[/quote]
Dear Bugwrench, Maybe the canadians can find a rich small man to solve the headroom problem.You will be pleased [ I hope ] to know that we have now cast four new T251 heads sucessfully from the original patterns and one new block.The pattern that you found for me at BV's establishment for the combustion chamber is one of two similar patterns.They changed to a smaller cast hole for the valve seats.The first castings [ in period ] having a problem with insufficient metal to clean up.I happily had already seen two "duff" half machined heads with the gentleman in switzerland and M.Kettalar [ wrong spelling] They had stayed at the factory until HGC took them home and sold them for £5 each to these two gentlemen.Each of whom asked me £5000 for his head !!!![/quote]

Lazarus, Good news. I am happy i could contribute but I still regret we could not find
the moulds for the cambox lid. Have you found a solution for that already?
Bugwrench

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Lazarus, Good news. I am happy i could contribute but I still regret we could not find
the moulds for the cambox lid. Have you found a solution for that already?
Bugwrench[/quote]
We found only the corebox for the cambox lid.Very complicated.So yes we have made a new outer pattern,we now have five new heads and one block.

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According to the builders of this replica, the color of the original car was the pale green of your first picture.

The last piece of news on the building of the replica came one year ago. At that time, they were "seeing the light at the end of the tunnel", meaning that the car would be finished soon. They must have had some kind of problems... Like you, I also think that the original Aerolithe was built on a "surbaissé" low chassis. The replica cannot be like the original, since a standard chassis has been used to build the replica.

Lazarus, Good news. I am happy i could contribute but I still regret we could not find
the moulds for the cambox lid. Have you found a solution for that already?
Bugwrench[/quote]
Dear Bugwrench,You may like to see the first casting of the cambox lid for T251.This one was broken by the ham fisted man who got it from the sand.At £400 each in magnesium I hope he does not break any more.

Very illustrative. Thanks, Uwe!

If one sees the photos of 1935 Torpédo replica, the Aérolithe must be based on that same chassis. Each attempt the Aérolithe with a shortened standard chassis to manufacture will fail. One will always knock against with the head at the roof ...

This rear chassis construction is very similar to the T45/T47.Totally believable for this car.

Thank you to all who continue to add to this thread, the Aerolithe remain a most beautiful mystery. Instead of adding my own opinion, again, I thought a brief summary of the most vexing aspects might come in handy.

How many Aerolithes were made?

1) One, introduced at the Paris show, then to London, then wipers & indicators added, then photos taken in London showing her on black (no white-walls) tires, and then she disappeared.

2) Two, one displayed at the motor shows (white-walls, no wipers, no indicators) and one sent to London as demonstrator (with wipers and indicators, sans white-walls). Both bodies were then utilised for the first two Atlantics (known as Coupe Aero at the works), a number, 01, (or is it 02? - I cannot be arsed to look it up.) stamped somewhere on 57374 serves as proof.

What colour?

1) Silver-grey

2) Pale green.

What chassis was used?

1) A shortened standard T57 chassis.

2) The 'taper-tailed' (translated from French to English as 'gondola') T57S chassis

3) The standard T57S chassis.

I used to favour 1 Aerolithe, silver, on a shortened standard chassis, but I have been unsuccessful in proving anything. I cannot definitively prove there was only 1 Aerolithe, after all, at least two Atalantas (57472 & 57492) were identical. Same with the colour - we have the recollections of C.W.P. Hampton - he recalled it being silver - and an illustration showing a pale green car. And the chassis? I can make a good argument for any one of three, and so can you.

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner.

PS. Do not stop. Please.

Dear Johan.A standard shortened chassis could not be used unless the rear were altered to allow the outrigged spring mountings to be fitted.

You forget the little "appendices" on the roof !
I never read that they have moved between Paris and London ! But...


Sorry for the copyrights, I don't Know !
So I think Bradé is true, this is for fuel !!!!!
The Blue Aerolithe is totally wrong at this point...
Sorry for my English...

It said so on the factory drawing reproduced in vol 27 of "the automobile" along with chassis and numbers also previously referred to.Very visibly evident in fotos.and refered to in the text on page 47 just above the left foto.
The fuel fillers on each side were high up by the 2 rear windows with the tank
57s ch51 overhanging the rear axle...must have proved difficult on paintwork..

Dear Uwe and all:

The painting of the Aerolithe shown hurtling through the French countryside came to the US in 1963 with my family after a visit to the Bugatti Factory. The "Works" had just been sold to Hispano-Suiza and we, as visiting Bugatti owners and clients (a block had been purchased and delivered the prior year), were given the "V.I.P." treatment. We met Roland and Lydia and were given all sorts of items...Ettore's fencing foils and mask; a beautiful water-color painting of a horse in front of one of Ettore's famous carriage doors and this painting. (We were offered a number of Rembrandt bronzes, but had no way of bring them home!) The Aerolithe oil painting sat in my parents front hall closet until my father traded it to Miles Coverdale for a Brescia cambox around 1988. I tried to buy it back at the on-line auction after Coverdale's death, but was the underbidder. C'est la Vie.

Cheers,

Sandy