S.H. Arnolt Inc. was a licensed automobile builder in the State of Illinois. Between 1953 and 1968, Arnolt sold four different types of cars with Bertone bodies. They were sold as American autos, but with British mechanical components and Italian bodywork with final assembly by Arnolt. One of these cars was the Arnolt-MG, a limited production 4-seat sports car built in the mid-1950s. This surviving example is a project car that is missing its engine. Located in Delray Beach, Florida, it’s available here on Hemmings for $10,000 OBO. Thanks for the tip on this seldom-seen auto, John!
The Arnolt-MG had running gear and engines provided by MG. It was based on the MG TD chassis and used an XPAG 54hp engine. Though a production run of 200 copies was planned, only 103 have been documented as having been built from 1953 to 1954 (67 coupés and 36 convertibles). Regarding the seller’s car, which must have been titled as a ’55, only one photo is provided so we borrowed a couple of others to round out the review.
This project will take some effort to complete as a motor will have to be sourced to replace the original that’s missing. But the transmission is there although we don’t know its operating condition. The body is complete, but the panels have signs of rust that will need to be repaired. The car comes with wire wheels which we believe is how they were fitted when new.
The roof looks Volvo-ish and the grill looks Rolls Royce-ish.
They were styled by Bertone. Wikipedia has a good write up about the company, although it doesn’t mention the Arnolt.
I owned a convertible version in far worse condition many years ago. This seems like a good price for such a rarity!
The Volvo B18+transmission is an almost drop-in replacement. Otherwise, you’re starting from scratch. The Arnolt-MG was a stable of the classified ads in Road & Track in the ’60s.
Quite a few MG T-series owners swapped the engines for Volvo engines.
Mr. Arnolt was a Texan with the nickname of “Wacky.” He fell in love with the cars when he first saw them and wanted exclusive rights to the car.
The convertibles are very rare; I’ve seen a number of coupes in person, but never a convertible one.
Hey, a wolwo (’56/’70 – ‘amazon’) w/a nice grill, finally !
Look-a…I-like anyway.
This is the 2nd ‘never seen B4’ (in person / pic) car Russ’n Co have shown me this yr. 3 was the top yr, keep goin, I love it.
And…this one. Sure but w/no motor (or is it tranny?) & 10K$, no, sorry.
There has been an Arnolt roadster on FB market for a while now…it is likely in even rougher condition.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/421579179625514/?ref=search&referral_code=marketplace_search&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3Acff84df6-8e33-482f-9b6a-d1fdff1b2c7f
The wire wheels are Borrani’s, with which this car (Arnolt 275) originally came; Arnolt was the US Borrani agent.
Yes, the car needs a lot of work, but $10,000 is positively cheap for ANY Arnolt, and Volvo B18 and XPAG engines are plentiful. As far as I can tell, the unique-to-Arnolt pieces are there, and they are the expensive ones to try to find!
There’s a good history of Arnolt-MG cars, and a registry of Arnolt-MGs, at https://arnoltmgregister.net/history/
Tom – Didn’t know there was registry for the Arnolts, I’ll have to check it out. Have loved these since I first saw a picture of one. Thanks.