Disco Volante Legacy: The Quest for Aerodynamics

By Renan Uflacker

     One day, after learning that I have four Alfa Romeo cars, a young man asked me: “Why Alfa Romeo? Why do you like Alfas so much?” Difficult to answer the question at the first thought. However, I tried to explain the memory the cars evoke in me—to a person who knows little of motor sport’s history and doesn’t care much about classic cars. I told him of this passion for cars at that age before the hormones began to shape my adolescent brain. I told him of the lingering influence of the design and mechanical developments that Alfa Romeo had in our current lives and means of personal transportation. I tried to explain the importance of the design and mechanical concepts of certain classic cars, such as the Alfa 1900, which are still today with us, even though most of us don’t realize that. As an example, I explained the significance of the legacy of the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante to the modern automotive design. “Disco what? What is this?”, I was asked several times. Below are some of my answers.

     The Disco Volante is often considered a unique example of exotic and weird car design without any other purpose than the aesthetic exercise without impacting car styling. Nothing is farther from the truth. In fact, the Disco Volante is one of the most interesting and important derivations of the Alfa Romeo 1900—sharing its suspension, engine and drivetrain—which created a legacy of car design that survived to the 1990s in cars made by Alfa Romeo and several other car makers.

 
 Disco Volante presentation, November, 1952, at Monza   (Photo: from unknown French newspaper, 29Oct1952)

     The Disco Volante C52 2000 was a prototype constructed for sports racing in three experimental versions: the C52 2000 Superleggera spider, coupe and a spider "Fianchi Stretti", all built in 1952 and unofficially called “Disco Volante” or Flying Saucer. The two-seater was built in a shape of two opposing ogival sections, giving an aspect of a saucer to the car. The car had a crisp horizontal edge around the main body with four raised surfaces over the wheels. The car was very streamlined, wind tunnel tested, and the body was built on a tubular space frame. The designers at Carrozzeria Touring (Alfa Owner, Sep2004, article, PDF format) focused on creating an especially aerodynamic body. This particular design was created in order to allow the coverage of all the four wheels of the car, giving the vehicle a low aerodynamic drag and a remarkable insensitivity to side winds.

     The result was a very unusual round design with large overhangs on either side of the cockpit and a full underbody. It was the fruit of the collaboration between Carrozzeria Touring of Milan and the designer Gioachino Colombo. According to Luigi Fusi, the “ogival cross section body” was registered as “design patent” (copy of patent application, PDF format) for its aerodynamic features, offering the best air penetration even in case of side wind. However, it did not prevent other automotive companies and coachbuilders from designing cars based on the Disco Volante. Otherwise, it might have been possible to demand some compensation from the English designers of the Jaguar D-Type, XK-SS and E-Type.

     In February, 1951, Colombo had temporarily resumed his cooperation with Portello, which lasted until August 1952, and actively pursued the aerodynamic car concept. After Colombo’s dismissal, the development of the Disco Volante was followed by the engineer Rudolf Hruska, from Finmeccanica, a consultant hired by Alfa Romeo to streamline the mass production of the Alfa Romeo 1900. The development of the coupe model was Hruska’s decision using a 2000cc engine.

     The C52 2000 Disco Volante, although derived from the 1900 road car, was a completely new design. The 1900 front wishbones and rear live axle were bolted on a state-of-the-art tubular space-frame chassis. It offered superior rigidity to the previously-used (tubular) ladder frames, but not at the expense of additional weight.

       Disco Volante space-frame chassis                                    (Illustration by Makoto Ouchi)

     The powertrain was also derived from the 1900 with slightly bored-out engine but with a new aluminum block that replaced the cast-iron of the 1900 road car's unit equipped with two twin-choke Weber carburetors. The 2-liter power plant developed an impressive 158hp. The car was tested at the Monza race track in 1952 by Consalvo Sanesi, an Alfa Romeo race driver, under the supervision of Gioachino Colombo. The cars were built in 1952 and proved to be of a very efficient design for speed with a Cd of only 0.25, enabling top speeds of 220km/h—but at these speeds the car suffered from serious lifting effects at both ends, making the car very unstable. Practically, the design proved to be a poor fit to twisting circuits and to the narrow roads on which some of the hillclimb races took place. One Disco Volante spider with a 3000cc engine was built and is currently in the Museum Carlo Biscaretti in Turin. Due to the flaws of the original C52 design, it was followed by a third copy called “Disco Volante a fianchi stretti” with a 2000 engine, also by Carrozzeria Touring, a more conventional roadster with "straight sides", more suited for winding roads in the uphill races common in Italy at that time. 

