A Rare 1956 Jaguar, Once Owned by Ricardo Montalbán, Is up for Grabs.

It’s likely that if you see this curvaceous two-door coupe on a concours lawn, you might think it to be some 1960s-era Maserati or Alfa Romeo. You’d be wrong. It is, in fact, a Jaguar. Back in 1955, Jaguar experimented with offering bare-bones, rolling-chassis versions of its newly launched XK140 coupe to European coachbuilders. Only 10 of these were supplied, four of which went to Turin’s famous Carrozzeria Ghia.

Ghia reportedly used in-house designer Giovanni Savonuzzi to draw the lines for a hand-formed, all-aluminum body, complete with Jet Age–style tail fins, a tall and glassy cabin, and a long hood. The result was the Jaguar XK140 SE Ghia.

This 1956 example is the last of the four built by Ghia and was delivered to R.W. Martin, of La Jolla, Calif., by Los Angeles–based distributor Hornburg. Martin eventually sold it to Tony Award–winning actor and Broadway theater director Gower Champion, who kept it for almost a decade.

In 1967, the Ghia was acquired by Hollywood star Ricardo Montalbán, who would later play Mr. Roarke in the TV series Fantasy Island and, for 13 years, acted as spokesman for Chrysler Corporation, famously extolling the qualities of the “rich Corinthian leather” slathered around the Chrysler Cordoba’s interior. There’s no shortage of photos of the actor posing with the Jaguar in Los Angeles. He liked to tell friends he loved the car because no one had a clue what it was.

It’s not clear how long Montalbán kept the XK140, but by the early 1990s it had become part of Don Williams’ renowned Blackhawk Collection in Danville, Calif. During its time there, it was displayed at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 1992 and 1996, following a major ground-up restoration.

The car surfaced again in August of 2022, when it crossed the block at the RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction, where it sold for $335,000 to an unidentified buyer. Now it’s the turn of Mecum Auctions to offer the vehicle as one of the headliners of its 3,000-lot Indy 2026 sale in Indianapolis on May 16.

The Jaguar is currently part of the high-profile, 41-car collection from the secretive M Group out of Burlington, Wash., and shows just 59,929 miles on its Smiths odometer. It’s being sold with a key Jaguar Heritage Trust Production Record Trace Certificate documenting its original build.

“Being one of just four examples handcrafted by Carrozzeria Ghia, and enjoying a fascinating celebrity ownership, it is a car with immense appeal to any collector of unique ’50s European sports cars,” says David Purvis, Mecum’s director of Consignment.

As is the case with all of the Ghia-bodied Jaguar XK140, this example came with improvements made when the original model succeeded the XK120 in 1955. The enhancements included a more powerful 3.4-liter inline-six engine with output increased to 210 hp, giving the car a top speed of around 125 mph and a zero-to-60 mph time of 8.4 seconds—both highly respectable figures for the period.

Ghia’s take on the XK140 was likely even faster, since its lightweight aluminum body—replacing the standard model’s steel shell—shaved as much as 220 pounds. Better brakes and new rack and pinion steering, instead of a crude recirculating ball setup, also sharpened the car’s handling.

Today, the example on offer is as pristine as the day it came out of the Blackhawk restoration shop, evidenced by the immaculate engine bay and a reupholstered interior of tan leather accented with brown wool carpets edged by tan leather piping. The car still has its original yellow Marchal headlamps, while the hood’s air intake is thought to have been added some time in the 1960s.

Clues to the Ghia-bodied XK140’s Jaguar parenthood are fairly minimal. There’s a stylized Jaguar “growler” badge on the nose, chrome Jaguar lettering on the trunk lid, and three-eared Jaguar “knock-off” spinners for the chrome wire wheels. And keen observers might spot the outline of the standard XK140’s grille in the center of the Ghia’s grille.

“It’s a truly special sports car from the golden age of European custom coachbuilding, and from a time when Jaguar was at the peak of its 24 Hours of Le Mans racing success. It is a car that would be welcomed at the world’s top concours events and vintage rallies,” notes Purvis. While Mecum declines to give a price estimate for sales without a reserve, a value range of $400,000 to $500,000 is realistic.

Click here for more photos of this 1956 Jaguar XK140 SE Ghia.