MY FEEDLY

The Most Beautiful Alfa Ever? The Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Villa d’Este

This is a 1951 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport Villa d’Este, it’s undoubtably one of the most beautiful cars of its era and there can be no argument that it’s one of the most beautiful Alfa Romeos ever made.

The Legendary Alfa Romeo 6C Series

The Alfa Romeo 6C is a model line that was built by the Italian automaker from 1927 until 1954 with limited production from 1939 to 1945 due to the war. Over the course of the long production run the 6C would be regularly updated, and Alfa built a range of road, race, and sports cars on the platform.

Today we typically best remember the 6C for its ability to race and win against the best sports racing and grand prix cars in the world. Various 6C racers would win the Mille Miglia, the Brooklands Double Twelve, the Ulster TT, the Spa 24 Hours, and the Grands Prix of Belgium, Spain, Tunis, and Monza.

The name “6C” is a reference to the six cylinder engine under the hood, it was an advanced piece of engineering for the time featuring a single overhead camshaft which was increased to double overhead cams in 1928 on the 6C 1500.

One of the most desirable road-going iterations of the 6C is the car you see here, the exceedingly rare Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport Villa d’Este. It took the latter part of its name from the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este on Lake Como where it won the coveted Gran Premio Referendum, better known to us as the “People’s Choice Award.”

Many 6Cs were sold by Alfa Romeo as a powered rolling chassis which were then bodied by a coachbuilder, in the case of this car the coachbuilder was Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, commonly known as Touring of Milan.

Above Image: The beautiful lines of the Villa d’Este have been winning it admirers for well over 70 years and counting.

The Superleggera body type was directly borrowed from the world of aviation, it’s made up of a thin gauge steel body frame onto which the alloy body panels are welded. It’s not dissimilar to the way many aircraft fuselages are constructed and it results in a strong, lightweight structure – the name “Superleggera” means “Super Light” in Italian.

Between 1949 and 1952 just 36 examples of the 6C 2500 Villa d’Este would be built, 31 were coupes like the car you see here and five were cabriolets. These cars would mark the end of Alfa Romeo 6C production, with the exception of a couple of racers built a year later in 1953, as well as the beginning of the end of the period of hand-built Alfa Romeos.

The Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport Villa d’Este Shown Here

The Super Sport Villa d’Este you see here is chassis number 915.913, it was delivered new to its first owner in Paris in 1951. It’s early history is still something of a mystery but we do know there was an accident and the car ended up in Texas by the 1960s.

The car would return to Europe in the 1990s and then be sent back to the USA where it remained until more recently when it was returned to Italy in 2014. It was restored under the ownership of Bruno Galatassi to how it appears today, finished in gleaming maroon paintwork with a grey cloth interior.

Since restoration works were completed this Villa d’Este has taken part in the 2017 Mille Miglia, the Coppa Milano-Sanremo in 2018, and of course, it has been shown regularly at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como.

It’s a rare event to see an original Alfa Romeo 6C Villa d’Este come up for open auction due to the low production numbers however this car will be crossing the auction block today with RM Sotheby’s with a price guide of €575,000 to €675,000, which works out to approximately $697,000 to $818,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

The post The Most Beautiful Alfa Ever? The Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Villa d’Este appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/alfa-romeo-6c-2500-ss-villa-deste/
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The Jerrari: A Ferrari-Jeep Wagoneer Combination From The 1960s

The Jerrari is a vehicle that no logical person would build, it’s combination of a 1969 Ferrari 365 GT and a 1969 Jeep Wagoneer. Fortunately the team behind it decided to forgo logic and create one of the most memorable and unusual four-wheel drive chimeras of all time.

As the world waits to see the unveiling of the Ferrari Purosangue in 2022, the first four-wheel drive SUV ever made by the Italian marque, the timing couldn’t be better for the car you see here to pop up for sale – the Jerrari. This was the first Ferrari SUV although truth be told it did use mostly American parts and so I’m sure the purists will decry anyone calling it a Ferrari.

Who Built The Jerrari?

In the late 1960s multi-millionaire casino magnate William Harrah, a man with a car collection containing 1,500 vehicles, contacted Enzo Ferrari and requested the impossible – a Ferrari four-wheel drive SUV. As you may have guessed Enzo refused point blank. Not one to take now for an answer Harrah assigned the project to his own team of in-house mechanics and fabricators.