     Today, that car is part of the Schlumpf Collection at the Musée National de l'Automobile in Mulhouse, France. None of the three original Disco Volantes were ever raced, except for one questionable appearance in Monza, but they did inspire a design of a series of six-cylinder racing cars that debuted in 1953 with Busso's 6C3000 engine. The 6C3000 engine was originally designed to be used in a larger berlina car, but ended up being developed for racing in a 3.5 litre configuration. Five CM cars were built, four coupes and one spider, although Fusi lists two spiders in his famous book.

              6C3000 engine                            Disco Volante a "Fianchi Stretti" (video)

     Although some consider these to be Disco Volantes as well, these cars were not related to the 1900 and the absence of the space frame chassis and the narrow body really does not justify the name and they should be called 6C3000CM. Clothed by Colli with Coupe and Spider bodies, these 6C3000CMs (Competizione Maggiorata) were raced with considerable success by Fangio and others. The Tipo 6C3000CM had an in-line 6-cylinder, 3495cc, 246hp engine and was able to reach 225km/h. One of these cars, with a 3500cc, 275hp engine, was driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and finished second overall in the Mille Miglia in 1953.

  Fangio finishing second in 1953 Mille Miglia          6C3000CM spider at Goodwood, 2008

     Driving the spider, Fangio won the 1st Grand Prix Supercortemaggiore, held in Merano in the same year. The Colli coupe 6C3000CM raced by Kling and Reiss at Le Mans in 1953, with a 3.5-liter, 275hp engine but rebodied by Carrozzeria Boano, was ordered for the president of Argentina, Juan Perón (Alfa Owner, Mar2007, article, PDF format). This Boano-bodied version of the Colli coupe was subsequently owned and raced by Henry Wessells and then converted back into a Colli coupe in Italy after a crash in Pittsburg (1978). An additional spider car with a shortened wheelbase was built by Touring and called 6C3000PR (“Passo Ridotto”), with a true 3000 engine to conform with the new rules for sports cars racing in 1954, but that car was destroyed in a testing accident with Sanesi.

          Juan Peron's Boano 6C3000CM                       The Colli-style coupe 6C3000CM

     Although the Tipo 6C3000CM in the multiple iterations constructed by Alfa Romeo was a direct legacy of the original Disco Volante concept, many other cars produced by Alfa Romeo, independent designers and other automotive companies, over the years, were influenced by the innovative and aerodynamic concept of the flying saucer.

     Even more information about the Disco Volantes, in both 4-cyl and 6-cyl configurations, can be found in this reprinted article from Thoroughbred & Classic Cars, January, 1976. You might also be interested in what these two contemporary accounts (here and here) had to say about the C52 Disco Volante (souces unknown, possibly Road & Track magazine). Finally, Road & Track published this article, by Phil Hill, in 1988, and the Alfa Owner printed a major article on the Disco Volante in its September, 2005 issue.

     There may be as many as three reproduction 1900 C52 Disco Volantes, although it's possible that the one photographed on a trailer in 2006 is the same as the one in the Argentine website. Links: DV-on-a-Trailer and Argentine recreation)

Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva

       The Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva was a 1954 road-going version of the Disco Volante project. While neither project made production, both encouraged the design of several unique cars and the Sportiva ranks as one of the best sports cars from the Fifties. The Sportiva was a small car that relied on the solid Alfa Romeo engineering built up from the prewar period. Like the Disco Volante, the Sportiva featured a tubular space frame and a hot version of the DOHC 2000cc engine sourced from Alfa's immediate post-war family saloon, the 1900. 

     But to stay competitive, Alfa Romeo focused on creating a small design to utilize all the 138hp that was available in that engine. A short-wheelbase chassis was provided to Carrozzeria Bertone to be dressed in a body that would attract customers to a production supercar. Franco Scaglione, working at the time with Bertone, penned both the coupe and convertible versions of the Sportiva. While the Sportiva Coupe was beautiful, its singular design was not derived from the Disco Volante. The convertible, however, did have features based on the Disco Volante “a Fianchi Stretti” from 1952. Even though the Sportiva complied with sport category racing regulations, the car never went into regular production. A total of only four cars may have been completed, including two convertible cars.  

Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva coupe (L) and spider (R).

B.A.T. Series

     Based on the 1900 platform, in an independent development by Franco Scaglione, but based on some of the Disco Volante concepts, was the Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica, or B.A.T. for short, by Carrozzeria Bertone. Although all the cars of the Bertone’s B.A.T. series (from 1953’s B.A.T. 5, 1954’s B.A.T. 7 and 1955’s B.A.T. 9) had features directly related to the original Disco Volante, the B.A.T. 5 was the one with the closest resemblance. It was first seen in 1953 and it was stylistically even more extreme than the Disco Volante, and with a very unusual shape. The cars had covered wheels with large overhangs on either side of the cockpit to reduce drag and a series of channels and wings with the intention to reverse the airflow problems of the Disco Volante which produced lift. 

     The principle was to redirect the airflow over the car’s body to actually increase the pressure downwards of the wheels on the road at higher speeds while reducing the aerodynamic drag from a Cd of 0.23 to a Cd of 0.19. The B.A.T. series was a brilliant exercise of design and aerodynamics, and an instant hit for the innovation and noteworthy stability at high speeds, although it was not a commercial styling success and caused no significant impact in production cars except for the Giulietta SS (also designed by Franco Scaglione, chief designer at Carrozzeria Bertone). However, the B.A.T. experiment solved the aerodynamic stability problem, improved aerodynamic penetration and created the concept of the tail fins used in race cars of the 1960s, helping to perpetuate Bertone’s name in car styling.


                      B.A.T.-5                                                    B.A.T.-7

 
                      B.A.T.-9                                         Giulietta Sprint Speciale

     The Giulietta Sprint Speciale was the “perfect streamlined” car and resulted from the cooperation of Alfa Romeo and Carrozzeria Bertone and gathered features of the various Giulietta models, such as road holding, maneuverability, effective braking, excellent engine torque and comfort, but it was not a racing car, despite the initial intentions of the designer. Clearly an evolution of the B.A.T. experiments, it also preserved a resemblance to the Disco Volante project with the wide body covering the wheels, and side trim or "eyebrows" marking the transition between the upper and lower body ogival sections. The SS had two versions, the 1300 (1957-1962) and 1600 (1963-1965).

Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 6C3000CM "Super Flow"

     One of the Alfa Romeo 6C3000CM (chassis 1361.00128) ex-factory spare racecars became a mule for various Pininfarina design studies. The Turinese coachbuilder fitted four different bodies on the Alfa Romeo chassis between 1956 and 1960 calling it the "Super Flow". Note the similarity of the Super Flow I Coupe with the Boano-bodied Peron car.

1) 1956 Turin show: "Super Flow I Coupe". Plexi fenders, tail fins, plexi roof.
2) 1956 Paris show: "Super Flow II Coupe". Steel fenders, tail fins, plexi roof.
3) 1959 Geneva show: "Spider Super Sport". Convertible, no tail fins (Forefather of the Duetto).
4) 1960 Geneva show: "Super Flow IV" or "Coupe Super Sport Speziale". Plexi roof, no tail fins.

               Super Flow I                                                  Super Flow II

              Super Flow III                                          Super Flow III

                 Superflow IV                               Alfa Romeo Duetto 1966-69

     One of the Alfa Romeo 6C3000CM cars which raced to second place in the Mille Miglia and at Le Mans, was made available to Pininfarina for his amazing aerodynamic “Superflow” studies also based on the honorable Disco Volante concept. The first, dubbed "Superflow,” was a rounded, low-slung coupe with sharp tailfins, a glassy “bubbletop” with gull wing-type upper doors, and semi-open front wheels (portions of the fender tops were cut away, replaced by clear plastic). This was naturally followed by “Superflow II,” a somewhat more conventional version. Its main innovation was plastic fins that appeared to be body color from outside but were transparent when viewed from inside, so as not to hinder driver vision astern. Next came, a roadster with the same general style but with large faired-in headrests and no fins. Common to all three (built between 1956 and 1959) was the longitudinal, concave bodyside sculpturing that Pininfarina would apply to the production of the legendary Giulia Duetto of 1966, later named “Graduate” in the U.S. Four versions of the Giulia Duetto Spider were eventually produced until 1994.

