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Alfa Romeo Disco Volante Classic Cars for Sale

The Alfa Romeo Disco Volante was a futuristic design for its day, and it remains an exemplary model of space-age inspired lines and profiles. Even today, the Disco Volante's unique silhouette is still considered futuristic.

Alfa Romeo, 1950

In 1950, Alfa Romeo produced the 1900 series. Five variations of the 1900 chassis were produced, each adaptable to different body designs which were carried out by famous Italian coach-builders of the day. In 1952, the Alfa Romeo 1900 chassis served as the base for an extravagant and daring new sports car: the Alfa Romeo 1900 C52. It was developed in collaboration with Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, a prestigious coach-building company specialised in stylish design built around ultra-light aluminium frames and body-work. The car's rounded aero-dynamic lines were built for speed, and lent it a rotund yet stream-lined look. This somewhat alien appearance earned it the name of Disco Volante (flying saucer). With a 1997cc engine and four-speed manual transmission, its top speed was 140mph. Throughout production (1952-1953), just three prototypes were produced: two coupé models and an open-seater spider.

The Disco Volante look

The Alfa Romeo C52 was initially compared to a flying saucer (disco volante) because of its alien space-age look and its similarity to the popular conception of unidentified flying objects that pervaded the 1950s. In fact, in any head-on picture of the car, this similarity is strong: it appears round and seems to come straight from Mars! A side-view is equally futuristic, although it shares something of the sleek E-type Jaguar look that was popular at the time. It is unique, and its design remains something audacious and out-of-the-ordinary even today.

2012: The Disco Volante is back!

At the 2012 Auto Show in Geneva, Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, the coach-builders specialising in ultra-light aluminium body design, presented a new concept car inspired by the 1952 Alfa Romeo Disco Volante. This new-edition Disco Volante shares many design elements with the original and, like the original, is mounted on an Alfa Romeo base. The modern version is based on the Alfa Romeo '8C Competizione', with six-speed sequential manual paddle shift, 444hp output and top speed around 180mph. The tribute to the original Alfa Romeo Disco Volante is evident in the body design, although it is slightly longer and wider, and the curvy voluptuousness of the original is not so pronounced. The main differences are the exposed wheels on the new version, and the absence of the Alfa Romeo symbol, replaced by the Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera logo, firmly shifting the emphasis to the stylish body design of the car. The Disco Volante has been presented at subsequent Auto Shows, and production now includes a green and gold version, in addition to traditional red.

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