So engaged was Ruger by the Bentley style of open roadster that he designed and nearly manufactured a modern version of it in the 1970s. It was his notion that the customer who valued quality engineering in guns would value it in cars, too. Might not someone who owned a Ruger gun want to buy a Ruger car? He decided to find out.
He himself designed the car, and Bill Ruger Jr., now 62 and chairman of Sturm, Ruger, oversaw assembly. "I turned all the wrenches," says Bill Jr. "We got very close to production. We figured we could sell it for $13,500 in 1972, or about twice what a Cadillac cost then." What stayed their hand? "The board, I think, felt it was too chancy." Today the two Ruger Special prototypes sit, well cared for, in Bill's garage.