     The final effort was yet another smooth bubbletop coupe, this time with twin transparent roof sections (one above each seat) that slid back on rails for open-air motoring, an early expression of the T-top idea. The tail was similar to that of the previous roadster and, again, predictive of the Duetto’s boat tail. First seen at the 1960 Geneva Show, this Superflow-Disco Volante ended up on a used car lot in Denver only a year later, it but was eventually rescued.

     The Duetto initially was not well received by the public and critics, but time has vindicated the Giulia Duetto Spider, the final design credited to Battista Pininfarina himself and immortalized in the movie “The Graduate”. Its front and rear symmetry, alluring headlamp covers, and bold concave body side is the stuff of unforgettable automotive art still inspired in the original design of the Disco Volante.

Giuletta Sprint SZ

     The Giulietta Sprint SZ (for Sprint Zagato), was a splendid sports and racing car. It appeared as a prototype in 1957 with series production beginning in 1960, using the same floor pan and running gear of the Giulietta Sprint and the Spider, but the Zagato space frame structure, clothed with an aerodynamically-shaped light-alloy panel body. The Disco Volante- inspired body was very efficient aerodynamically, with a low frontal area and a minimum of drag induction. The car was light and Spartan with a higher performance 100/115hp engine and a top speed of more than 120mph (200 km/h). Only 200 cars were built and were raced extensively.

Jaguar E-Type

     One obvious influence of the Disco Volante on a non-Alfa Romeo car is the design of the Jaguar E-Type, created by Malcolm Sayer. Sayer was an aerodynamicist from Bristol Aeroplane Company who joined Jaguar in 1950 and was responsible for the lines of some of the most famed Jaguar cars of the postwar years. His resumé includes the Jaguar C- and D-Type racers and later the E-Type, the XJ13 Le Mans and the luxury grand tourer XJ-S. The Jaguar XK-120 is a sports car which was manufactured by Jaguar between 1948 and 1954. Jaguar's first postwar sports car, it succeeded the SS-100, which ceased production in 1940. The XK-120 was the first production car to achieve 120mph and was quite successful in British racing and Rally but was too heavy and underpowered for serious continental competition (Le Mans), despite the alloy body used in 1950. The Jaguar C-Type was designed by Sayer for racing to replace the XK-120. Although the style was inspired in the XK-120, it was much lighter, much more aerodynamic, and much shorter, and it had a stronger engine and a multi-tubular space frame chassis, despite using the XK-120 modified suspension. The C-Type was overall victorious in the Le Mans race in 1951 with a speed record and won again with a 1-2-4 finish in the 1953 Le Mans race.

                 Jaguar XK-120                                        Jaguar C-Type

     By 1953, the C-Type was already showing some age and, to keep the supremacy at Le Mans, Steve Heynes developed the light alloy chassis XP-11, which is now known as the “C/D” transition car. Using that platform, Jaguar created a new revolutionary car using a new lightweight body designed by Sayer. Although the D’s bodywork was an improvement over the C’s design and is the unquestionable origin of the Jaguar E-Type’s unforgettable style, it was profoundly influenced by the experimental Alfa Romeo Touring-bodied Disco Volante, presented to the world just one year before, from which it took a lot of the features such as the unusual round design with large overhangs on either side of the cockpit and a underbody forming the ogival cross section body described in the Disco Volante patent. One can note the not-so-crisp horizontal edge around the main body, with four raised surfaces over the wheels—just like the Disco Volante. 

It is now known that Malcolm Sayer actually made an Alfa Romeo "Disco Volante" model for wind tunnel experiments prior to design work starting on the Jaguar D-Type. The similarities of the wind tunnel model and the D-Type were quite striking. It is interesting to remember that while the DV's aerodynamics were inadequate for higher speeds, the D-Type was very stable. Did Sayer discover something that the Italians did not?      The D-Type was second at Le Mans in 1954 and first overall in 1955, following the withdrawal of the Mercedes-Benz team after the tragic accident in Le Mans at 2:00AM of the Sunday. The works D-Type was fourth in 1956 and an independent team won again in Le Mans in 1957 for the last time, after Jaguar withdrew from racing. Coincidentally, it was the year that the E-Type prototype was developed while the XK-140 and XK-150 models were sold to the public.

