Jacopo Villa, Luigi Chiaramonte Bordonaro
For the five-time Formula One World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio “A racing car is like champagne. Either you know it well or you’d better leave it alone”. For Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the theorist of Futurism, the most important Italian artistic movement of the 20th century, a roaring car “is more beautiful than the Winged Victory of Samothrace”. Strong feelings of modernity that becomes the history of a nation’s customs and identity, so much so as to make them true icons of contemporary beauty. At the next auction of Classic Cars, Youngtimer & Automobilia on 16 July, two cars that best represent the past and future of Italian car creativity will be auctioned: a beautiful example of the Alfa Romeo 1900 C Super Sprint with Touring Superleggera 3rd series bodywork from 1955, and a Dallara Stradale from 2018. The Alfa Romeo 1900 was a true milestone in the history of the car, Italian cars in particular: the first large production car of the post-war period, with a chassis and engine derived from racing, embodied the winning image of Italy on the racing fields. With a dynamic turbocharged intake system derived directly from the winning experience in F1, the 1900 SS 3rd series was a car of the highest level. The unmistakable roar of the Alfa Romeo twin-shaft engine, the first brand to win the first F1 World Championship in 1950, is a hymn to life itself.
The Dallara Stradale born in 2016 from the genius of Giampaolo Dallara – one of the greatest Italian engineers of all time, who at Enzo’s Ferrari, aka “Drake”, together with Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarini, designed the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO – is not only his latest masterpiece, but above all a sublime synthesis of the strict rules of road homologation with the boundless and maniacal search for performance typical of racing cars. Produced in very few examples, it is a car devoted to the spasmodic search for emotions generated by speed and tailored, as far as possible, for a suit of Italian haute couture. Unique emotions that speed beyond time.