It’s believed that the Ferrari 365 GT front end and engine that was used in the project was sourced from one of Harrah’s own cars that had been crashed by a mechanic – however many of there stories surrounding this unsual car are difficult to fact check due to the time that’s passed.

When the project to build the Jerrari was undertaken in the late 1960s both the Ferrari and the Jeep that were used were essentially brand new vehicles. Both the 365 GT and the Wagoneer are body-on-frame vehicles which did help to simplify the project somewhat, however a significant amount of work still went into getting the lines to flow from the new Italian front end to the Italian back end.

Above Image: The interior of the Jerrari is well-appointed, even including the original Ferrari steering wheel.

The Ferrari V12 Is Fitted

In the engine bay the original Wagoneer V8 was removed and replaced with the 4.4 litre Tipo 245 Colombo V12 from the Ferrari. The Colombo V12 was Ferrari’s bread and butter engine from 1947 until 1988 – a remarkably long life for a high performance engine.

This engine is a 60° V12 that was designed by Gioacchino Colombo in the 1940s after WWII with advanced specifications for the time including a single overhead camshaft per bank and a lightweight aluminum alloy block and heads. Later versions would have double overhead cams and four valves per cylinder and the engine’s swept capacity would vary from 1.5 litres all the way up to 4.9 litres.

Needless to say, this was not an engine that anyone at Jeep ever thought would be slotted into a Wagoneer chassis. Once the Ferrari front end had been grafted on and the engine fitted to the new chassis a T-10 Borg-Warner 4-speed manual transmission was installed.

The completed car was dubbed the “Jerrari” but no one knows by who, and Harrah is said to have enjoyed driving it. The biggest drawbacks to the new hybrid vehicle was the fact that it still used the stock Jeep Wagoneer brakes which were never intended to handle a 320 hp Ferrari V12, and that it had such unusual looks that everyone recognized it, and Harrah couldn’t drive it anonymously.

Above Image: There can’t be much doubt that this was the most practical vehicle ever powered by a Colombo V12.

The Jerrari 2 Appears

As a result of the lack of anonymity Harrah had a second Jerrari built, known as the Jerrari 2. This new vehicle was essentially a Jeep Wagoneer with all the luxury options possible, and the engine from the first Jerrari was taken and placed into it. From the outside this vehicle looked like a normal Wagoneer which gave Harrah back his anonymity, the only clue as to the vehicle’s identity being the unmistakable sound of the Ferrari V12 under the hood.

This of course left the original Jerrari with an empty engine bay, a 390 cubic inch Chevrolet small block V8 was then acquired and fitted which offered similar power to the Ferrari engine though without the charm of an Italian V12.

In the years since the first Jerrari was built it’s been sold a number of times and it’s just popped up for sale again now over on Classic Driver. The listing doesn’t give a price, it’s one of those “If you have to ask you can’t afford it” situations I think.

It’s currently located in Germany and it’s licensed and road legal in the EU, and of course it’s been previously road registered in the United States which would make reregistering it there relatively simple if the new owner should so wish.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual Wagoneer or enquire about buying it you can click here to visit the listing.

Hat Tip – The Drive

The post The Jerrari: A Ferrari-Jeep Wagoneer Combination From The 1960s appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/jerrari-ferrari-jeep-wagoneer/
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The Unusual Saab Sonett II – A Two-Stroke Swedish Sports Car

I sincerely doubt an article has ever been written about the Saab Sonett II without using the word “quirky,” as there are so few other words that fit the little Swedish car so well.

Saab was originally founded back in 1937 to design and built military aircraft in Sweden, in the years immediately after World War II when the demand for non-commercial aircraft cratered the company developed and released its first automobile.

The company’s first car was the little Saab 92 which was officially launched in 1949. Despite its unusual looks the 92 was the most aerodynamic production car of its era, thanks in no small part to the company’s previous experience building aircraft.

The first Saabs were typically powered by two or three cylinder two-stroke engines that were exceedingly small and lightweight, with modest power output and front-wheel drive which was greatly beneficial for driving on icy Scandinavian roads during the long winters.

