Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport Touring Aerlux

Vehicle Overview

Chassis 916.020 is a notable example of the post-war Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport, bodied by Carrozzeria Touring with a coupe configuration known informally as Aerlux. Built in the late 1940s, this car represents one of a small number of 6C 2500 Sport chassis fitted with a lightweight Berlinetta-style body that incorporated a partially translucent Plexiglas roof panel—a postwar innovation likely influenced by developments in aviation. The 6C 2500 Sport was Alfa Romeo’s final iteration of its pre-war six-cylinder platform, featuring a 2,443 cc inline six-cylinder engine with twin overhead camshafts. Standard output was approximately 95 horsepower, with select configurations reaching 110 horsepower when equipped with triple carburetors. The engine was paired with a four-speed manual transmission driving the rear wheels. The coachwork by Touring was constructed using the firm’s patented Superleggera technique, employing an aluminum body skin over a tubular steel spaceframe. This allowed for weight savings while retaining structural integrity, contributing to improved performance and handling. The Aerlux configuration on chassis 916.020 refers specifically to the inclusion of a transparent roof insert, offering enhanced cabin visibility and an open-air ambience within a fixed-roof coupe format. However, this detail was applied to a broader Berlinetta body design developed by Touring in the immediate postwar years. That same overall form—with its clean, flowing lines, integrated fenders, restrained brightwork, and tapered rear deck—was not exclusive to this Alfa Romeo model. The Touring Berlinetta design seen on 916.020 was also applied, with adaptations, to other chassis, most notably the Bristol 401 and a Lancia Aprilia Berlinetta built around the same period. The Bristol 401, constructed in the United Kingdom from 1948 onward, was bodied under license using the Superleggera system and retained much of the original Italian coupe’s profile and proportions. Likewise, the Lancia Aprilia example, exhibited at the 1947 Mostra della Carrozzeria Italiana and the 1949 Paris Motor Show, shared nearly identical body contours, scaled appropriately to its more compact chassis. Thus, chassis 916.020 stands not only as a rare postwar Alfa Romeo coupe with advanced features like the Plexiglas roof, but also as a representative of a Touring body design that transcended marques and borders. This form became a stylistic template reused across multiple applications, underscoring Touring’s influence on international postwar automotive aesthetics and its strategy of efficiently reapplying successful design language. Estimated production of the Aerlux-roofed examples is fewer than twenty units, with each car uniquely detailed. Chassis 916.020 is believed to have been exhibited at the 1947 Milan coachbuilding show and the 1948 Turin Motor Show, and remains a historically significant exemplar of Carrozzeria Touring’s innovation, versatility, and postwar design leadership.