The Colani-bodied Alfa-Abarth

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Zak McGregor, responding to Ben Bishop's questions about the Colani Alfa at
the Rosso Bianco, writes "It comes from 1957, a collaboration between Luigi
Colani, a Swiss industrial designer, Abarth and Alfa."

I believe this is not quite correct, in that there was cooperation between
Abarth and Alfa, but little, if any involvement of Colani until he obtained
the Abarth-Alfa after it was wrecked.

The best information I have on the car is from a comprehensive and
unquestionably definitive article published in 'Het Klaverblaadje' by the
late, and sorely missed, amateur (in the very best sense of the word, one who
pursues a serious  vocation out of devotion)) historian Ben Hendriks.

The answer to Ben Bishop's question about the exhaust system is simply that
Abarth, to reduce the frontal area of a very small car, put most of the
exhaust system in the nose of the car rather than under the occupants.

Abarth, Alfa, and Pininfarina had previously collaborated to produce an 1100
cc monoposto to break several time- and speed records with a destroked and
debored Giulietta engine. The car did establish several records but was
wrecked beyond repair in the spring of 1957 during an attempt to brake the
class record for 1000 miles.

A second Alfa-Abarth project was the Boano-bodied 1500 cc Tipo 750
Competizione from 1955/'56, which (like the Sportiva) was abandoned probably
because of time and money constraints associated with the production
Giuliettas.

The following Alfa-Abarth (which eventually became the Colani) was apparently
much more of an Abarth initiative than an Alfa initiative but with Alfa
agreeing to provide the engine and suspension components while Abarth built
the space-frame, (which was probably designed by Giuseppe Busso and Ivo
Colluci) and modified the mechanicals and Franco Scaglione designed the body
which was executed by Bertone. Originally there were to be cars for three
classes, 1000, 1300, and 1600 ccs but only the first, the 1000, was developed.
Abarth kept the bore stock, enabling the use of the standard cylinder head
casting, but reduced the stroke to 58 mm for a 998 cc engine with a claimed
(but questioned) output of 88 hp at 8000 rpm with reasonable piston speeds.

There are many, many, many loose ends to the story from here on but briefly
the first Abarth-Alfa 1000 was completed and shown at the Turin show of 1958,
and sometime later at least two and probably three of  the cars were wrecked
in testing at the Berlin AVUS-ring. The wrecks wound up in the hands of a
German Alfa dealer, and sometime later Luigi Colani bought them, combined
parts of the wrecks, and had built a body of his own design which incorporated
parts of the Scaglione body. It is that car which is now at the Rosso-Bianco.

As for Colani himself he is, as far as I know, a somewhat visionary industrial
designer who received some publicity a few years ago when he took a small and
varied fleet of wild vehicles, ranging from bicycles to transporters, to
Bonneville in search of records and, presumably, attention. His vehicles all
combined very slippery shapes, highly individualistic aesthetics, and
'organic' forms such as the nostrils on this Alfa.

My source for most of this (other than my opinion of Colani) is a translation
(source unattributed, I'm afraid) of Ben Hendrik's Klaverblaadje article,
which credited Peter Kaus of the Rosso-Bianco, Elvira Ruocco, Peter Marshall,
Gian Beppe Panicco (of Bertone), Giuseppe Busso, Vito Witting da Prato, and
several other excellent sources. Those who want to know everything there is to
be known, particularly about the remaining uncertainties, would best learn
Dutch and look up the full story in Het Klaverblaadje.



John H.

Raleigh, N.C.

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