The First Saab Sonett Is Released

It would be in 1955, just 6 years after the very first Saab road car had been released, that a small Skunkworks group of engineers at the company would develop the company’s first true sports car – the Saab Sonett.

The first Sonett was visually somewhat similar to the Porsche 550 Spyder, it tipped the scales at just 600 kgs (1,323 lbs) thanks to its aluminum chassis and fiberglass body, and it was powered by a three-cylinder 748cc two-stroke engine capable of 57.5 hp.

The car showed much promise however a sudden rule change allowing modified road cars to race largely eliminated the advantage of the Sonett, and the project was scrapped after just six had been built.

The Saab Sonett II Appears

In 1966 the Sonett would return as the all-new Sonett II. This car shared no parts with its forebear however it was also powered by a two-stoke engine with a front-wheel drive layout and a fiberglass body.

Above Image: The petite Sonett II was designed to compete with similarly sized small sports cars like the MG Midget and the Austin-Healey Sprite.

The Sonett II was developed specifically to target the lucrative US market for European sports cars that had been so successfully exploited by British and Italian sports cars like those manufactured by MG, Alfa Romeo, Triumph, and Fiat.

Saab engineers developed a new box-section steel chassis for the Sonett II with an integrated roll bar for safety to support the fiberglass roof in a roll over. The front end of the car was hinged and could be lifted forward as a single piece to provide excellent access to the engine, brakes, and suspension components.

Though small and lightweight the three-cylinder two-stroke engine was never going to be able to pass increasingly stringent US emissions standards and as such a new version of the car was developed with the 1,498cc Ford Taunus V4. This car is now commonly called the Sonett V4 with the earlier two-stroke cars being called the Sonett II – it’s believed that just 258 examples of the latter car were built.

Later in the model’s production cycle a new version would be released, dubbed the Sonett III this vehicle would have a completely new body design and it would become the most prolific of all the Sonetts, with well over 8,000 built between 1970 and 1974.

The 1967 Saab Sonett II Shown Here

The car you see here is an original 1967 model with the desirable two-stroke engine, it’s one of the 258 that were made before the switch to the heavier V4. These early cars are highly sought after by collectors for obvious reasons, and they’ve become a cult classic in recent years.

This particular Sonett II is a survivor that’s been stored for many years, the listing makes it clear that the car will need to be restored, however the images of the car do seem to show that it’s complete – potentially making it a good candidate for a rebuild.

If you’d like to read more about this Saab or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Bonhams. It’s due to roll across the auction block later in June with a price guide of €15,000 to €25,000, which works out to approximately $18,160 to $30,270 USD.

Images courtesy of Bonhams

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1930s Morris Educational Film: Constructing A Car Engine

This film dates from the 1930s, it was made by the Morris Motors Cine Dept. at Cowley to showcase their advanced (by the standards of the time) manufacturing facilities for engines and gearboxes.

The film shows a fascinating range of manufacturing techniques for various engine parts, processes like forging crankshafts and then machining them down to within the fine tolerances they need to be at to function correctly.

Morris Motors was the largest automobile manufacturer in Britain in the mid-1920s, this was quite the achievement as at this point in history Britain was one of the most dominant automobile producing nations in the world alongside the United States.

The company started out as William Morris’s WRM Motors Limited which was acquired by Morris Motors Limited in 1919 as part of a restructuring. William Morris became a major industrial tycoon, against all odds he had started his own bicycle repair business at the age of 16 and turned it into an automobile manufacturer with 51% of the British market.

Morris’ strategy for growth was clever and relatively simple, he ordered in almost all the components he needed to build cars from outside suppliers, and with the money he made he slowly bought the companies that were supplying him with parts.

In the 1930s when this film was made, Morris Motors was near their peak. This film was almost certainly made in the Morris Engines Factory in Coventry, England.

This factory had originally belonged to the Hotchkiss company of France who had switched from making machine guns to engines after WWI, and they were one of the suppliers to Morris that the company acquired.

Interestingly Morris’s factory complex in Cowley, Oxford is now BMW’s Plant Oxford, the factory of the modern Mini.

Although the Morris name has been out of use since 1984 there are plans afoot to bring it back – the current owners of the marque are Chinese company SAIC who have plans to release the Morris Commercial JE in 2021, an electric van with classic 1940s Morris design cues.

