The Super Gnat was a concept car built by Ford in 1980 and shown publicly, alongside other Ford-group concept cars, at the Detroit Auto Show in early 1981. It was designed and built by Ghia, the Turin-based design and coachbuilding house that Ford Motor Company had acquired in 1970. Ghia, once known for the heavy styling it had created for Chrysler, went on to produce as many as twenty running concept cars a year for Ford, though few of these were ever shown to a wider public.
Conceived as a commuter vehicle, the Super Gnat was a small two-seat, three-door car with front-wheel drive and a transversely mounted engine. Its styling, including the front-end treatment and fastback profile, gave it the appearance of a scaled-down Mustang. Its front grille wrapped around the corners on either side of rectangular headlamps, echoing the full-width tail lamps at the rear corners, while a black front apron ran between flared wheel arches. A frameless rear window formed part of a hatch that could be released from the driver's seat, revealing a usable luggage area. The door glass was also frameless, and a small rear side window was paired with venting slots. The interior was trimmed in leather, and the car rode on alloy wheels fitted with 175/70 HR 12 tyres.
It measured 3400 mm long, 1405 mm wide and 1225 mm high, on a 2000 mm wheelbase with a track of 122 cm. Power came from a 957 cc four-cylinder Ford Fiesta engine producing 40 hp at 5500 rpm and 64 Nm of torque at 2700 rpm, paired with a four-speed gearbox.