Old Motor magazine, October, 1981

                Jaguar D-Type                                        Jaguar D-Type

     The E-Type was finally shown to the world at the 1961 Geneva Show and caused a major impact for the style. It was a beauty and it looked like nothing else, except to the professionals familiar with the D-Type construction and with the Disco Volante stylistic concepts used in the design of that car. 

          Jaguar E-Type roadster                        Jaguar E-Type roadster

          Jaguar E-Type coupe                        C52 Disco Volante coupe

Mercedes-Benz 300SL

     The original Mercedes-Benz 300SL was the 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL three-litre straight-six Racing Sport Coupe, which dominated the 1952 Sports Car Championship beginning with the Carrera Panamericana endurance race. It was inspired by the 1951 Le Mans-winning Jaguar C-Type, for which William Lyons used off-the-shelf parts to create a champion. Alfred Neubauer took the 3-litre, straight-six engine from the 300 saloon, a tubular birdcage-like space frame and an ultra-efficient aerodynamic body and created the 300 SL coupes. Although competitive, the 300SL Carrera Panamericana was a crude car without much style and the biggest innovation, that made the fame of the roadgoing 300SL for which it lent the platform, was the Gull Wing of the coupe version.

                1952 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Carrera Panamericana coupe & roadster

     Max Hoffman, in a now-historic negotiation with Mercedes-Benz, demanded a road-going version of the car, allegedly put down a deposit with the promise to sell 1000 cars in the U.S. In the meantime, Gioachino Colombo now was working for the competition, designing the short-block, highly efficient and successful V-12 for Ferrari. Finally a modified, luxurious and profoundly improved version of the 300SL was introduced at the New York Show in 1954, the now famous Gull Wing. The more conservative 300SL Roadster followed. 

     Although the original 300SL Carrera Panamericana did not have many visible features in common with the Disco Volante the road going version was carefully restyled and shared many features with the Italian car concept such as the large overhangs on either side of the cockpit covering the wheels and a prominent trim demarcating the transition between the upper and lower segments of the car body found also in the Giulietta Sprint SS, simulating the crisp horizontal edge around the main body with four raised surfaces over the wheels. Although the car did not have a true “ogival cross section” the residual features are there and the lateral aspect of the body of the car simulates the formation of a closed underbody which was not present on the original racing 300SL.

   1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gull Wing coupe                     1958 300SL roadster

Aston Martin DB2/4 and Fiat 8V (Otto Vu)

     The "Supersonica" body design made by Ghia captured some of the fantasies of the age of the jet liner and flying saucers popular in the 1950s. It was a time of drastic changes in automobile design in Europe which resulted in the creation of the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante followed by many other concept cars. The Supersonica design appeared for the first time using an Alfa Romeo 1900 platform modified by Conrero to race the 1953 Mille Miglia. The car was driven by Robert Fehlmann. After the Mille Miglia, Fehlmann took the car to Switzerland where, a short while later, the car was totaled in an accident and destroyed by fire.  

 
                                            Alfa Romeo 1900 Supersonica Conrero

     An Aston Martin Mark II chassis was sold to racing driver Harry Schell, and it was fitted with a Giovanni Savonuzzi-designed Ghia Supersonica body. This Aston Martin Supersonica has been described as having a fiberglass body but it is more likely to be aluminum coachwork. The car was exhibited at the 1956 Turin Motor Show and then disappeared from view. The car apparently still survives, in the USA, and is is said to be undergoing restoration at Classic & Exotic Service, Inc. in Troy, Michigan. The car shows an obvious influence of the Disco Volante design, with the crisp horizontal edge around the main body and four raised surfaces over the wheels found in all the Supersonica car series. This rare picture was found by "Supersonica expert" Erik Nielsen, and shows the pristine car in 1956. It is believed the car was originally finished in pale green with beige leather upholstery.