If you would like to read more about the history of Morris Motors you can click here to read more courtesy of Oxford University.

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from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/constructing-a-car-engine-film/
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The Only One Ever Made: Rolls-Royce Phantom II Special Brougham By Brewster

The Rolls-Royce you see here is a one-off build that was tailor made for American architect C. Mathews Dick in the early 1930s by famed American coachbuilding company Brewster & Co.

C. Mathews was the son of mimeograph magnate A.B. Dick, and as a result he was a multi-millionaire in 1930s dollars, and so when it came to cars, money really was no object.

C. Mathews Dick felt that his wife, Catherine Garnett Crossan, deserved a car with the same grace, elegance, and style that she possessed, so he approached Brewster with an idea. The renowned coachbuilders at Brewster enjoyed an excellent relationship with Rolls-Royce, they were one of the leading American suppliers of bodies for Rolls-Royce chassis. As a result of this relationship they were able to secure a desirable U.S. delivery, left-hand drive “AMS” Phantom II chassis which would form the foundation of this car.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom II

The Rolls-Royce Phantom II was one of the most luxurious automobile platforms of its day, the British marque didn’t actually sell this model with a body pre-fitted, instead you bought the powered rolling chassis and then contracted your preferred coachbuilder to fashion you a body to suit your tastes. Some even had two bodies made, an open top one for summer and a tin top for winter, which would be swapped out when required as the seasons changed.

The Phantom II was powered by a 7.7 litre (468 cu. in.) straight-six, a physically large engine by any standard that required an unusually long hood. First released in 1929 the Phantom II engine featured two pushrod actuated overhead valves per cylinder, and a cross-flow cylinder head, with power sent to the rear axle via a 4-speed transmission with synchromesh on either the top two or top three gears from 1933 onwards.

The chassis of the Phantom II was an all-new design for 1929 with a front axle on semi-elliptical leaf springs and the rear axle too, earlier models had used cantilever springs in the back however the switch to semi-elliptical leaf springs helped reduce ride height and subsequently helped to improve handling.

Above Image: The 7.7 litre (468 cu. in.) straight-six Rolls-Royce engine was more than capable of keeping pace with any similar automobile from the era.

Brewster & Co.

Brewster & Co. was originally founded back in 1810 by James Brewster, decades before the first automobile would be invented. At first the company made horse drawn carriages, they quickly established a reputation for building America’s finest, and once the automobile arrived on the scene they began to body them starting in 1896 – interestingly the first car they bodied was an electric.

As one of the best coachbuilders in the world Brewster and Rolls-Royce naturally gravitated towards each other and developed a special relationship all these years later there are still many Brewster-bodied Rolls-Royces around and they’re highly sought after.

Sadly the ravages of the Great Depression would take a toll on the company and by 1935 bankruptcy proceedings had begun.

Rolls-Royce Phantom II Special Brougham

The car you see here uses the coupé de ville body style, otherwise known as the sedanca de ville, it’s characterized by the driver’s section up front being exposed to the elements with an enclosed cabin behind him for the passengers.

Above Image: As you would expect the interior of the car is opulently appointed, there are even adjustable heaters in the floor to keep the passenger’s feet warm.

This body style was first used on horse-drawn carriages where the coachman would sit up high out front, offering him the best possible visibility and ensuring that he could also hear everything going on around him – an important ability in busy towns and cities with a lot of traffic.

In the early parts of the 20th century many coachbuilt cars used this same layout including the car you see here, though often with the addition of windscreens and retractable roofs to protect the driver from weather and road detritus.

The beautiful design work completed by Brewster is on par with anything that was coming out of Europe at the time, with a sharply raked, vee’d windshield at the end of that long hood, followed by the opulent rear passenger compartment. Every aspect of the design was carefully considered, there are even small art deco foot heaters in the cabin to keep people comfortable during the bitingly cold winters of the North East.

If you’d like to read more about this extraordinary car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on RM Sotheby’s. It’s due to cross the auction block on the 19th of June with a price guide of 1,300,000 to CHF 1,750,000, which works out to approximately $1,450,000 to $1,950,000 USD.