55219 Type 55

Chassis 55219 appeared on the production list of May 1932 with engine number 11. It had been ordered as a rolling chassis on 2 February by the Luxembourg notary Edmond Reiffers. As Bucar of Zurich had become the sole agent for Belgium and Luxembourg, the chassis was invoiced to that company for Frs 71,212. It was already driven without a body across the border at Audun-le-Tiche on 4 April 1932 on garage plates 1655 WW5, valid for two days. Reiffers registered the car in Luxembourg on 11 May 1932 with the plates 11302. His son Edmond junior began racing the bodiless chassis. He won la Course du Grünewald organised by the ACL (Automobile Club Luxembourg) on 18 September 1932, and also won la Coupe Norbert Le Gallais and la Coupe Bosch de Romain Lecorsais. On 27 October 1932, Reiffers commissioned the Belgian coachmaker Pritchard & Demollin in Angleur-Liège to build a four-seat cabriolet. After the completion of the body, with this rather heavy coachwork the car came second in the rally ACL in Echternach with Jean Reiffers driving, reaching a speed of 112 km/h. Edmond kept the car for six years, after which he sold it to industrialist Rudi Cloos in Esch-sur-Alzette in October 1938. Cloos was a producer of material for the construction of highways. Ten months later the car was sold to Garage Muller, which in turn sold it in March 1940 to Garage Jean Pierre Becker in Luxembourg. The car was hidden during the war, which ended for Luxembourg in September 1944. In March 1945 the car was registered to Pierre Schickes, an electro-technician living at 75 Rue d’Itzig in that city. In June the car had a serious accident. It was repaired and the front fenders were redone to a more contemporary configuration, completely covering the wheels.