A note on the 6C 3000 CM bibliography

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

In AD7-458 the cryptically named 'rk' wrote about having seen the nosedive HW
III's 6C 3000 CM took into Panther Hollow in 1984- "Having seen the crash and
heard that Mr. Wessell was hospitalized, but never having learned further
about the incident, I was pleased to read Mr. Wessell's letter, indicating
that he is still driving and that the 6C is still around." I also got some
follow-up off-digest, so perhaps a note on bibliography is in order.

The trilingual book "Alfa Romeo Disco Volante/Flying Saucer/Soucoupe Volante"
by C.F. Bianchi Anderloni (of the family whose firm 'Touring Superleggera'
built the bodies for the first Flying Saucers, the '1900 C52 Disco Volante
2000' per Fusi) contains a chapter titled "Flying Saucer only by name: the 6C
3000 CM versions by other coachbuilders." A word of explanation: the name had
caught the motoring public's imagination, although the aerodynamics was a
disaster. Thus when Alfa developed the 6C it decided to keep the name ("even
though they did not deserve to") while dumping both the shape and the
coachbuilder, but the Anderlonis felt that the name belonged to them alone.
Hostility and ill-will all around.

Although Anderloni cannot bring himself to use the name of the coachbuilder
who did do the bodies for the Mille Miglia and le Mans cars, it was Colli, the
same one who later did the modifications of Giulia Supers into Promiscuas.
After their racing career was ended the chassis of one of the cars was used by
Pininfarina as a styling test-mule through several versions called "Super
Flow" which were the stylistic ancestor of the Duetto; a second car was
rebodied as a Spider by Zagato for Joachim Bonnier, and a third was rebodied
as a luxury coupe by Boano and presented to Juan Peron of Argentina. Wessells
at different times owned both the Zagato Spider and the Boano coupe. This
brief chapter, 13 pages, 14 photos, has some basic documentation on the cars
and includes one remarkable photo of the seriously folded Boano car after the
accident, as well as an account of HW's decision to have the rebuilt chassis
rebodied in the pattern of the original Colli Coupes. All in all, a chapter
well worth reading, although I cannot recommend the book in its entirety.

There is a very good article on the competition history of the cars, featuring
good photos of the rebodied wreck, in "Sports Car International" magazine,
December/January 1997.

By far the best article I have seem on the technical aspects of the car is one
which Karl Ludvigsen wrote, entitled "Last of the Red-Hot Alfas!" in the
February 1961 issue of "Sports Cars Illustrated", then a very respectable
magazine which later turned into "Car & Driver". 

Probably the best article on the car, but one I have not seen, is one which I
assume Ben Hendriks must have written for 'Het Klaverblaadje'. I hope the
present editors will publish a Ben Hendriks bibliography and find some way to
make his Alfa scholarship available to today's audience. His article on the
Sportiva, which I do have, ran thirty-four pages with forty-nine photos from
the factory archives, as well as drawings and other material, which may give
some idea why Hendrik's exhaustive documentation of various Alfas draws such
awe from those who have seen it. He wrote four such articles a year for twenty
years, so it is very unlikely that he did not cover one of the most
magnificent Alfas ever.

Cordially,

John H.
Raleigh N.C.

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