College Cars: 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Berlinetta Aerodinamica

This is College Cars, another look into the automobile collection of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Today we're looking at a 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Berlinetta Aerodinamica.

This magnificent machine was developed to race at Le Mans. Well, it appears that this exact one wasn't, but it's a rebody to match the one or two original Aerodinamica coupes built on the 6C 2500 chassis - the latter of which was rare enough in the first place at only 33 examples built. All were created for the purpose of racing, and the original Aerodynamica(s) appear to have been vanished after 1940. This is one of a precious few cars of this type left, and it is really one of a kind. The only other vehicle like it that I know of is an almost identical grey 1942 car that participated in the 2013 California Mille road rally. My few photos do not really do this beast justice.
This rare Alfa was purchased by AAU at the 2010 Gooding & Company Amelia Island auction for $748,000.

End Of The Glory Days: 1961-68 Alfa Romeo 2600 Coachbuilt Variants

Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider, pic from Wikimedia Commons

With the shift toward only economy car production after World War II at an end and economy car production shifted toward the Giulietta range, fabled Italian marque Alfa Romeo, once known for its grand 6C and 8C luxury and racing cars but then making a handful of variants of one basic design, needed a new flagship. They started with a factory-designed/built sedan, Bertone coupe and Touring Superleggera spider, based on the decade-old 1900 sedan underpinnings, but quickly realized that those were unsuited to moving the heavy bodies and the passengers along autostradas and Alpine roads swiftly. This article focuses on the coachbuilt models: the Touring spider, Bertone Sprint and Zagato coupes, and the OSI Berlina deLuxe.

In 1961, Alfa Romeo restyled the cars, mainly with bonnet scoop changes and trim changes, but most significantly as far as cosmetics go, an extended nose. The biggest change was in the alloy-block, 2600cc twincam straight-six, which harkened back to the good old days of the 6C2500, and offered decent performance considering the weight and aged chassis of the cars, but negatively affected stability.

All coachbuilt 2600s featured triple sidedraft carburetors, 5-speed manual transmissions, VDO windshield washers, tachometers and other things typical of an exotic car in the 60s as standard equipment, but where the Touring Spider shared many elements and some parts with the Maserati and Lancia coupes whose bodies were being assembled in the same factory, the 2600 Sprint shared a great deal with the concurrent BMW 3200GT and Iso-Rivolta GT, but looked like an enlarged Giulia Sprint GT. The 2600SZ (Sprint Zagato) and OSI Berlina deLuxe looked like no other car on the global market in the 1960s.

Eventually high costs of coachbuilding, aging tooling and designs, and the rather frumpy factory-bodied sedan's low sales, led to the 2600's discontinuation. The bankruptcies of OSI and Touring Superleggera at roughly the same time couldn't have helped much either. Its belated replacement, the Alfa 6, was a controversial extended-wheelbase Alfetta sedan that was neither attractive nor popular.

Today, as collector cars, the 2600 Spider, Berlina deLuxe and 2600SZ are increasingly popular, with the spider bearing as much cachet and image as a contemporary Ferrari roadster at a fraction of the price, the 2600SZ being valuable but controversial as all Zagato creations are, and the Berlina deLuxe remaining undervalued and undersupported on the restoration-parts front. The 2600 Sprint is worth somewhat less, and most 2600 sedans have been stripped for parts and junked long ago.

2600 Sprint in silver with factory Borrani wire wheels, photo from Wikimedia Commons

The elegant and thoroughly modern OSI Berlina deLuxe. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Stunning black 2600SZ

And here is the nicely crafted, affordable 1/24 scale diecast model by Welly.

Parking Lot Photo Shoot: 1969 Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV

Diecast Review: 1/24 scale Welly Diecasting 1960 Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider

Beautiful lines that capture the 1/1 subject's elegant body style, more reminiscent of an Iso Rivolta or a Lancia than of an Alfa Romeo, befitting its role in the 1960s sports car market

Front-end details are spot-on, "googly eyes" produced by light mounting lugs are less present

Beautiful front-end design, slightly spoiled by bonnet (hood) and lower-body air intakes being tampos instead of cast-in details. Side lights are especially well-done.

Other than odd bumper angle, rear end is well-done.

Mouth-watering side elevation, hubcap, wheel, Carrozzeria Touring badge and trim are well-done, but bumper could stand a better placement.

Rear deck is beautiful and well-executed, down to the folded and booted convertible top, top boot snaps, twin petrol fillers and small mystery trim piece.

Altogether executed well, even the "two-crush-two" seating typical of Touring and Vignale sporty cars in the 60s is perfect.

Interior is outstanding, but came from the factory a bit dusty. Gauges, switchgear, steering wheel, seating and dashboard are well-executed, even an ashtray is included.

Industry-leading detail in the dash and center tunnel. Even the quirky grab handle & cantilevered rear-view mirror are well-done, and a legible gold Alfa logo is visible on the steering wheel.

This casting is not recommended in red, especially with the top up, white suits its luxo-sport genre nicely and the nonremovable up-top may obscure the wealth of interior detail. Build quality/fit & finish is a 6 out of 10 (bad door gaps on passenger door, came out of the box very dusty, bad rear-bumper fit, and I had to use Testor's model glue to permanently attach all 4 hubcaps, but solidly built otherwise), detail is an 8.5 out of 10 (chassis is minimalistic, engine is literally two colors with little color and part detail, and the boot does not open, but it is great for a $15-20 price range casting), visual impact is 10 out of 10 and subject matter is a 10 out of 10, since no scale subjects of the 2600 Spider beyond a Protar 1/24 model kit from 1993 or so and a handful of cottage-industry 1/43s existed until Welly cast this up in late 2012. A 1/18 version was planned, but cancelled in the end.

Conclusion: Highly recommended.

Buy your own here at Diecast Models Wholesale, you will not regret it.