• Year of manufacture 
    1952
  • Mileage 
    105 000 km / 65 244 mi
  • Car type 
    Coupé
  • Drive 
    LHD
  • Condition 
    Original Condition
  • Interior colour 
    Green
  • Number of doors 
    2
  • Number of seats 
    2
  • Location
    Netherlands
  • Exterior colour 
    Black
  • Gearbox 
    Manual
  • Performance 
    100 PS / 74 kW / 99 BHP
  • Drivetrain 
    2wd
  • Fuel type 
    Petrol

Description

Model History

The Alfa Romeo 1900 was an important development for Alfa Romeo as the marque's first car built entirely on a production line and first production car without a separate chassis. It was also the first Alfa Romeo offered with left-hand drive. The car was designed by Orazio Satta and first introduced at the 1950 Paris Motor Show.

The 1900 was offered in two-door or four-door models, with a new 1,884 cc, 90 bhp, 4-cylinder twin cam engine. It was spacious and simple, yet quick and sporty. The slogan Alfa used when selling it was 'The family car that wins races', not-so-subtly alluding to the car's success in the Targa Florio, Stella Alpina, and other competitions. In 1951 the short wheelbase 1900 C (C for corto) version was introduced. It had a wheelbase of 2,500 mm and was equipped with a more powerful 100 bhp engine, it had bigger valves, a higher compression ratio and it had a double carburettor. Two years later the 1900 Super and 1900 TI Super (also 1900 Super Sprint) with 1975 cc engine were introduced and 115 bhp

Production at the company's Milan plant continued until 1959. A total of 21,304 were built, including 17,390 of the saloons.

The chassis was designed specifically to allow coachbuilders to rebody it. Iginio Alessio, then general manager of Alfa Romeo, was concerned for the viability of the independent Italian Coachbuilding industry – the advent of the unibody chassis design was threatening to put the carrozzerie out of business. Alessio was also a personal friend of Gaetano Ponzoni co-owner of Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, thus from 1951-1958 Alfa Romeo built five different variations of the 1900 unibody chassis specifically for independent coachbuilders.

Alfa Romeo gave official contracts to Touring to build the sporty 1900 Sprint coupé and to Pinin Farina to build an elegant four seat Cabriolet and Coupé. The availability of a suitable chassis led to many other coachbiulders to build versions of the 1900.

One-off specials where numerous from the famous Bertone BAT series of aerodynamic studies, to an infamous sci-fi like Astral spider designed by Carrozzeria Boneschi for Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic. There was a Barchetta or 'Boat Car' made by Ghia-Aigle in Lugano Switzerland designed by Giovanni Michelotti at the request of a wealthy Italian who had two passions: Riva boats and a woman, his mistress, the car had no doors or windscreen wipers!

The Alfa Romeo 1900 Touring Coupe 1st series can be divided in 1A and 1B (from 1953) where 1B has short doors and a little higher roofline among other minor details.

This example

According to Centro Documentazione Alfa Romeo, this Alfa Romeo 1900 C Sprint Touring was manufactured on 11 July 1952. This is one of the first production cars, so a real 1st series with long doors and a low roof line. The engine is the original matching number. The original body colour is black and has a green cloth and vinyl interior.
The car was sold by AB Imperia in Stockholm on 19 November 1953 to Edströms Pappersagenturer. Until 1966 the car had 4 only owners when it was sold to Berthold Uhlin in Farsta, Sweden. Mr. Uhlin was a real Alfa Romeo enthusiast as he owned all of the 3 Series 1 1900 Sprints which were in Sweden and 1 Series 4 1900 CSS. In 1984 the Alfa was sold to Mr. Bergman who did some historic racing with the car.
The car has a complete ownership history in Sweden until she was sold to France and to well known car racing driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain.
Nineteen years ago we found this remarkable car with one of our friends and we found a new keeper for her in our clientele. She has been lovingly maintained as one of the loved centerpieces in the owners collection next to Alfa 6C 2500 SS and several Ferrari’s and Maserati's.

She never needed a complete restoration and has always been conserved. The paintwork has been partially renewed 16 years ago by the excellent T. Rubbio. The mostly original interior received new carpets when they could no longer be saved. The seats received new interior springs and fillings. Mechanically the engine was rebuilt with all ancillaries. The brakes and suspension was rebuilt. The 16 inch Borrani’s were rebuilt at Borrani and the wiring loom was remanufactured as per the original. A large file with pictures and invoices comes with the car. The mechanics have 9.000 km since. It has seen recent service work and is always on the button.

The car lost her bumpers which can be remanufactured it wanted for a new keeper. Early in her life the Nardi type floor change has been fitted for a more sporting use and appearance.

This is a rare opportunity to aqcuire a very early 1900 C Sprint Touring with its elegant and beautiful lightweight alloy bodywork in very original condition.

Very Superior Old Cars is a classic sportscar consultancy company founded in 1992. We work for our customers to assist with all aspects of their car interests. From acquisition consultancy with restoration advice and management to private sales in our boutique art gallery.

VSOC is centrally located between Amsterdam and The Hague, only 17 km (11 miles) from Schiphol Airport. There is a broad selection of classic sports cars on display, in very good or excellent condition, varying from beautiful yet affordable sports cars to rare and valuable collectors’ items. When you intend to visit us in The Netherlands, we would advise you to make an appointment so that we can give you some quality time. If you arrive by plane or train, we would be happy to pick you up at the airport or train station. Besides Dutch we speak English, German, French and Italian.