Alfa Romeo 6C Details, Photos and Videos

The Alfa Romeo 6C name was used on road, race, and sports cars produced between 1927 and 1954 by Alfa Romeo; the "6C" name refers to six cylinders of the car's straight-six engine. Bodies for these cars were made by coachbuilders such as James Young, Zagato, Touring, Castagna, and Pinin Farina. Starting from 1933 there was also a 6C version with a factory Alfa body, built in Portello. In the early 1920s Vittorio Jano received a commission to create a lightweight, high performance vehicle to replace the Giuseppe Merosi designed RL and RM models. The car was introduced in April 1925 at the Salone dell' Automobile di Milano as the 6C 1500. It was based on the P2 racing car, using single overhead cam 1,487 cc in-line six-cylinder motor producing 44 horsepower, in 1928 the 1500 Sport was presented which was the first Alfa Romeo road car with double overhead camshafts.

In the mid-1920s, Alfa's RL was considered too large and heavy, so a new development began. The 2-liter formula that had led to Alfa Romeo winning the Automobile World Championship in 1925, changed to 1.5-liter for the 1926 season. The 6C 1500 was introduced in 1925 at the Milan Motor Show, production started 1927, with the P2 Grand Prix car as a starting point. Engine capacity was now 1487 cc, against the P2's 1987 cc, while supercharging was dropped. First versions were bodied by Young and Touring.

In 1928, a 6C Sport was released, with a dual overhead camshafts engine. Its sport version won many races, including the 1928 Mille Miglia. Total production was 3000 (200 with DOHC engines). Ten copies of a supercharged (compressore, compressor) Super Sport variant were also made.

The more powerful 6C 1750 (1752 cc actual) was introduced in 1929 in Rome. The car featured a top speed of 95 mph (153 km/h), a chassis designed to flex and undulate over wavy surfaces, as well as sensitive geared-up steering. It was produced in six series between 1929 and 1933. The base model had a single overhead cam. Super Sport and Gran Sport versions had a double overhead cam engine (DOHC). Again, a supercharger was available. Most of the cars were sold as rolling chassis and bodied by coachbuilders such as Zagato, and Touring. Additionally, there were 3 examples built with James Young bodywork, one of which is a part of the permanent collection at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia, PA, USA in original, unrestored condition.

In 1929, it won every major racing event it was entered in, including the Grands Prix of Belgium, Spain, Tunis and Monza, and the Mille Miglia was won with Giuseppe Campari and Giulio Ramponi. The Brooklands Double Twelve and the Ulster TT were also won, and in 1930 it won again at the Mille Miglia and Spa 24 Hours. Total production was 2635.

The 1931 6C 1750 with license plate number "3710 SV" and chassis/engine number #10814331, which is currently owned by notorious rare car collector Corrado Lopresto, is a unique exemplar, which's story is told in Lopresto's bilingual 2015 Skira book Best in Show – Capolavori dell'auto italiana dalla collezione Lopresto – Italian Cars Masterpieces from the Lopresto Collection.

The English-language section about this car tells:[excessive quote]

A plush version of the car, manufactured by Vitale Barberis Canonico, was also given, together with the book, to some of Lopresto's friends.

The Alfa Romeo 6C 1900 was the last derivative of the original 6C 1500, produced in 197 examples during 1933, as a transitional model before the new 6C 2300 was introduced the following year.Only made in Gran Turismo guise with a 2,920 mm (115.0 in) wheelbase, the 6C 1900 replaced the corresponding 6C 1750 model. Besides the larger displacement, other notable mechanical changes were aluminium cylinder heads, an improved frame and a new transmission. The same upgrades were applied to the 1933 model 6C 1750 Gran Sport, which together with the 6C 1900 forms the sixth series of the 6C. Alfa Romeo offered the 6C 1900 with an in-house 4-door saloon body, while bespoke coachbuilt body styles included 4-seat cabriolets.

The double overhead camshaft, naturally aspirated straight-six engine was bored out from 66 mm (2.6 in) to 68 mm (2.7 in), bringing displacement to 1,917 cc (117.0 cu in). For the first time on a 6C the cylinder head was aluminium; some engines were also manufactured using an aluminium block with pressed-in steel sleeves in place of the usual cast iron block. With 68 bhp (51 kW) at 4,500 rpm the 6C 1900 could achieve a top speed of 130 km/h (81 mph).The improved frame consisted of fully boxed rails and crossmembers, instead of the 1750s C-shaped sections. A new four-speed gearbox was fitted, with synchromesh on the two top gears and a freewheel mechanism.

