"Devil's Breath" Alfa by Touring

This post's subject is a 1935 berlina aerodinamica body design for the Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 chassis by Carrozzeria Touring before its Superleggera system appeared.

It was called Soffio di Satana, or "Devil's Breath" for a reason obscure to me.

A few years ago Bonhams auctioned one of the three cars built.  Its web page quotes from "Hull & Slater’s standard work, 'Alfa Romeo – A History'” as follows:

"This aerodynamic saloon by Touring of Milan is one of just three built and is the only example known to survive. The first was commissioned by the renowned Italian poet, Gabriele d’Annunzio, who helped design its lines and gave it its name (“Devil’s Breath”). The second was delivered to celebrated soprano, Gina Cigna, and the third, this car, was built for Barone Mariano Pagliaro who specified “Blu Notte d’Oriente” livery with blue leather upholstery, to match his coat of arms. This car was raced in the 1934 Targa Abruzzo, winning the Turismo class before delivery to the Baron."

Gabriele d'Annunzio was a writer, adventurer and politician, still well-remembered in Italy.  He was quite capable of the Devil's Breath naming.  That might or might not be true, but it makes for a good story, so I'll go along with it for now.

The above quotation states that only one of those cars seemed to have survived.  Since then, d'Annunzio's emerged and went on auction.  The majority of the images below are of it.

Gallery

This car on display, probably in Milan, has rear fender spats and the others do not, so it might be the Gina Cigna car, now lost.

This is the d'Annunzio car.

Here is the Barone Pagliaro version.

D'Annunzio's car, photos via the Ruote Vecchia website.

Its six cylinder motor and six-window passenger compartment results in a proportionally short hood.  Stylists were still groping with how to deal with streamlining in 1934-1935 when the Devil's Breath was designed, but as usual Touring came up with a pleasing solution.  But note the windshield is a two-piece affair, yet its V is so shallow as to hardly be worth the effort.

The spare tire lies beneath that round lid at the car's stern, so it lacked an obvious trunk.  It should be remembered that trunks were still not universal for four-door sedans in those days.

Front quarter view.  A fine design from the days when the transition from boxy to streamlined was taking place.  That transition produced many awkward designs, something Touring avoided here.  By the way, the grille is of the "fencer's mask" type, a fashion starting in the USA at that time.