before, during, and after of the car.
It has 47,631 miles indicated on the odometer and it comes with an original American title and import documentation, but as it’s now in the Netherlands the European road registration of the car will be up to the new buyer.
It’s now being offered for sale on Car & Classic by Louwman Exclusive and you can visit the listing here if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
