Salmson Ready to Hit the Hills

• 
• 
• 

Though best known as a Bugatti restorer, Ivan Dutton is no stranger to Salmsons, since his father owned a couple when Ivan was a boy, after spending the 1930s as riding mechanic to a well-known Salmson racer. Even so, for many years Bugattis were his bread and butter, until retirement brought with it the opportunity to indulge his more eclectic motoring interests.

Ivan’s tastes cover a broad church, Salmsons included, and he knew exactly what he intended to do when he bought an incomplete pile of 1923 VAL3 parts, at which most people would just have shrugged their shoulders. Immediately, he set about scooping up spares from other Salmson enthusiasts until he had enough to build a complete car, and anything he couldn’t find he simply made from scratch, or by adapting something he had lying around.

The car’s incomplete state gave Ivan lots of license to build it however he wanted, and he decided he may as well build a trials car, since he hadn’t done anything like that before. It’s a lively car and ought to be competitive, with due consideration given to weight distribution, suspension, gear ratios and structural strengthening, and with trials season just beginning, we should find out very soon.

Zack Stiling meets the effervescent Dutton and reports on how he got his Salmson Back On The Road in the November issue of The Automobile, available now.

Aggiunga un commento...