1955 Ford Bubbletop Custom Concept Up for Grabs

Usually, it's a compliment to say that someone is ahead of his time, but in the custom car world, it can be an equally good compliment to say that a designer is 'after his time'. Gary Fioto, one such man, as his creations built at Chopit Kustoms all look like they came out of a custom car magazine from the 50s or 60s. One of his masterpieces, the 1955 Ford "Beatnink" Bubbletop custom concept is heading to Florida for the annual RM Auction in Amelia Island on March 2nd.

Don’t be fooled by the name, as the Beatnik is actually a fairly new creation, based on the body of a Ford model of that year, but riding on a modifies chassis from a 1988 Lincoln Town Car. It is powered by a 400 horsepower, Chevrolet V-8 engine with six carburetors that is mated to a GM automated transmission.

The car, which looks like something out of “the Jetsons” episode, has won numerous awards over at events like the Grand National Roadster Show, the Detroit Autorama, the Fresno Autorama, the Sacramento Autorama, Darryl Starbird's Tulsa show, Carl Casper's Louisville show and Paso Robles.

"Being a person who loves art deco and is inspired by custom cars of the '40s, '50s, and '60s, I decided I would like to build something similar to cars I remembered from my childhood. There was always that one car that stood out from the crowd. I decided I wanted to build something of that stature. I wanted to be noticed by people while driving down the road," Fioto explains.

This unique model, which took four year to build, is expected to fetch somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000 when it goes under the auctioneer’s block.