Solved - NEH 568: Arnolt-Bristol 'Bolide' - 1954

[Carnut]

What's this for 1 point?

[Carnut]

Experts?

[Carnut]

OK then, Pro's?

[DeAutogids.nl]

It kind of has a "Cobra" look to it... is it a replica?

[Allemano]

That's the Arnolt-Bristol Bolide from 1954

[Carnut]

That's the Arnolt-Bristol Bolide from 1954

Spot-on!

[Otto Puzzell]

Those are not the wheels and tires it came with, are they? 

[faksta]

The whole car is not 'as it came'

[Allan L]

The whole car is not 'as it came'

I was just about to say the same!
Different wheels/tyres, body, engine, gearbox, rear axle (probably) instrument panel.
Only original item would seem to be the maker's plate!

and here's an A-B Boilide roadster

Compare the dashboard

[Carnut]

Those are not the wheels and tires it came with, are they? 

They are definitely not 1950's wheels!
This car actually appears on a BMW website, which describes it as having a BMW engine..
Will see if I can find it.

[Allan L]

This car actually appears on a BMW website, which describes it as having a BMW engine..
Will see if I can find it.

The site that describes this Bristol-based special in great detail includes this:
A giant heart lurks beneath the front-hinged, aluminum hood. This Arnolt Bristol is powered by 454 cubic inches of CHEVROLET's rawest muscle on steroids. Being of 1970 vintage, the power plant puts out 345 horses in stock form and is only lightly tweaked. An EDELBROCK Street Dominator aluminum intake manifold, topped with a HOLLEY 650 cfm Spread Bore Double Pumper, enhance the engine's performance. Add an ISKY cam and cylinder heads that have been cleaned up by Valley Head Service, along with custom headers by Doug, and total output should be in the 400+ hp  range. Polished aluminum, finned valve covers complete the picture. Power is fed to a stout MUNCIE 4-speed manual top loader transmission.
and the engine looks like this:


A lot of that is gibberish to me, but a 454 cu. in. Chevrolet is 7.4 litres in our terms so that's bigger than the normal Chev engine favoured by the special-builders of the 1960/70s.

[Otto Puzzell]

Those are not the wheels and tires it came with, are they? 

They are definitely not 1950's wheels!
This car actually appears on a BMW website, which describes it as having a BMW engine..
Will see if I can find it.

The engine it was built with was BMW-derived, of course. Shame that somebody hacked this one into a Cobra wannabe.

[Carnut]

Those are not the wheels and tires it came with, are they? 

They are definitely not 1950's wheels!
This car actually appears on a BMW website, which describes it as having a BMW engine..
Will see if I can find it.

The engine it was built with was BMW-derived, of course. Shame that somebody hacked this one into a Cobra wannabe.

Yes, the BMW site uses the same picture as my puzzle although only to show an example of the Bolide, which was originally built on a Bristol 404 chassis with a BMW 328 engine.  Clearly someone has mucked about with this particular car a bit though...

[metalshapes]

Those are not the wheels and tires it came with, are they? 

Those wheels are American Racing Vector wheels.

Like the ones used on everybody's favorite flying Mopar, the General Lee.

[metalshapes]

And the 454 is a stock size Big Block Chevrolet, that size was introduced in the early '70s ( around the same time the biggest version of the SBC was introduced, the 400 ),and used in many performance applications.
Including engine swaps.