Online Auto Museum

Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Super Sport Speedster, #0312901, 1929

Register
Significance
Technology
Production
Aesthetics

Location:
Elegance at Hershey, 2015

Owner: Dennis P. Nicotra | New Haven, Connecticut

Prologue:

Image Source: Nikon D750 (24.3 MP)

A car seen many times in auction profiles, I didn't expect to photograph chassis #0312901. I also didn't expect I would like the car quite so much, but as soon as I started working with the images I knew I'd find a lot to talk about. As to the portfolio, in some ways I would hope to open the Alfa Romeo story with a different profile. But the Alfa Romeo story itself contains so many sharp left turns into experimental territory that, in the end, beginning with a design oddity is perfectly in keeping with the best of the breed.

References:

Automobile Quarterly, Volume 7, Number 2, "Alfa Romeo 6C 1750," by Michael Lorrimer, p. 200
d'Amico, Stefano. Pure Alfa Romeo. Milano, Italia: Libri Illustrati Rizzoli, 2017, p. 52
Classic Driver: Among sources, the information prepared by Artcurial tells the story of #0312901 best.
Bonhams: Their auction listing from Greenwich, 2009 depicts the car in unrestored condition, with red paint and patina.
Automotive Restorations Inc: Based in Stratford, Connecticut, they completed the restoration following the Greenwich sale.
Gooding & Company: Their auction listing from Pebble Beach, 2014 marks the sale.
Barrett-Jackson: The car appeared a year later at Scottsdale, 2015.
UltimateCarPage: A little specification support for the Super Sport platform.
Wikipedia: Good overview of the 6C family.

A strange and somewhat disingenuous way to kickstart any Alfa Romeo volume, chassis #0312901 wears a steel body fabricated by an unknown English craftsman around 1936. This 1¾-litre 6C is a third series Super Sport, 1929 being the only year for the SS nomenclature. The car lived in South Africa for much of its life, and in these latter years of concours revival has garnered a wealth of attention—now widely photographed and well known. For not being representative of the classic 6C Super Sport shape, this chassis rather demonstrates the prevalence of peculiar one-off Alfa Romeo cars built during the classic era.

The car reportedly owes its shape to an 8C Alfa displayed at London's Earls Court Motor Show, presumably with coachwork of the type 8C 2900A shown in our portfolio, if not one of those three cars. Otherwise, previous owners and marque enthusiasts cite an undocumented early history in Italy and England, up until the car's export to South Africa, which also occurred in 1936. From that point, long-standing owners and a cadre of vendors and auction houses—whose work lately publicized the car many times over—pieced together a chronology of historical and technical details, most of which I will leave to their description simply on account of the hearsay involved.

The Super Sport shares the same iron block and iron head motor as the Gran Sport of the following series. Lacking early documentation, we do not know whether #0312901 is an original Compressore, though the car acquired a supercharger very early in life. Early retrofitting seems most likely, a common practice in those days among Alfa and Bugatti cars, though circumstances can be stranger than they appear at face value. A well spoken sentiment on the subject, purportedly by Simon Moore (though I cannot verify), reads, "It should be remembered that fuel quality in Italy was rather poor at the time that these cars were new (at least outside the main cities) and this reason alone may have persuaded some customers to order the unsupercharged version just as there were some owners who did not wish to deal with the added maintenance that a supercharger required. Some probably distrusted the technology until it became more proven."

Today, the motor features a high-compression head and breathes through a period-correct, though perhaps non-original supercharger. The long-term South African owners noted that the supercharger threw a gear en route to a hillclimb event in the 1960s, and was for some time replaced by a Marshall Godfrey unit, also known as a Marshall Cabin Blower; these were English-built superchargers designed for the aviation industry, though not unknown to the automotive world.

In the late 1990s, Juan Manuel Fangio drove this car over a few demonstration laps at the Kyalami circuit as part of a promotion sponsored by Pirelli. Perhaps not credible by any competitive standard, the event still makes chassis #0312901 the second Alfa in this portfolio driven by Fangio.

If these anecdotes are any indication, this 6C Alfa was driven con gusto for most of the 20th century, certainly in an amateur capacity, and perhaps professionally as well. The coachwork is an aberration, but certainly unique. And what is known of the car's history would pique any petrolhead's curiosity.

