About Tough to Crack Car Puzzle #194: 1955 Salmson

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We received this photo from regular contributor Hans van Ingen Schenau, whom we are very grateful. What an absolutely beautiful photo. We even received messages from people who just wanted to tell us that they like the photo. 

And clearly puzzle #194 wasn't the easiest puzzle we had. We received 5 answers of which 3 are correct. On the back of the card is written in hand: "2L 300 Sport Salmson, Carrosserie Speciale Italienne (modele unique), 13 CV, Vitesse 190/200 km/h".

So I'm sorry Fritz Hegemann, it is not a Lancia Aurelia, nor a Pegaso Z-102 and also not a Bugatti 101 as Bernard Corrége said. 

Back to the good answers; the first came in from Gerd Klioba. As always Gerd was correct. 'The Salmson Barquette 2300 Grand Sport shown on the 1955 Paris Salon, price 2,500,000 Francs. Powered by a 2.3-litre four of 125 hp, it reached 200 kph. It looks like a chrome-clad version of the 2300 Sport barchetta built by Motto for the 1955 Mille Miglia, also driven at the 1955 Le Mans endurance race by Jean-Paul Colas from Radio Monte-Carlo who commented the race in a live broadcast. But as there are photos of both cars with the same license plate (2167DW75), there probably was only one car. It still exists in racing car guise, chassis 85016.'

Timo Laitinen added the price: '2,5 million francs.'

Last good answer came from Neil Beadle. Just as on the back of the card, it is not definit if the max speed is 200 (as Gerd said) or 190 as Neil is saying: 'A similar car (possibly the same) was raced at LeMans. The engine is a 2300cc inline 4 with twin camshafts developing 105 bhp. The gearbox is a clever Cotal semi automatic with electromagnetic clutches controlling the epicyclic gears. The 2300S was sadly the last model produced by Salmson. I'm not sure whether it was a one off, but there are recent photos of a red version without chrome embellishments. I don't know who owned it but at LeMans it was driven by Jean-Paul Colas.'

It was a hard choice who was this week's winner as both Gerd and Neil had good answers, but there was one item that was different: the number of hp and we aim to give Neil the full points, as he said 105 hp.

Thank you for participating in this puzzle, sponsored by Hans Compter Rare Cars.

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