1952 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Villa d’Este Cabriolet

Hand-built and extremely rare, it’s the last example of the kind of cars that made the company’s reputation between the wars

by Donald Osborne

In 1935, Alfa Romeo introduced a new model, the 6C 2300B. Once again, the work of the great Vittorio Jano was to take Alfa Romeo in a new direction by offering one of the first cars available with fully independent suspension—pure racing technology from the current Grand Prix car.

The influence of this engineer cannot be over-estimated, and his superb work was still being used on Alfa production cars into the early 1950s, long after his departure from the company. Felice Bianchi Anderloni was head of the testing department at Isotta Fraschini. Through a temporary stake from Cesare Isotta and the brothers Fraschini, in 1927 he was able to buy a coachbuilding company, Carrozzeria Falco, which became Carrozzeria Touring of Milan.

He knew the enemy of performance was weight and was determined to deal with the legacy of weight that stemmed from the wood-framed horse carriages of the past. Felice had an idea he had developed from his interest in...