[iicarJohn]

Stu, you had me worried for a moment! But, looking at the listing I see only "Colli" next to 00121, 00122 and 00124. I have some basic information that describe the cars from a bureaucratic standpoint, but that kind of information is often inaccurate for these sorts of cars so I have not listed it and will not list it until confirmation is received or found.

Having had another look at the listing, this is what I probably should have communicated differently, even in 1994:

Instead of labelling the listing, "Disco Volante and deriv.", it probably should be, "Disco Volante 2000, Disco Volante 3000, 3000CM and Sportiva". Or something like that?

"Tipo 3000" was observed on an ID plate fitted to 00011. "Prototipo 3500" was part of the description of the same car. In thinking about it again, I think that 00011 was described correctly in my listing as "Disco Volante" as that is the way it was born. Despite what Magro told me! If it became "prototipo 3500" after the fact, then this would be part of the car's history but does not invalidate its origins as "Disco Volante". Particularly if the chassis was not changed along with engine specification ... if the specification was indeed changed.

The words, "spider" and "coupe" should not be capitalized for any of the entries as both are descriptors and are not part of the actual name of any of these cars. When it comes down to it, "coupe" is not technically correct in a sense as the body does not have the "notchback" feature characteristic of that body description as originally coined and used. The description of the closed cars should probably be "berlinetta".

Stu, although your description rings a vague bell, I don't have a specific memory of a gullwing Alfa Romeo "competizione" sort of car. There are still a couple of specially-bodied 6C2500 cars that have yet to be identified and I will not be surprised to learn of others. I understand your frustration but I question the wisdom of speculating in public as to the origins of materials that may not have been "stolen" as well as taking a "friend" to task in public for not supplying something to you that is his. Have you considered offering a trade?

There is additional information that has been located that indicates that the 3000PR was chassis N. 00012. Although not unlikely, questions remain ...

In looking again, I note that I included the Disco Volante 2000 cars not only twice on page 67 (the duplication having been removed from the scan posted earlier in this thread) but also included them as part of the 1900 listing on the previous page. I guess I must have really wanted to make sure they were listed! Obviously, I simply did not pay enough attention during the editing.

Turning to the Sportiva cars listed on page 67, the car that was with (and presumably is with?) Gallery Abarth is 00004 ... as I suspected but still listed (1994) separately as a "lead". I suspect that the N. 00001 car in the "Sportiva" series was the car that was similar to the spider Bertone car that was promoted as "750 Competizione" but I have not seen anything concrete to confirm this.

I will remind the reader who does not know me that there are at least seven questions asked and implied in this posting. I am not presuming that they can be answered without some serious efforts but perhaps someone has already gone to some effort (or has gotten "lucky") and is willing to share what they know?

I am working on updating the "Disco" listing and will share a more detailed listing here when I get it sorted out. It will take some time as I will be incorporating some of the information that has been presented in this thread. When done, I will ask that all who have contributed review the document and (hopefully) improve upon it.

An eighth question: Why should we care so much about these few cars that none of us are likely to own?

A ninth question: Does anyone really know what has happened (is happening?) with the 3000CM N. 00128?

A tenth question: Why doesn't someone who wishes to build so-called "replicars" consider "bringing back" all three previous versions of the Pinin Farina "Superflow" series that used chassis 00128? Done correctly, this would be a kind of service to the automotive styling history community. If it was done with Pininfarina involvement, the project might even have some positive acknowledgement from a majority of those who sit on the fence regarding other cars that have mysterious origins.

John de Boer
The Italian Car Registry