Carrozzeria Touring's BMW and Alfa Romeo "Aerodynamic" Designs

If one casually thinks of Italian carrozzieri, it's likely that custom-built car bodies come to mind.  But since World War 2 (and perhaps earlier -- I need to research this) some of the major coachbuilders had assembly lines, cranking out bodies of their design for carmakers.  Call it a kind of rationalization/conservation of design effort.

Even in the late 1930s, some more purely custom designs had shared features -- again an economy move of sorts.

Today's post deals with the case of three racing car designs by Carrozzeria Touring (Wikipedia entry here).  These are the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Speciale Tipo Le Mans Berlinetta (link here), the 1939 BMW 328 Mille Miglia Berlinetta (link here) and the 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Berlinetta Aerodinamica (link here).  The version of the latter shown below having a body recreated with the help of Touring's Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni, son of the firm's founder.

All three designs made use of Touring's Superleggera  (super-light) construction method involving a sort of space frame to which sheet metal cladding was attached.  The result was a surprisingly strong body that was noticeably lighter than a conventionally built body.  This was attractive to racing car engineers as a means of transforming engine horsepower into speed: the less weigh to push around, the better.

Gallery

1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Speciale Tipo Le Mans Berlinetta - photo via Museo Alfa Romeo
This car and the others have "envelope" bodies where fenders and other features are blended into the basic shape.  This was for aerodynamic reasons.  An exception here is the headlights that would create unwanted air turbulence.  Because the Le Mans race is a 24-hour affair, perhaps it was thought that robust, correctly-positioned headlights were required during the hours of night time racing.

1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Berlinetta Aerodinamica - Broad Arrow Auctions photos
The following year, Touring came up with a more refined body style used here by Alfa Romeo and by BMW.  These cars have different wheelbases and front end designs, but are almost the same otherwise.

1939 BMW 328 Mille Miglia Berlinetta - images via carrozzieri-italiani.com
The BMW version.  Note front end differences.

1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Speciale Tipo Le Mans Berlinetta - my 2019 photos at Museo Alfa Romeo
Being the first of its kind, styling seems awkward, though functional for a racing car.

1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Berlinetta Aerodinamica - image via carrozzieri-italiani.com
Much smoother shaping here.  The rear wheel opening could be covered.

Shorter wheelbase, so the shapes in the previous image are compressed.

The passenger compartment greenhouse is teardrop-shaped in plan view.  For some reason there is a backlight window that seems useless unless it provided a bit of visibility for the rear-view mirror positioned high in the interior.

The greenhouse has four windows instead of two, and the side profile is more tapered.  Otherwise, rear ends are similar in concept.

1939 BMW 328 Mille Miglia Berlinetta - my 2018 photo, BMW Museum in Munich
The rear here is more blended that that of the Alfa Romeo, again likely related to the shorter wheelbase and length.