This puzzle car has fascinated me since the day it was posted. It appears to be a prototype cobbled together from various bits and pieces of earlier cars (hood, fenders, doors, etc.). Every time I think that I have a working theory, a new conflicting bit of information emerges. Presently, if I understand correctly we have a Belgian made prototype, with independent suspension, produced by an obscure manufacturer (not Imperia, Minerva, FN, Astra or Avior) in 1946.
This evening I came across this interesting statement: "In 1938 the company (Minerva) built three special Ford V8 prototypes in which the engine lay across the frame and drove the front wheels via torque converters. In addition, all of the wheels were independently sprung. However, all three were destroyed in an effort to keep the technology away from the advancing German army." Because I think the puzzle car has a hood resembling a 1941 Ford, I theorized that perhaps Ford had attempted to resurrect this line of thinking, but if this were correct, who built it? Minerva/Imperia were building prototypes, as well as production cars, for other manufacturers in 1946, but they apparently weren't involved in this one. Ford could have done it themselves, at their Antwerp plant (if it had recovered from war damage in 1946), but they certainly aren't an obscure manufacturer. So who?
I rather doubt that Ford would have turned such a project over to a local shop, and, while a bit of Belgian heavy industry had resumed after the war, the only other Belgian auto manufacturer (not counting coach builders), operating in 1946, that I can determine was Altona. Although Altona's product looks nothing like the puzzle car, I will go out on a limb, and suggest that the puzzle car might be a: 1946 Ford prototype by Altona.
