A fine, Golden Age example of Italian corrozzeria design is the Alfa Romeo 1900C (C for Corto: short) Sprint Coupé. Approximately 800 were built by
Touring 1951-1953. A link dealing with Alfa's 1900 series is
here.
As of the time I drafted this post (December, 2022), I could not find information regarding who did the design. Likely possibilities include Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni (son of Touring's founder) and Federico Formenti who was head designer at the time. Possibly both had a hand in it.
Below are some images of the design.
Gallery
Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint Coupé by Touring - factory or Touring images
An attractive design as viewed from this perspective. But not an exciting design.
The V'd hood relates to the narrow Alfa grille shield shape.
1951 Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint Coupé by Touring - Gooding Auction images
This Alfa was the personal car of Formula 1 racing legend Juan Manuel Fangio.
This is the least-attractive aspect of the design. From the C-pillar aft, it seems old-fashioned for 1950, about the time it was designed.
1952 Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint Coupé by Touring - images of for-sale car
Front quarter aspect as seen from a normal viewing height.
The rear end seems less old-fashioned from this perspective.
1952 Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint Coupé by Touring - Gooding images
There are distinct front and rear fender shapes in line with 1950-vintage American practice. (Think 1948 Oldsmobile 98, 1949 Pontiac, 1951 Packard, etc.)
The low J-curve helps reduce potential slab-side visual body height.
It looks a bit like a Karmann Ghia.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia: "Karmann Ghia was designed with input from numerous individuals at Carrozzeria Ghia and was strongly influenced by Virgil Exner's work, though all of its designers passed without a definitive individual styling attribution."
ReplyDeleteThis came out four years earlier. Maybe some of the same guys, or this influenced the KG? I think there were also other Italian styled cars with similar designs then.
While the rear is rounded like earlier cars (and a lot of later British cars) it also has that cool almost finny fender edge curving across and joining the other side which seems very sculptural and modern. Where else does that upside down trapezoid rear window appear? Like the hint of rear fender the pronounced prow harks back to earlier cars, but of many true postwar US cars also had it, and more so.
Curved glass windshield too. Overall this seems like a very slick and modern design for 1951.
ReplyDelete