Glas T700 Ranch Frua

Vehicle Overview

The Glas Ranch Frua is a one-off beach car prototype designed by Italian coachbuilder Pietro Frua and unveiled at the 1965 Geneva Motor Show. It was built on the Glas T700 chassis, a compact platform developed by the German manufacturer Hans Glas GmbH. The Ranch Frua exemplifies the “spiaggina” concept, a type of leisure vehicle popular in Mediterranean coastal regions during the 1950s and 1960s, characterized by open-body designs intended for casual, sunny-weather driving. Commissioned by Glas in the early 1960s, the Ranch Frua was assigned project number 330 by Frua. It was conceived as a lightweight, minimalist vehicle suited for resort or beachside environments. The design included no doors, a low wraparound windshield, simple tubular bumpers, and a foldable canvas roof. The vehicle’s layout prioritized openness and accessibility, while retaining stylistic elements typical of Frua’s aesthetic sensibilities, such as clean, modern lines and proportionate contours. Mechanically, the Ranch Frua was powered by a 700 cc air-cooled two-cylinder engine, originally developed for the Glas T700. This engine produced approximately 30 horsepower, sufficient for the modest performance expectations of a beach car. Though not designed for high-speed or long-distance travel, the Ranch Frua offered adequate capability for short urban or coastal use. Despite its striking appearance and innovative styling, the Ranch Frua was never put into production. It remained a one-off show car and served primarily to showcase Frua’s design capabilities and Glas’s experimental spirit. The niche market for spiaggina vehicles and the relatively small scale of Glas as a manufacturer likely contributed to the decision not to pursue production. Today, the Glas Ranch Frua survives as a preserved prototype and is on public display at the Automuseum Melle in Germany. It is considered a rare and historically significant example of mid-century European automotive design.