Disco Volante

In the 50's Disco Volante was entered at Le Mans for Juan Manual Fangio, Froilan Gonzales and Franco Cortese to drive. For reasons unknown the Alfa Romeo team did not show up and the car was never raced. designers at Touring focussed on creating an aerodynamic body. They did not look at the frontal area alone, but also tried to cut the influence of side winds. The result was a very unusual round design with large overhangs on either side of the cockpit and a full under-body In the midst of the 1950s UFO craze the car was quickly nick named 'Disco Volante' or flying saucer.

Now the part of the story that really matters is....None of the three Disco Volantes were ever raced, but did inspire the design of a series of six cylinder racing cars that debuted in 1953. Although some consider these to be Disco Volantes as well, the absence of the spaceframe chassis really does not justify that. Clothed by Touring with Coupe or Spider bodies these 6C 3000 CMs raced with considerable success. This car several years later was displayed at Pebble Beach Concourse in Monterey, Ca.

I covered the PBCH show there year that ALFA brought most of the major historical racing Alfa Romeo's from the Museum in Milan, Italy. When I find that group of images from that show I will post several show images.