                   Aston Martin Ghia Supersonica

     This Aston Martin was very similar to other bodies fitted to Jaguar XK 120, Alfa Romeo 1900 (Conrero) and Fiat 8V (Otto Vu) chassis in the 1950s by Ghia. There were at least two Jaguar XK 120 Supersonica, one blue and one red made as a special order for the French Jaguar importer Charles Delecroix from “Royal-Elysées” in Paris per request of a Monsieur Malpelli from Lyon. The cars were shown at the 1954 Paris Auto Salon, London Auto Show and Concours d’Elegance de Montreux in Cannes. The red car later on had the engine modified by Virgilio Conrero with a specially-developed cylinder head implemented with three Weber carburetors, reaching about 220bhp.

           Jaguar XK 120 Ghia Supersonica Conrero                                    Fiat Ghia 8V (Otto Vu) Coupe

      Ghia also produced a Fiat-based Supersonica car, and the most numerous Supersonica cars were built on a Fiat 8V (Otto Vu) platform. Fiat's V8 engine was derived from two four- cylinder blocks mounted on a common crankcase. To keep the engine compact, the angle between the cylinder banks was just 70 degrees. A centrally-mounted camshaft operated the valves by pushrods. Breathing through two Weber carburetors, the engine was good for 105bhp and, with an extra Weber, 115bhp; eventually, 127bhp could be achieved. Fiat's potent V8 proved to be a good match for Maserati's straight-six, Ferrari's V12 and Lancia's V6. Several cars were fitted with the Fiat 8V Otto Vu engine, including about eight Fiat Supersonica Ghias; however, the total number of Supersonica cars produced changes according to different sources.  

Crepaldi Gilco-Panhard Colli 750 Sport

     Another odd car clearly inspired in the Disco Volante concept was the 1952 Crepaldi Gilco-Panhard 750 Sport. The car is a one-off, based on the mechanical platform of the 1950 Panhard 750S, with a 750cc twin-cylinder engine, a four-speed gearbox, a very light tubular chassis developed by Gilberto Colombo (Gilco) and a fully-aluminum body designed and built by Colli. 

     Aldo "Tino" Bianchi—a well known mechanic from Milan—worked for the young Gastone Crepaldi, importer of French cars in Milan and, later, the Ferrari concessionaire in Milan. Bianchi built for Crepaldi a series of extremely successful small sports cars with Dyna Panhard engines and bodies made by the best coachbuilders, including Zagato and Colli. 

     According to one source, Bianchi built another 750 Sport in 1955 with new mechanicals from the DB Panhard X86, tubular chassis from Gilco and bodywork from Colli-type "Disco Volante" for Giancarlo Rigamonti, which surprisingly won its class at the Mugello Circuit (link) and all'Aosta-Gran San Bernardo, racing under the banner of Italfrance. Gastone Crepaldi was the developer of the car, which has participated in several modern, historical Mille Miglias. Some sources account for three different versions of the Crepaldi Gilco-Panhard car. 

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                                      Crepaldi Gilco-Panhard 750 Sport at the 2008 Mille Miglia

