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Automotive Lifestyle
VINTAGE: Alfa Romeo Figoni Coupe Swept The Awards at Concorso Villa d’Este
This one-of-a-kind show car was awarded all three best-of-show prizes this weekend at the famous Italian vintage-car event.
This Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Figoni Coupe, fresh from a complete restoration, won all the awards at Concorso Villa d'Este. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)
With a clean sweep of the silverware, this Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Figoni Coupe took the 2012 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este by storm.
Originally built as a show car for the 1933 Paris Salon, this late 6C 1750 also raced at Le Mans in 1935, winning its class. It was presented this weekend for the first time since a complete and sensitive restoration was completed, and won all three of the prestigious Best of Show awards.
The restoration work started in 2008 after the current owner finally managed to convince the longtime South African custodian to part with the car, although his love affair with the car started many years earlier; he explained to us that he still vividly remembers seeing the car on the road in Johannesburg while riding to school on his bicycle.
At Villa d'Este on the shores of Lake Como in Italy, we captured the car and its very interesting history for this detailed article illustrated by an 18-shot gallery.
Perhaps not as well known as later models, the Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 is one of the quintessential Alfa Romeos of its era. First introduced as a replacement for the 6C 1500 in 1929, the 6C 1750 evolved from a relatively simple road car to a very sophisticated racing machine in the five years it was produced. One of the key elements in the progress was designer Vittorio Jano, lured to Alfa Romeo from his former employer Fiat by Enzo Ferrari.
Jano's first design for Alfa Romeo was the 6C 1500, which featured a small six-cylinder engine with a single overhead camshaft. Competition versions of this relatively small Alfa Romeo were quite successful, with a highlighted victory in the 1928 running of the Mille Miglia.
At the 1929 Rome Motorshow, the 6C 1750 was introduced. Technically, it was almost identical to the 6C 1500, with the enlarged engine as the biggest difference.
First and foremost, the 6C 1750 was intended to carry larger and heavier fixed-head bodies. The first model available, the Turismo, was equipped with a 3.1-meter (122-inch) wheelbase. Soon after, a shorter-wheelbase version, dubbed Sport, was launched. More importantly. it was fitted with a double-overhead-camshaft engine, which would form the base for a series of very successful competition engines. The most powerful version was the Super Sport, which was fitted with a 95-horsepower supercharged engine.
Production of the Sport and Super Sport lasted for only two years. The replacements were the naturally aspirated Gran Turismo and supercharged Gran Sport. With a wheelbase of just over 2.7 meters (106.3 inches), the Gran Sport was not only the most powerful but the shortest of the series. It is this model that is best known of all 6C 1750s produced.
The final evolution was a further modified Gran Sport, produced in 1933. It was equipped with various chassis modifications compared with earlier models.
As was common practice in the day, the cars were delivered as rolling chassis for the coachbuilders to body. Most of the 6C 1750s were bodied by Italian coachbuilders, with Zagato and Touring being responsible for the bulk of these. Other notable coachbuilders were Castagna and Stabilimenti Farina. Zagato's bodies were mainly chosen for the competition cars because of their light weight.
In 1933, the Gran Sport model was replaced by the 8C 2300, which shared the Gran Sport's basic design elements. The Turismo was replaced by a series of six-cylinder cars of which the production would last until the outbreak of the Second World War.
All of Alfa Romeo's successful competition models of the 1930s built on the lessons learned in the development of the 6C 1750. Jano's double-overhead-camshaft design would remain unchanged and proved a winning formula in both Grand Prix and sports-car racing.
Originally built as a show car for the 1933 Paris Salon, this late 6C 1750 also raced at Le Mans in 1935, winning its class. It was presented this weekend for the first time since a complete and sensitive restoration was completed, and won all three of the prestigious Best of Show awards.
The restoration work started in 2008 after the current owner finally managed to convince the longtime South African custodian to part with the car, although his love affair with the car started many years earlier; he explained to us that he still vividly remembers seeing the car on the road in Johannesburg while riding to school on his bicycle.
At Villa d'Este on the shores of Lake Como in Italy, we captured the car and its very interesting history for this detailed article illustrated by an 18-shot gallery.
Perhaps not as well known as later models, the Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 is one of the quintessential Alfa Romeos of its era. First introduced as a replacement for the 6C 1500 in 1929, the 6C 1750 evolved from a relatively simple road car to a very sophisticated racing machine in the five years it was produced. One of the key elements in the progress was designer Vittorio Jano, lured to Alfa Romeo from his former employer Fiat by Enzo Ferrari.
Jano's first design for Alfa Romeo was the 6C 1500, which featured a small six-cylinder engine with a single overhead camshaft. Competition versions of this relatively small Alfa Romeo were quite successful, with a highlighted victory in the 1928 running of the Mille Miglia.
At the 1929 Rome Motorshow, the 6C 1750 was introduced. Technically, it was almost identical to the 6C 1500, with the enlarged engine as the biggest difference.
First and foremost, the 6C 1750 was intended to carry larger and heavier fixed-head bodies. The first model available, the Turismo, was equipped with a 3.1-meter (122-inch) wheelbase. Soon after, a shorter-wheelbase version, dubbed Sport, was launched. More importantly. it was fitted with a double-overhead-camshaft engine, which would form the base for a series of very successful competition engines. The most powerful version was the Super Sport, which was fitted with a 95-horsepower supercharged engine.
Production of the Sport and Super Sport lasted for only two years. The replacements were the naturally aspirated Gran Turismo and supercharged Gran Sport. With a wheelbase of just over 2.7 meters (106.3 inches), the Gran Sport was not only the most powerful but the shortest of the series. It is this model that is best known of all 6C 1750s produced.
The final evolution was a further modified Gran Sport, produced in 1933. It was equipped with various chassis modifications compared with earlier models.
As was common practice in the day, the cars were delivered as rolling chassis for the coachbuilders to body. Most of the 6C 1750s were bodied by Italian coachbuilders, with Zagato and Touring being responsible for the bulk of these. Other notable coachbuilders were Castagna and Stabilimenti Farina. Zagato's bodies were mainly chosen for the competition cars because of their light weight.
In 1933, the Gran Sport model was replaced by the 8C 2300, which shared the Gran Sport's basic design elements. The Turismo was replaced by a series of six-cylinder cars of which the production would last until the outbreak of the Second World War.
All of Alfa Romeo's successful competition models of the 1930s built on the lessons learned in the development of the 6C 1750. Jano's double-overhead-camshaft design would remain unchanged and proved a winning formula in both Grand Prix and sports-car racing.
Goodwood Festival Of Speed
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