PTV 400 returns to life
It was in 1988 when Xavier Perramón and Antoni Tachó found the well conserved rests from the prototype PTV 400 left in the AUSA’s warehouse in Manresa.
The extraordinary mechanical qualities surprised these two descendants of the founders of AUSA, deciding to start up with the restoration of the car.
For it, with a total implication of Xavier, they asked for the aid of Guillem Tacho', the designer of the car, that to his almost 80 years of age became jumbled in the project and it spared no efforts to return to give life to its last creation.
Xavier Perramon, with the aid of diverse mechanics and technicians of the Company, began the hardest tasks of disassembling and verification of each one of the pieces. The youngest of the Tacho’s brothers took care of the electrical part of the vehicle, and finally the tasks of plate and painting were the responsibility of Jaume Jubert, that was the second PTV that he repaired (he did not imagine that it would get to repair ten more).
Once disassembled all the vehicle, Guillem repaired each one of the pieces to leave the 400 like an authentic piece of museum
The most interesting part turned out to be the motor with compressor, which surprised all with its extraordinary sound when it started up.
The photographies speak by themselves. In them we can see the car when it was found (after removing all the objects that were inside after a some years of abandon), the stage of assembly from the body, the motor, with its rotating compressor (see its characteristics in this web) and finally the finished piece.We are proud to have a unique car, but we are prouder of intrepid and ingenious ones that managed to do it.
Antoni Tachó, president from the Clàssic Motor Club del Bages
If you want to see pictures from the reconstruction click