The Pebble Beach Concours D’elegance is always full of rare one-offs, special production vehicles and concept cars. Sadly, the world just lost one of those rare cars in a fire as the Ford Probe Ghia Concept from the late ’70s burned down while in transit.
Initially, a video of a car fire started spreading around on TikTok. Many in the comments were trying to identify the car, but a few knew right away it was the Ford Probe Ghia Concept leaving Pebble Beach.
A short time later the car’s owner, Scott Grundfor Company, which had also been posting about the car over the weekend, confirmed the car’s destruction with images of the aftermath:
“It is with utter sadness and a heavy heart that we have lost our 1979 Ford Ghia Probe I Prototype in an accident on the highway late in the day on Sunday after showing the car at the Pebble Beach Concoursd’Elegance,” the post reads.” The company then says how grateful it is that the team member who was behind the wheel of the truck got away unharmed.
While there are no details about what exactly happened or what started the fire, the post does say that the actions of the driver helped prevent the fire from spreading into the surrounding woods. I reached out to Scott Grundfor for more information about what exactly happened and will update this post if they get back to me.
The loss of the Probe Ghia does strike a chord. One of a series of Probe concepts Ford made during its partnership with Ghia in the mid to late 1970s, this concept was the Probe 1 Concept shown in 1979 at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Its futuristic design showcased a number of aerodynamic features focused on increased fuel efficiency. The concept rode on the same Fox platform as the Mustang and was powered by a turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Ford would continue to show Probe concepts throughout the early 1980s until 1985, just three years before the production version of the Probe hit the market in 1988.