Just a wild guess and certainly not based upon anything resembling accuracy, but it might have been a "Jeepster" at some point in its life. Everyone's results may vary greatly!
What is this supposed to be ??? .... I think it is supposed to be burnt, and never spoken of again....
That is not worth your efforts, unless it is some thing for the track. Give it to a kid to practice on.
1940 American Bantam Riviera or Standard Convertible Sedan! Only 190 produced. It is much smaller than it looks. I have one. (Neither of these are my car.)
Don't much care for the choice of colors. The roof needs to be resized to the correct size. The tail lights are no longer popular (but were for several years). If someone dropped it off at my house, I'd probable tinker with it, but its not something I would buy.
In 1940, Bantam hired Alex Tremulis to update their styling, and Roy Evans wanted a weather tight convertible. Tremulis came up with a 2 seat convertble, named Hollywood, and the 4 (Liliputian) seat Riviera. Bantam had stiff competition in Henry Ford, who sold full size cars for about the same price. These cars had Bantam's own improved for 1940 4 cylinder, rode on a 75" wheelbase and weighd about 1,100 lbs. They were essentially the same chassis that carried the Bantam roadster body that became a fuel altered racer's favorite. The Riviera was upscale in trim, but they could only find 130 buyers, as well as 60 of the lesser trimmed Standard Convertible Sedans. This car was a one year only deal, as Bantam got busy inventing the Jeep, but that's another story. For a scale reference, here's some perspective. Again, not my car here below. Mine's in a bunch of pieces.
The picture is very conceiving. Between the color, that many can't get past, and based on the angle of the photo it appears the body is set too far forward on the chassis, the car takes on the vision of being a clown car. I suspect it probably looks a lot better in real life (other then the color, which by the way my wife loves).
The Jalopy Journal
