Did You ever heard about the Asardo sportscar?

Was there really an Asardo sports car really exist? Yes, the brand really exists in the 1960s. And might be not many automotive fans who know this brand. Asardo is an American sports car brand founded in 1959 by an Austrian immigrant who lived in America named Helmut William Schlosser. The company's founder firstly managed a machine shop in North Bergen, New Jersey in the 1950s who was also known as a sports car enthusiast.

1959 Asardo 1500 AR-S has a compact curvaceous berlinetta fiberglass body. (Picture from: https://bit.ly/3k0fPEL)

As quoted from Wikipedia, Asardo stands for 'American Special Automotive Research and Design Organization,' which is throughout its life in the world's automotive made a little number of car models. Indeed, there are not many sports car models made by the brand. Its first model car designs were completed around the end of 1957 and construction began in 1958. Unfortunately, there is not much information about the brand's first model.

1959 Asardo 1500 AR-S. (Picture from: https://bit.ly/3k0fPEL)

Possibly the brand's first model is the Asardo 1500 AR-S whose controversy design is said to be inspired by the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ. The sports car has a compact curvaceous berlinetta fiberglass body with lots of elements 'taken from' other major automotive brands. The front view of the car is said to be similar to the Maserati 300S and the rear to several Ferraris.

The dashboard was from a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, as was the windshield, which was cut to fit. Its bucket seats were from the Porsche Speedster and the electric accessories were courtesy of Lucas. Then the most striking was its gull-wing style doors similar to the legendary model of Mercedes-Benz 300SL and in fact used Mercedes hinges and latches with a custom hold-up strut.

1959 Asardo 1500 AR-S uses a multi-tubular space frame chassis. (Picture from: https://bit.ly/3iX3zn3)

Then for the engine, this sports car uses an Alfa Romeo Twin-Cam Inline Four bore-up engine mounted on a multi-tubular space frame chassis. Power output for the engine was estimated to have been 100.7 kW (135 hp) at 6,800 rpm. Power went from the engine to the rear axle through an Alfa Romeo four-speed manual transmission.

The Asardo 1500 AR-S sports car made its first public appearance at the 1959 New York Auto Show. Due to disagreements between parties (between the company owner and financial supporter), over how the car should be sold, brought the production plans to cease.

1959 Asardo 1500 AR-S is featured with the gull-wing style doors similar to the legendary model of Mercedes-Benz 300SL. (Picture from: https://bit.ly/3lLmhQs)

And only in the early 1960s, he got an order from a Florida's VW/Porsche dealer owner named Charlie Kolb to make his Asardo sports car could be fitted a Buick's '215' aluminum V8 engine. Then he redesigned the chassis to be able to fit the new engine but still used the same body. Soon thereafter he finished revising the Asardo sports car by using a Buick V8 3.524cc engine mated to the Corvette's transmission system and renamed to Asardo 3500 GM-S.

Once again, unfortunately, there is any documentation that can provide the car model pictures due to the maker only made 1 unit. However it is in our opinion and support from a reliable source (alfabb.com) that both the Asardo 1500 AR-S and 3000 GM-S models share the same bodywork, so they will definitely look similar appearance. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | WIKIPEDIA | ALFABB]

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