Rover 10 Disco Volante      "Another one-off Disco Volante-look-alike car, was built around the platform of a 1939 Rover 10 saloon, by the firm, Mitchenall Bros., Darrington, England in 1953. The "Disco Volante" sports model was built for Flt./Lt. J.M. Crowle, R.A.F. and was very successful and completed a long tour around England and Scotland. The car was hand-made in aluminum alloys on a tubular steel frame, and finished in an ivory color with red upholstery. A special radiator was designed and the original carburetors were replaced for horizontal S.U. carburators reducing the overal height by 15 inches to accomodate in the much lower engine bay of the Disco Volante design. Only one of this car was ever built, but the company had plans to produce competition shells, which never materialized. The car was offered for sale in UK as the only one in the country, in the London area, in the early 1950s."--Motor Sport, November 1953	Motor Sport, Nov., 1953
Vedette SIAM-Ford, 1952   Vedette SIAM-Ford after 1955 accident               Vedette SIAM-Ford chassis Vedette SIAM-Ford 1952 Record Car     The Vedette SIAM-Ford was built at the end of 1952 to be a streamlined car for record breaking. The engine and chassis were issued from a stock Ford (France) Vedette car. The V8 engine displacement was reduced from 2160 to 1995 cc to comply with the class E limits, with modified hemispherical combustion chambers, valves in the head instead of lateral position in the stock engine.     The car was conceived by Albert Simille, an engin- eer at the drawing and technical department of Ford France in Poissy and Joseph Ampoulie, a Ford agent  at Neuilly (Paris) and amateur driver. The SIAM name comes from the contraction of the names SImille-AMpoulie. The special body was designed by  M. Gallet and built in Ampoulie's garage, under significant influence of the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante concept. Ford France discretely helped the project and Ford's general manager spoke of racing at Le Mans in 1953. The car broke Class E record with a best lap of 169,800 Km/h and average of 130,654 Km/h on a  10,000 Km run.      The cars raced at least two times, in Spa and in  May, 1955, at the "23 Heures de Paris" at Montlhery,  by Ampoulie' and Girud-Cabantous. Ampoulie' found himself without brakes and ended up wrecking the car  in a ditch. The car was taken3. to Ampoulie's garage to be rebuilt but the repairs were never done and the car ended up in a scrap yard. The Ford Vedette chassis with its special engine and a door still exists in a museum in France.
Cooper-Connaught Disco Volante 1953      The Cooper-Connaught DV L4 1500cc, was commissioned by the British racing driver John H.A. Riseley-Pritchard, from Hereford, England. The car was built by Connaught Engineering using a Cooper chassis, with an ex-Hawthorn 1.5 litre Riley engine and the body was a copy of the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante with a restyled central frontal grille.
Riseley-Pritchard raced under the banner of the Cornhill Racing Team at a national level from 1952  to 1955 with relative success. The Cooper-Connaught Disco Volante raced in at least three events and, at The National Race Meeting at Thruxton in August 3rd, 1953, suffered an accident and caught fire. The driver jumped out of the car after steering off the road and ended up in the hospital with minor injuries, but the car was destroyed.	Copper-Connaught DV L4 1500cc
Riseley-Pritchard continue to race and shared a works Aston-Martin with Tony Brooks at the fatidic race of Le Mans in 1955 and, under pressure from his family, he retired from the sport and concentrated on his profession as a Lloyd's insurance broker.      Connaught Engineering was a Formula One and sports car constructor from Britain, and their cars participated in 18 Grand Prix, entering a total of 52 races. The company also was in sales and repair of European sports cars such as Bugatti. More recently, in 2004, the Connaught name was revived by Connaught Motor Company to build a hybrid supercar.

Trevisan Fiat Topolino Barchetta, 1954

Trevisan Fiat Topolino Barchetta, 1954      Little is known about this one-off car built by Carrozzeria Trevisan. Bruno Trevisan, who succeeded Vittorio Jano at Alfa Romeo in the mid-1930s, built several sports cars denominated "Barchetta", every one unique and handmade. The most refined from the aesthetical point of view was the 1954 Barchetta. The Alfa Romeo Disco Volante-derived body was built around a Fiat 500 Topolino platform. The car had a 569cc, 4-cylinder water-cooled engine with side valves.

Lotus Eleven      The Lotus Eleven was a racing/sports car produced from 1956 to 1958 by Lotus Engineering in London, UK. It incorporated a synthesis of ideas and concepts from earlier cars, including the original Disco Volante and other Lotus racing cars. Several hundred cars were produced and it dominated racing car in its class throughout the world, using a multitude of engines including Lotus, Osca, Maserati, Climax, Buick and others. Later on, a coupe version of the car was made at the deHavilland Aircraft Company in Hatfield, UK, by modifying a roadster.	Lotus 11, c. 1956
Gordini 24S      The first two-seater racing Gordini car was the Gordini 17S, built in 1947 as a single-seater race car and raced widely in Europe. In 1953, the car was re-bodied as a two-seater sports car and finished 2nd in its class at the Mile Miglia in 1953; it also raced at Le Mans in 1954. That car evolved into the 20S and, finally, into the 24S of 1953-54.    Gordini 17S, 1953 (L) and 20S, 1953 (R). Collection Schlumpf, Musée National de l’Automobile, Mulhouse, France.        The Gordini 24S had at least three versions  and was the last model built by Amedée Gordini  for racing, and it competed quite successfully.  The final Gordini 24S (left) exhibited a significant design influence from the Disco Volante “a Fianchi Stretti”. Note the difference in style from the previous 24S car. Here the car is participating  in one of the modern Mille Miglia races.
Maserati 2000 Sport      The Maserati A6GCS (Alfieri six-cylinder, cast-iron Corsa and Sport) racing car from 1947 proved to be an extraordinary development for Maserati. The chassis was fabricated by Gilco and was very advanced and light. Berlinetta coachwork and single seat “cigar-shaped” bodies were used with this platform.  A second phase of the car, from 1953 to 1955, included a Gran Turismo by Pininfarina, a single-seater Formula 2, and a two-seater racer paneled in a light alloy body, designed by Gioachino Colombo himself and built by Medardo Fantuzzi on a very light tubular chassis frame by Gilco. The car was a look-alike of the original “Disco Volante a fianchi stretti”. The Maserati 2000 sports car proved to be one of the most remarkable two-seater racing cars of all time, with a tremendous popularity among privateers. A total of 52 of these cars were made.	Maserati A6G.CS - 1953

