Styled Machine - The worlds of fashion and cars often share more than we realize. Both push the limits of creativity, both are about self-expression, and both sometimes take bold risks that make people stop and stare. Through the years, fashion icons have dabbled with four wheels:
Karl Lagerfeld once played with a BMW,
André Courrèges reimagined a Matra Bagheera,
Paul Smith gave the Mini his signature stripes, and
Ralph Lauren turned his garage into a rolling art gallery. But among all these intersections of fabric and steel, one car stands out as something far stranger—a machine that looked more like a piece of haute couture than Detroit muscle. That car was
the Weitz X600,
a Camaro-based custom unlike anything before or since.
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| The 1979 Weitz X600, a unique one-off roadster made by a British company called Mallalieu Cars specially designed by Albrecht Goertz commissioned by John Weitz. (Picture from: Coachbuilt) |
The man behind this peculiar experiment was John Weitz,
a name that carried weight in the menswear scene of the 1960s and ’70s. Beyond tailoring sharp suits,
Weitz had a deep love for speed and style on wheels. He raced with
the Vintage Sports-Car Club and had a garage filled with enviable names—
Ferrari,
Allard,
Healey,
Corvette. Yet for all his cars, what he really wanted was something that no one else could have. Something that blurred the line between fashion statement and sports car.
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| The 1979 Weitz X600 built based on the chassis of a brand new 1979 Camaro Z-28 which used all of its engineerings but clothed in a dramatic new aluminum body. (Picture from: Coachbuilt) |
At one point, Weitz even approached John DeLorean, hoping to get design advice. DeLorean, famously blunt, brushed him off with a quip: “I don’t design pants, you don’t design cars.” Most people might have taken the hint and stopped there. Weitz, however, was not most people. Determined, he reached out to Albrecht Goertz, the German designer behind cars like the BMW 507. Goertz gave some input, but the final vision came largely from Weitz himself, who poured his personality into the design.
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| The 1979 Weitz X600 has unusual sinister-looking headlights and a special-shaped front grill resembled the mouth. (Picture from: Coachbuilt) |
The base was
a brand-new 1979 Camaro Z-28, a solid muscle car platform that donated its engineering and guts. But instead of leaving it with Detroit’s familiar sheet metal,
Weitz wrapped it in an exotic new aluminum body that looked nothing like
the Camaro underneath. Long, sweeping curves met sharp, angular edges, highlighted with a thin red accent line running across its sinister silhouette.
Building such a unique body wasn’t cheap in the U.S., so
Weitz shipped the project to
Mallalieu Cars,
a specialist coachbuilder tucked away in rural Northamptonshire,
England.
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| And from the side, the Weitz X600 with long flowing lines, but came with hard edges, plus also emphasized by a red trim line. (Picture from: HiBid) |
By December 1979, the project was complete. The finished machine returned across the Atlantic, arriving in New York just before Christmas. For
Weitz, unwrapping
the Weitz X600 at
Kennedy International Airport must have felt like receiving the most extravagant holiday gift imaginable.
The name had meaning too:
the “X” stood for experimental,
while “600” came from the Madison Avenue office address of his fashion business.
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| The 1978 Weitz X600 features a custom black leather interior with striking red seat inserts that echo its bold exterior styling. (Picture from: PostWarClassic) |
The X600 was shown publicly a few times in the U.S., Mexico, and even Japan.
Its unusual mix of flowing elegance and sharp aggression made it look equal parts runway model and sci-fi prop. At one point,
Weitz even entertained the idea of producing a limited run priced at around $60,000 each, which at the time was serious supercar money. But that dream never materialized, and
the X600 remained a one-off piece of rolling couture.
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| The 1978 Weitz X600 is shown alongside John Weitz himself, highlighting the car’s dramatic lines and fashion-inspired details in a rare period photo. (Picture from: PostWarClassic) |
When
John Weitz passed away in
2002, the fate of his bizarre creation slipped into obscurity. For years, it was as if the car had vanished. Then, unexpectedly in
2018,
it resurfaced as part of Don Smith’s private collection,
going under the hammer at a fundraising auction in Terre Haute,
Indiana. After that appearance, the trail went cold once again. Where the car is now remains a mystery.
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| The Weitz X600 sports car is on s 108-inch wheelbase and weighs in at 2,300 lbs with its original GM's 350-cu.-in. V8 engine. (Picture from: Coachbuilt) |
The Weitz X600 may not have redefined the sports car world, but it remains an unforgettable glimpse of what happens when a fashion visionary insists on stitching his imagination into metal and rubber. It was bold, it was eccentric, and like the best fashion pieces, it wasn’t meant to blend in. Somewhere out there, hidden away in a garage,
the strange Camaro-based creation is waiting for the day someone rediscovers it—and when they do, it will be as striking and out of place as the day
John Weitz first laid eyes on it.
*** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | COACHBUILT | HIBID | POSTWARCLASSIC ]
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