The second floor of the Museo Storico Alfa Romeo is dedicated to style. And when it comes to design, Italians do it better. The Alfa Romeo brand has always been in the focal point of legendary Italian designers, and the first room illustrates this with eight brilliant concept cars.
Visitors are greeted by the Alfa Romeo 1900 C52, a spectacular car with a rather fitting nickname: the flying saucer.
The name Disco Volante actually covers a series of experimental sports racing cars from the early ’50s. They were produced in collaboration with Milanese coachbuilder Carrozzeria Touring, with a 2-litre all-alloy four-cylinder engine.
For their modern take, I highly recommend a peek at last year’s Zoute Concours, that featured dozens of cars (including two modern Disco Volante) coachbuilt by Touring.
Legends, rarities and beauties – the Zoute Concours is a truly refined car spotting experience
The car was distinguished by a streamlined, wind tunnel tested spider bodywork (don’t worry no fangs, this is just Italian for speeder). Only about 4-5 vehicles exist today, and each would take a top spot at any Auction’s lots.
Next up is an ALFA 40/60 HP Aerodinamica from 1913. The car was based on the successful 40/60 model, and it was commissioned by a Milanese count, Marco Ricotti to the renowned Carrozzeria Castagna.
The aerodynamic prototype could reach 140 km/h top speed, that was space tech back then (well, you can tell from design, too). This particular exhibit is actually a replica, recreated in the 1970s.
Compared these truly extreme cars, the 1954 Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva is a somewhat reserved specimen. The 2-litre high-end sports car was planned as small series production, but in the end, only four cars were built, two coupés and two spiders.
The 1965 Giulietta Sprint Speciale is another down-to-earth car. The exhibited concept car was surrounded by the short story of three legendary Italian coachbuilders: Castagna, Touring and Bertone.
From here starts the real extravaganza, with the green Carabo, a full-blooded poster car. Although it appears like a quintessential 70’s supercar, the car is actually from 1968.
The technical basis stemmed from the Alfa 33, that was still vested with classic round proportions, typical to the 60s. But the design is of a new generation, that could have impressed everybody even 15 years later.
It was designed by Marcello Gandini, working for the Bertone design studio, and its vedge-shape was a precursor to the design revolution that lasted until the late ‘80s…
One year later followed the Alfa Romeo Iguana concept, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Also from 1969, the Alfa Romeo 33/2 Coupé Speciale is a concept car designed at Pininfarina and unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 1969.
The bright yellow coupé was designed by Leonardo Fioravanti, who was working at Pininfarina at that time.
The last Concept in this hall is a blue Alfa Nuvola Concept from 1996. Nuvola means cloud in Italian, with also slight hints to Tazio Nuvolari, the greatest Grand Prix driver of the pre-war era.
The Nouvola was designed at the Centro Stile Alfa Romeo, at the time headed by Walter de Silva. I still recall the press photos, where the car looked astonishing from the right angle. Looking at the vehicle in its physical presence, I am not so sure about it.
But the technical concept of the car was revolutionary: the project aimed to revive the coachbuilders’ tradition of the brand’s glorious past, with a future-proof technological basis. The Nuvola has a front-mounted engine and four-wheel drive, powered by a longitudinal 2.5 litre twin-turbo Alfa Romeo V6 engine.
Alfa planned to offer a rolling chassis to be bodied by independent coachbuilders, and again sold through Alfa Romeo dealers. This was nothing new, the supercar of the pre-war era, the 8C was marketed similarly. Even with the proliferation of the unibody design, Citroen offered a similar concept for the DS during the ‘50s (you might need to scroll down a bit to the cars coachbuilt by Henri Chapron).
A few stairs down, the next segment is dedicated to one of the most glorious epochs of Alfa Romeo. The decades before WWII was the golden age for the Milanese brand when coachbuilders offered tailor-made designs to underline the technical finesse of the 8c models.
Out of the ashes of the great war, the know-how accumulated through modern warfare was channelled into technical development. The shape of cars evolved, moulded by research into aerodynamics and new construction techniques, influenced by a typically Italian taste and elegance. They were the pinnacle of luxury back then, and they continue to rule classic car auctions now.
The 6C 2300 B Mille Miglia is an exquisite car, to put this into financial perspective, based on past Auction results and estimates, they are valued at 2-3 million euros. This price range is far from the top, as the last car of the quartet illustrates.
The blue 2500 Sport is from 1939 and represents the pinnacle of pre-war car technology, while the champagne coloured 6C 2500 SuperSport from 1950 was featured a pontoon design.
The last car is a baby blue 8C 2900 B from 1938. At that Epoque, Alfa Romeo was successfully competing with the dominant German constructors and wanted to convert this into pecuniary benefits.
Having won the most important races, the firm decided to share this success with its private customers by creating road-legal versions of its race cars. Some thirty 2.9-litre chassis were built, fitted with spider or Berlinetta bodies, equipped with competition engines. Just five examples of the Berlinetta version were constructed by the Italian coachbuilder Touring.
An almost identical red specimen was the flagship car of Artcurial’s auction during Retromobile 2019. The 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta was estimated at 16 – 22 Million euros, even if ultimately sold at the lower end of that threshold. At a 16,7 Million euros sales price, you start to question your friends joking about the depreciation of Alfas. : )
The most awesome carspotting experience at Rétromobile is the Auction
The 8C leads to a closed projection room with a lot of flair, dedicated to the Dolce vita of the 60s.
The rest of the floor lists dozen iconic cars from the post-war era, like the Giulietta TI and Sprint, but also lightweight, small series production cars.
Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale Prototype was familiar from a 2018 exhibition in Germany, that paired design icons with the surrounding of a classic art gallery.
Art meets Automotive at the PS I Love you exhibition in Düsseldorf
The Giulietta SS prototypes were built for racing homologation purposes, followed by a small series production version with more compromises. The production SS models are now regular guests at classic car shows, often stealing the show from the ubiquitous Porsche 356s.
Next up is a Giulietta Sprint Zagato (SZ) Coda Tronca from 1962. With this derivative of the Giulietta Sprint Veloce Coupé, Elio Zagato was upping the stakes following the racing success of his SZ Coda Tonda model.
The modifications led to a victory in the 1961 Grand Prix at Monza. For a better overview of the evolution of the Zagato models, I recommend having a peek at the Lucas Hüni stage at this year’s Retromobile or the report on the Zagato’s 100th-anniversary exhibition at Autoworld.
The next exhibit is a white Giulietta TI followed by another Zagato, the Giulia TZ from 1963. In order to make the Giulia TZ with its small 4-cylinder engine match the much more powerful competitors, Zagato decided to build a tubular spaceframe chassis (hence the name TZ for Tubolare Zagato) with a streamlined body from extremely thin aluminium. The total curb weight of merely 660kg made the TZ a hugely successful racing car.
The exhibition continues with the GT and GTA versions of the Giulia, a car earning a lot of respect and taking top spots now at classic car races, like the Spa Classics.
The last car in the row is a 1972 Alfa GT 1600 Junior Z, based on the mechanical platform of the Giulia, with a dynamic coupé roofline, designed by Ercole Spada.
The Junior Z was a huge inspiration to the auto industry with its mass production platform and lightweight construction.
Again, it is time for another rhetorical break, leaving the racing segment to the last part.