Corvette Sting Ray

     The original Corvette project was introduced in 1953 by Harley Earl, director of GM styling. Although beautiful and destined to become a classic, the Corvette design was quite conventional for the time. As recounted by Peter Brock in a recent article, when Bill Mitchell became director of GM Styling, significant changes were to happen. Risking being fired from his prestigious job, Mitchell decided to develop a secret project of a new Corvette, despite the GM imposed ban on all performance activities following the guidelines of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association. He then left for the Turin Auto Show in 1957. When he returned from Italy, Mitchell shared with his associates a stack of photos he had taken at the Turin show and explained his ideas for a new-generation Corvette. The snapshots illustrated the design trends that he felt had merit for GM’s design future. The Alfa Romeo Disco Volante, the streamliner record car Stanguellini Colibri and a Boano-designed Fiat roadster topped his list. All cars had an interesting design theme: a crisp horizontal edge around the main body with four raised surfaces over the wheels.

             Stanguellini Colibri                               C52 Disco Volante spider

     As he left, he said he expected the designers to develop their best ideas on that theme within the week. When Mitchell reviewed the sketches, he liked the design made by Peter Brock drawn in November 1957, and he asked the group to work and improve on it.

   Peter Brock's original design proposal for Bill Mitchell (reprinted from Brock Racing 
    Enterprises Illustration, Classic Motorsports, May 2010, Issue #144)

     The work went on for weeks, but Brock’s drawing never came down from the overall preference. The work proceeded on Mitchell’s dream car and, when it was finally revealed in 1958, Brock’s influence on the car shape was the most prominent and definitive and it was called Sting Ray Racer. [In the February, 2018 issue of Motor Trend magazine, in a feature article about Bill Mitchell's secret styling studio, this same story is told by the article's author, Gary Witzenburg.]

     The Sting Ray Racer of 1958 had a revolutionary, modernized style with more straight lines than the Disco Volante, but still showed the unequivocal influences of the original 1952 DV design as requested by Mitchell. The Sting Ray design was further modified by Larry Shinoda, who was in charge of the final Corvette Sting Ray design after Brock left GM. Shinoda used in the Sting Ray the same front end concept created by Virgil Exner Jr. on his Simca Special from 1957, which was his master's degree project at Notre Dame. 

     Shinoda was Exner's friend, and the copy was acknowledged by Virgil Jr. in a recent interview, explaining the partial departure from Brock's concept and placing the Corvette looks further apart from the DV design The production version of the Sting Ray came to market in 1963, at the same time of the FIA GT World Champion Cobra Daytona Coupe by Shelby, also designed by Brock after he left GM in 1959.

 
        Exner's 1957 "Simca Special"                                    Original "Sting Ray" Racer, 1958

 
                              Production 1963 Sting Ray convertible ("roadster") and coupe

In Conclusion

     The Italian coachbuilders and designers were always known by their cutting-edge technology and styling, and many of the modern performance cars can have their style traced back to landmark designs of the Fifties and Sixties, particularly the Alfa Romeos. The Disco Volante, although unbeknown to the majority of the modern car guys (except for the hard core Alfisti), unquestionably established a prolific and solid legacy that still amazes us with the power of the innovative and daring design in the purest Italian style. It is interesting that a design conceived in 1952 influenced production cars for 42 years until 1994, when the last Pininfarina-designed Alfa Romeo Spider Type 4 was sold. However, a new Alfa Romeo Spider Duetto concept was shown at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show by Pininfarina, potentially increasing the longevity of the Disco Volante design to 58 years!

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