About an hour ago I sent a message to the Sinsheim Museum in Germany asking them about the chassis number of the 57 Roadster (the one with the snow chains) which they have. Within half an hour the reply came back #57320.
This contradicts the current entry in the Wiki. So who is right...

Sinsheim in the mean time has sent me a picture of the plate...57320.

Conway lists 57320 as a Ventoux.

You mean this one?

http://www.bugattibuilder.com/wiki/index.php?title=T57_unknown-Sinsheim

WIKI entry for 57320 (Ventoux body, later Stelvio body)

http://www.bugattibuilder.com/wiki/index.php?title=57320

Another "double" entry? Or something to iron out in the WIKI?

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

that's the one. Conway says 320 is a Ventoux, so I have asked Sinsheim whether their car has been rebodied along th way.....

It looks to me that the car has been rebodied. The fenders are very "LPG211" like. The headlights might have been recycled.

However, the 57320 picture on the WIKI seems fairly recent (judging on colour). Why on earth would someone replace the Stelvio body for this racing body, and very soon after that ending up in a museum. Does not make sense...

A nice mystery...

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

I think the description of the "unknown chassis" at Sinsheim says it was rebodied in the early fifties. So it could have been a Ventoux after all, but that most likely means that the current 320 in Wiki is something else....

Indeed. That is the most logical scenario. Can you post the picture of the chassis plate? Then I will make a new entry, and move the "other" 57320 into the unknown chassis section.

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

how do I post pictures? There is no attachment system.

edit:Just forwarded the pic to your mail address

This is the picture of the chassis plate, which is attached to this car:



Any remarks from the experts?

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Vive la Marque !!

This chassis seems to have been shortened. And doesn't it look low enough at the back to be a T57S chassis? Question : Is the last digit of the chassis number being outside the box (on the chassis plate) in any way significant?

It looks a bit like the T57S prototype, doesn't it? We should all be gratefull to the Sinsheim Museum for being so forthcoming with details of this car. My guess would be that 57320 was originally a Ventoux, and recorded as such by Conway, and then rebuilt as a racing/sports special during the 50's. As I said, just a guess, and how did it land up in this museum without Conway (or the compilers of any of the other registers) noticing it's changed specification?

Truly a delicious conundrum. Thank you Pieter Melissen for starting this thread; now can somebody please solve this mystery?

Thanks
Johan

update on June 18, 2008:

1) 57320-1

http://www.bugattibuilder.com/wiki/inde ... le=57320-1



2) 57320-2

http://www.bugattibuilder.com/wiki/inde ... le=57320-2

Thank you with the experts, who after investigations, will be able to confirm the exact origin of each one.

bugatti69

hello

please be aware about informations in sinsheim, they are often not correct. For my oppinion the racing body is about later times 6o`s or
7o`s when many original bodies where changed in favour of more sportig like T59 replicas( as this one should be) or replicas of the TT type 57`s.
many of them still are existant in the UK or even australia.
one of the last of these changes had been made on the sx"sleeping beauty", an galibier, which now wears a sporting TT- body ( and is here in austria)

best
mike