Art Deco MGA is for sale on Bring a Trailer.
It’s being sold by the great Anatoly Arutunov, racer and raconteur.
Current bid is $20,000.
Anatoly Arutunoff is a renaissance man. So said no less an authority than his local news station, Channel 6 of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Autoweek referred to him as an “automotive enthusiast, vintage racer, rapscallion, and country-boy bon vivant.” Even Barnes and Noble calls him, “Amateur road racer, raconteur, and car guy extraordinaire.”
And he is. Arutunoff has raced cars all over the world. A search of the Getty Images site turns up images of him:
Racing a Lancia Flaminia Sport Zagato at the Nürburgring 1000 kms in 1963
Racing a Ferrari 250 GT SWB at the Targa Florio in 1967
Driving his #8 Lancia Stratos at the Budweiser Grand Prix of Miami in 1983
Coming into a corner at the 1970 Sebring 12 Hours in an Abarth 2000SP in 1970
Toly was an early, very early, member of the SCCA, and raced against the greatest names the sport ever mustered, including Richie Ginther, Dan Gurney, and Carroll Shelby when those guys were still in sports cars. And in between, he bought and sold more interesting cars than your average Monterey auction, almost.
And while we’re at it, it was who founded and built Hallett Motor Speedway, a great road course just west of his hometown of Tulsa (this was before Stallone took over the town).
We could write a book about this guy. In fact, the guy himself did, One Off: The Roads, the Races, the Automobiles of Toly Arutunoff, by Anatoly Arutunoff.
So when Toly the Great is selling a car, it’s not going to be just any ex-Hertz Chevy Malibu. Thus, behold, Toly Arutunoff’s custom-bodied MGA “Savoy” Roadster.
Hosting site for the sale, Bring a Trailer, says: “This custom-bodied roadster began life as an MGA 1600, and it was modified in the late 1990s by Canadian-based Michael Pistol Automobile Studio. The car has been outfitted with one-off Art Deco-inspired bodywork finished in green and constructed with steel and aluminum. A replacement 1.5-liter Riley inline-four was overhauled and installed during the build and is mated to a four-speed manual transmission.”
In 2015 the MGA-specific fan website MGAguru.com had a slightly different take and gave the car a different name.
“‘Bizarro’ is a 1960 MG Savoy roadster on a restored MGA 1500 chassis, a one-off creation in 1997 by Michael Pistol Automobile Studio, Canada.”
MGAguru said Michael Pistol was “an automotive engineer and designer, a graduate from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest.” The site continued, calling the body “art decco (sic)” style, hand-formed 16-gauge aluminum with brass and stainless steel hardware. Trim is in mahogany, padauk, lacewood, walnut, pine and ash, while the seats, gear box cover and venting on the front grille are finished in specially tooled leather.
It rides on Michelin 205/70XZ4 tires mounted on “cream-finished 15-inch steel wheels (that) wear bright trim rings and custom hubcaps with aluminum and wood trim,” BaT says.
“It rides rough because of the large tires for their aesthetics,” Toly said on his Facebook page. “It won Best of Show in a local charity concours in Tulsa years ago.”
And it could go even higher than Tulsa: “Villa d’Este was interested in it for their concours, but I didn’t have FIVA papers for it (Federation Internationale des Vehicules Anciens),” Toly said. “The art deco details on this car make the Chrysler Building look like a mud hut!”
According to MGAguru, “Bizarro” sold at the 2002 Barrett Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona for $15,200.
“It has been listed on eBay a couple of times in 2003-2004, but I don’t think it sold,” MGAguru said. “This is a good example of how some very expensive one-off modified cars may hold little value for the general public.”
Little value? The current bidding on Bat is $20,000! Of course, that’s after just two bids. As of press time there were over 2,500 views and almost 400 watchers. So it ought to go for something.
And with this, it’s guaranteed you will not see another one coming or going. And if Villa d’Este calls again, you’ll be ready.
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