Speedster Evocation: Custom Coachwork Crafted in Period

When the original owner looked at the elegant, Touring-inspired 8C Alfa and decided he wanted a version of that body on his early-model 6C, he clearly knew that a copy was out of the question. A design fit to the stature of the small-capacity sports car, given its own unique proportions would do. This situation is much like the aerodynamic Type 51 Bugatti that is patterned on Jean Bugatti's Type 57 Atlantic Electron, but in its own way, on its own scale. The major difference is that, in the case of this 6C Alfa, the owner most likely turned to local trade, rather than contract any of the renowned coachbuilders of the time.

A steel body with no visible craftsman's marks, (at least none publicized), the fit and finish speaks of enthusiasm, not provenence. But 'provenence' is a snooty word. The more I have looked over and worked with the shape, the more I appreciate the subtle cues that connect this design with its show car counterpart. And I appreciate diversity. So the execution matters much less to me than the pleasure of enjoying a unique car whose story, were it more conventional, would not brew so much interest.

At a glance, the early Alfa 8C design is classically pretty. But I wholly appreciate the linearity of this unique 6C. The concept diverts into entirely different territory, delivering a low aspect. Credit to one of most steeply raked grilles of the classic era, deep-cut cockpit openings, and minimized running boards—it is rather clever aerodynamic thinking that the builder pushed the limits in terms of how much the shape could be reduced. Credit to the Brooklands screens—it is English minimalism, paring down the notion of what is required for fast touring. Credit to the boattail hatch—it is a canoe in simple terms, which in Italian would have been a barchetta. Waste time lamenting provenence. A lot of decisions went right when it came to the ideas behind this design.

I do love the ornate fins on the bonnet vents, the simple, single chrome strip along the diminutive running board, and of course the twin Brooklands screens. The spade-shaped nose is dramatic on its own, and presents the Alfa grille in a way unlike any other car. Like a contemporary Riley or SS Jaguar might have done, the cowl wraps up and over the dashboard in a not-at-all simple set of curves and folds. And the body may not be any narrower than a standard 6C 1750 bodied by Zagato, but at a glance it certainly feels that it is.

Put Together: Asymmetric Panels on a Custom 6C 1750 Spider

Not to ignore the execution, chassis #0312901 has some extra character. To be clear, most classic era coachwork is slightly uneven, to some extent a sign of true hand-craftsmanship. This car is slightly farther out of whack. The front fenders, which do ape those of the early 8C 2900 car from head-on, look a bit askew, like a bow tie twisted a few degrees anti-clockwise. And the fenders are the real telltale, as all four seem to be slightly different shapes of slightly different heights. The left side skirts looks generally taller than those of the right. The unevenness probably aggravates those who are used to perfect concours restorations, but I think the point to remember is that this is period unevenness, and perfection on the concours scene can be (literally) over-rated.

This 6C Alfa is ostensibly an English barchetta special. In this spirit, viewed against the GN hillclimb specials and stubby Rileys and pickle baskets on wheels with bicycle-chain drive that came before, this car makes perfect sense. Viewed against Milanese Superleggera goddesses... a bit less so.

Color Choice: Changing Paint after 21st Century Restoration

Presumably titled in South Africa at the time, the Bonhams auction entry from 2009 shows the car in red, with unpainted wheels and a set of signals and what look to be either reflectors or small fog lights in the lower corners of the front skirts. Some period photos of the car show it in the same red finish, though earlier monochrome photos indicate the car was first painted black. Notes on the restoration do not say one way or another. But the car is black now and, whereas I normally prefer color, in this case I think black is better. The uninformed often say black is best because it accentuates lines; but it is quite the reverse. Black looks good because it hides lines. (Most any shape becomes adequate when painted black. White is the true test, because only a truly beautiful shape looks good in white.) For this 6C Alfa, black paint is a good choice because many of the lines are either asymmetric, misaligned, or both.

6C Motor: Layer Cake Details of the 6C 1750

Under the bonnet, the details glisten. My favorite detail is the set of cooling louvres just under the Memini carburetor. Though it is difficult to look beyond the beautifully cast, finned intake manifold, the finish on the crankcase sides shows a lovely patina. The plate on the crankcase and the plate on the side of the bulkhead both carry the #0312901 stamp. Overall, the multi-part crankcase, polished cylinder housing, finned intake, and shiny cam covers give the motor a layer cake finish, different ways of forming metal into different textures for different purposes. Like strata of 20th century technology, the motor's composition is both purposeful and beautiful.

Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024

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