Through a stroke of luck about 2 years ago I met a very nice man called Ard de Knegt, a previous owner of 49451. Since then a friendship evolved through our common passion, Bugattis.
49451 is a very original car with a Swiss body by Ruckstuhl (a sister car to 49450, also by the same body-builder)
Ever since I met him I am intrigued by the radiator of this Bugatti, which is different from those we are used to. Maybe it looks like this because the upper tank of this radiator is bigger than usual- but that is just a theory of mine.
So I informed about it with Ard. He said: "I never found out however where this radiator came from. It must have been made by Bugatti (I think) because the details are so typical. An old Bugatti mechanic that I visited in Molsheim with the 49 confirmed this but could not give me further details. "
And in correspondence between Ard and the current seller of 49451, the seller responded: "The radiator is still a mystery but I was told two versions: Either Bugatti had different radiator makers (it is typical of the early German Bugatti ) or it is a special radiator made for cold countries (there are several Bugatti's in Scandinavia with such a radiator)."
I would like to know more so I hope this topic wil bring more info on the Radiator issue. Are there more alike ? Which ones and what is the function and reason- if there is any ?
We found out that this Bugatti MAYBE was involved in a serious head-on accident. We have a B&W (Police?) picture of a very similar car (but not into detail), probably owned by a Soutter of Aigle, Switzerland involved in a crash stating that the car pictured is (French: verre) green. So maybe the car had a different radiator before the accident or was it a similar but different car that was involved in this crash. If anyone knows of very early pictures of this car, this might help solve this part of the puzzle. When owned by Ard there were no signs that the car he owned ever had been involved in a crash. But it might be possible that the chassis was replaced or repaired very well afterwards - we do not know.
Also I am interested if there are more cars with a body by Ruckstuhl of Luzern - Switzerland, I found one more, 441322.
Any info obtained as a result of this topic may be used in an update for 49451 in part 3 of the Netherlands and Belgium Bugatti Register.
Thank you in advance for your info's and contributions on this topic.
(I cannot imagine that !)
