Last night I spend several hours in reading this very interesting Disco Volante / 6C 3000 thread. But instead of finding some answers, only more questions came up. Some of you guys are such an expert in this matter!
It is a pity that most of the pictures ever posted in this forum are lost. I think a lot of interesting ones appeared in it. I am most curious in the one were all 4 6C 3000 Colli coupes were on a truck. Can somebody please repost that photo. Thanks!
A point that worries me is this statement from John de Boer in post # 348 “I have been informed that I do not have permission to use all the material that has been supplied to tell the story that would like to be told here”.
I don’t believe that this thread is a matter of national security so unless some material is copyright protected (and even then you can refer to the source where we can find it without publishing it!) I can’t see any reason why the true story can’t be told!!!
I’m new in this matter so maybe my remarks are very stupid but anyway, I will give it a try.
Something that until know was not mentioned in this topic (except if I missed it) is that in the Disco Volante book, Anderloni stated on page 17-20: “…The first model of the flying Saucer to see the light was the Type 1900 C52 Flying Saucer 2000, and three of them were built. Immediately afterwards the Flying Saucer was fitted with a 3000 cc engine which called for a chassis with a slightly longer wheelbase and a few bodywork modifications, so light that they were not immediately visible.
(Is it possible that you can recognize them by the different dashboard, presence/absence of louvers in the bonnet,...?)
Two of this model, The flying Saucer type 6C3000, were built. In 1953 Gioachino Colombo left Alfa Romeo and the Flying Saucer’s development continued under Rudy Hruska, who was another expert engineer with a yen for innovation. He fell in love with the car immediately and backed for further development of the original idea, given touring Superleggera the job of working on a closed version and a narrower version. The first was the “Flying Saucer 2000 Coupé”, the second the “Flying saucer narrow sided”. To save time and in this case also to limit expenditure, these two new versions were obtained by modifying one of the three Type 2000s already built. As a result Alfa had at its disposal three versions of the same car with which it could carry out head to head tests as well as have the right car for each kind of competition (Speed, Cross country, Hill climbs). …”
Strange thing is that although the ‘Disco Volante’ name is common known in the world, it is all the time translated by ‘Flying Saucer’ and ‘Soucoupe Volante’ in respectively English and French.
But more interesting in his statement that:
a) first 3 1900 C52 spiders were made
b) then 2 6C 3000 spiders were made
c) then two of the 1900 C52 spiders were modified. One in the narrow side spider, the second one in a coupe
d) The work was done by Touring
If I make a summary of what has been told about this issue in the 384 posts before this one I come to this (please correct me if I am wrong on this):
a) In 1952 the normal C 52 Disco Volante was made as well as the narrow sided spider (not as a rebodied ‘normal’ spider) and a 6C 3000 spider
b) In 1953 the 1900 C52 coupe was made (not as a rebodied spider) and another 6C 3000 Spider was made.
c) The narrow side spider was made by Colli, the other ones by Touring.
Can someone clear out these contradictions?
About the Colli built 6C 3000 “Disco Volante’s”:
4 coupés and 2 spiders (the second Spider was the 6C 3000 PR) were built.
The 6C 3000 PR was crashed before it made it’s public appearance (even photos of the don’t exist).
1361.00125 was a Colli coupe and in 1955 after a crash it became the Bonnier Zagato Spider.
1361.00126 was a Colli coupe that became (after a crash?) the Boano Peron Car. Because of a heavy crash in 1984, the Peron car was rebuild again to Colli specification.
1361.00128 was a Colli coupe that became the 4 Pininfarina show cars. What happened to the coachwork of the original colli, and the three previous Pininfarina cars?)
1361.00127 is in the Museo Storica Alfa Romeo. But I am only aware that the Museo has only a spider in it’s collection. But the Spider in the museum looks different than the Spider that is present on old photos. So was the spider rebuild as a spider or was there always the possibility to transform the single seater into a 2-seater (remove cover, add headrest,…?) Or was the car originally the 4th coupe that later was transformed into the spider we currently know (when and why was the transformation made?)
The main question is:
Where are the 1362.00012 Spider and the 6C 3000 C.M. 4th coupe/only spider.
I guess the original ones are not somewhere in Belgium.
