On a blustery autumn day in 1938, Stanley Harold Arnolt set out in a small motorboat to cross Lake Michigan, and the Chicago Daily News celebrated the success of a stunt many considered crazy with the headline “Wacky Comes Through in Fog.” Though the nickname stuck, it turns out the daring escapade wasn’t so wacky after all. The Sea-Mite outboard he was demonstrating garnered favorable publicity, went on to win valuable wartime contracts and laid the foundation for his burgeoning business interests. In 1952, he spotted and seized another opportunity when he saw two MG TDs clothed in stylish drophead and coupe bodies on the Bertone stand at the Turin Auto Show. Arnolt, already established as a U.S. distributor for MG, knew well how the pert but spartan British sports car had charmed American sporting motorists, but here was something altogether more sophisticated. He bought the cars and struck a deal for 100 total bodies, which, in itself, was instrumental in saving the Turin stylist and coachbuilder; Arnolt was now a manufacturer, mating the Bertone bodies to imported TD rolling chassis at his Chicago plant. Price alone tells how wide the chasm was between the basic TD, costing $1,945, and the exclusive Arnolt-MG, which came in at $3,585, less than $500 shy of a Jaguar XK120. With its very much on-trend full-width body, the Arnolt-MG more resembled a miniature Aston Martin DB2/4 than the vintage-style MG TD. Appointments, too, were elevated to another level, with plush leather upholstery, carpets, 2+2 seating (at a pinch), Jaeger instruments, roll-up windows and a proper trunk. Moreover, with its aluminum closing panels, the Arnolt-MG weighed only around 40 pounds more than the base TD, preserving the genuine 75 MPH-plus performance provided by the peppy 1250cc/57 HP inline-4 engine. With just 36 built, and fewer surviving, the 1954 Arnolt-MG Drophead Coupe presented here on Borrani chrome wire wheels with MG knock-off hub spinners is considerably rarer than the fixed head coupe. Professionally restored by Hal Rogers of Bossier, Louisiana, and exhibited at the 2021 Geneva Concours d’Elegance, this 1954 drophead coupe features twin Solex carburetors atop its 1250cc OHV 4-cylinder engine rather than the MG TD’s standard twin SU setup. Arnolt, among his many other business interests, was the sole U.S. distributor for Solex, and it’s believed the pair of distinctive Solex carburetors installed in this car once sat on Arnolt’s office desk. Red with Connolly tan leather upholstery and red trim, the Arnolt-MG also features Jaeger instrumentation and a Motorola radio. Not only is the Arnolt-MG the car that kept Bertone in business and a landmark as the car that started Arnolt’s new adventure as a car manufacturer, but it also paved the way for further projects with the Italian coachbuilder and stylist, of which Arnolt had become a director. Further Anglo-Italian-American ventures for this not-so-wacky son of a Russian immigrant included those with Aston-Martin, Bentley and Bristol.