The 6C 2300 (2309 cc) was designed by Vittorio Jano as a lower-cost alternative to the 8C. In 1934 Alfa Romeo had become a state-owned enterprise. This year, a new 6C model with a newly designed, larger engine was presented. Chassis technology, however, had been taken from the predecessor.One year later, a revised model, called the 6C 2300 B was presented. In this version the engine was placed in a completely newly designed chassis, with independent front suspension and rear swing axle, as well as hydraulic brakes. The 6C-2300 was produced in 760 copies with rigid axles and 870 copies of the B-model.

The Alfa Romeo Aerodinamica Spider was an one-off mid-engine streamlined prototype, built by brothers Gino and Oscar Jankovitz in connection with Alfa Romeo between 1935 and 1937 in Fiume (today Rijeka), and should have been powered by an Alfa Romo 12 C engine.The construction of the car took many years,while technical changes had to be made due to the testing period from 1936 to 1937.The Aerospider represents:

Between 1935 and 1937 the Jankovits carried out the construction; a "running chassis" could be registered in Fiume (number plate 2757 FM) tested, and subsequently modified.

The no. 700316 6C 2300 tipo Turismo straight-six engine placed behind the driver was Alfa Romeo: 2,309 cc, iron block, light alloy head, chain-driven dual overhead camshafts, spur gears, wet sump lubrication.The Jankovits fitted exhaust pipes of equal length and improved intake of air to reduce the pressure drop. Later the engine was upgraded with three dual Weber 36 D 04 carburettors, a setup used on the 6C 2500 SS of 1939.The transmission was the 4-speed gearbox from the 6C 2300, mounted with a Hardy disc behind the engine originally fitted, which they removed. A differential unit from a Lancia Lambda was later fitted instead. A unique pre-selector gear change system was also developed. The clutch was hydraulically assisted.

The ladder chassis was made by Alfa Romeo for the central-mounted engine, with straight rails from front to the rear end of the car; it was numbered 700316 as per engine number.The final suspension was all-independent, with "silent bloc" bushes;at the front it consisted of double wishbones, with a thick sheet steel (4 mm) upper wishbone, lever-arm Houdaille hydraulic dampers, longitudinal torsion bars, and lower location through a transverse leaf spring; at the rear it had swing axles and radius arms, with a transverse leaf spring and longitudinal torsion bars.

Steering was worm and sector with Hardy disc.Brakes used a two-circuit hydraulic system (two fluid distributors and two master cylinders, one for the front and one for the rear), Lockheed-type duplex brakes with 17-by-2-inch (432 mm × 51 mm) drums all round. An equaliser was fitted, which could avoid overbraking by changing the distribution of braking force between the front and rear brakes during driving.5.50–18 racing crossply tyres were mounted on Alfa Romeo 18-inch Rudge-type wire wheels.

The aerodynamic shape of the car was designed by Oscar Jankovits, probably inspired by contemporary aerodynamic theories such as Paul Jaray's,and built at the Jankovits' garage between 1935 and 1937. It was a barchetta with central driving position, with fully integrated wings (ponton styling). The body shell was streamlined to minimise turbulence in the air flow, fully enveloping the underbody and integrating door handles and lights.A horizontal radiator made it possible to design an exceptionally low front profile for a pre-war car.Air inlets were positioned in zones of high air pressure, and hot air outlets from the engine and brakes in areas of low pressure.Top speed was over 140 mph (225 km/h).

During the Second World War the completed prototype remained hidden in the Jankovits' garage in Fiume. After the war the Jankovits, in need of money, had to sell their car to an Anglo-American officer.On Christmas Eve 1946, with a temporary registration document, Gino Jankovits drove the Aerospider through the closed border into Italy causing a border shootout . Then the Alfa disappeared for about 30 years until it was rediscovered in England. In 1978 well-known Alfa Romeo historian Luigi Fusi put the then-owner of the car in contact with the Jankovits, and tried to buy the car for the Alfa museum. The acquisition failed, but the prototype had been painted blue, and then green as the original colour. The car still has its original licence plate and documents of registration.

Introduced in 1938, the 2500 (2443 cc) was the last 6C road car. World War II was coming and car development was stopped, but a few hundred 6C 2500s were built from 1940 to 1945. Postwar, the first new Alfa model was the 1946 6C 2500 Freccia d'Oro (Golden Arrow), of which 680 were built through 1951, with bodies by Alfa. The 2500 had an enlarged engine compared to the predecessor model; this Vittorio Jano designed double overhead cam engine was available with either one or three Weber carburetors. The triple carburetor version was used in the top of the line SS (Super Sport) version. The 2443 cc engine was mounted to a steel ladder frame chassis, which was offered with three wheelbases: 3,250 mm (128.0 in) on the Turismo, 3,000 mm (118.1 in) on the Sport and 2,700 mm (106.3 in) on the Super Sport. Various coachbuilders made their own versions of the 2500, but most of the bodyworks was made by Touring of Milan.

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