(Chassis #Z1058301)

Vintage Racecar’s Siamese Twin, Vintage Roadcar, features a monthly column, “By Design,” inked by automotive and industrial designer Raffi Minasian. Minasian inherited his obsession from his father and by early childhood was thoroughly consumed by all objects with engines and wheels. The duo owned a long string of important collector cars, but Raffi’s favorite was the bold one-off 1953 Pegaso Thrill. Minasian said, “Here was a car that had everything; grace, beauty, style, and a thumping eight-cylinder engine. The engineering and body design combined beautifully.” The Pegaso Thrill not only captured a Best in Class at Pebble Beach for the Minasians, it also catapulted young Raffi into one of the most amazing adventures of his early life.

Minasian said, “In 1978 we bought the Pegaso Thrill at auction and soon after I met the man who sold it, Bill Miller. Miller was much older but we were bound by the same passion for automotive objects of beauty and power. We became friends and together began speculating on what type of car Pegaso of Spain might have built had it stayed in business during the early supercar wars of the late ’60s and early ’70s. The speculation morphed into serious discussions and later into a plan, as we decided (starting in 1979) to design and build a car we called the Pegaso American.”