Nardi Silver Ray History

The Silver Ray (also called Raggio d'Argento) was the final 'Ray' car in Nardi's loosely connected series of coachbuilt prototypes and the most powerful. Built in 1960 for American client William Simpson, it wedded a 350 cubic-inch Plymouth Golden Commando V8 (approximately 350 bhp, fed by two AFB carburettors and paired with a two-speed Powerflite automatic) to a tubular chassis with Alfa Romeo-derived suspension — coil springs up front, semi-elliptic rear — and four-wheel disc brakes.

The body, another Michelotti design, was a sleek Italian-styled coupe that bore family resemblance to the Raggio Azzurro cars. It is regarded as one of the first Italian sports cars to be purposefully built around an American V8, anticipating the European-body / US-engine formula that Iso, De Tomaso, and others would commercialise later in the decade. Only one example was made.