Coys Auction - True Greats
Royal Horticultural Halls
Elverton St
Westminster
London SW1
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Chicago based ‘Wacky’ Arnolt was an MG distributor whose market share and financial resources gave him the ability to negotiate a seat on the board of Bertone whilst commissioning the firm to build the TD-based Arnolt-MG in 1952. Having the desire for a more powerful product, the following year Arnolt met up with James Watt, sales manager at Bristol Cars, and their discussions resulted in an arrangement for the Bristol factory to supply chassis direct to Bertone in Italy as a basis for this new model. This chassis was based on the then new, short wheelbase 404 model and was powered by a specially developed version of the acclaimed Bristol straight six engine, designated BS1 Mk.2. Sporting a higher compression ratio and more radical camshaft profile this engine was rated at 130bhp @ 5500rpm and was capable of propelling the car to 110mph.
Bertone’s designers came up with a sle