Alfa Romeo

After World War II, unibody construction was rapidly becoming the norm in the automobile industry. Iginio Alessio, 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. Also the Alfa Romeo 1900, introduced at the 1950 Mondial de l'Automobile in Paris, did not have a seperate chassis. However, from 1951 to 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. Other versions were built in small numbers by Zagato, Bertone, Ghia and Vignale. Initially, the 1900 was offered in two-door or four-door models, with a new 1,884 cc four-cylinder engine. In 1951, the short wheelbase 1900 C (corto) was introduced. In the same year, the 1900 TI with a more powerful 100 hp engine entered the market; it had bigger valves, a higher compression ratio and was equipped with a double carburetor. Two years later, the 1900 Super and TI Super with a 1,975 cc engine followed. The 1900 was succeeded by the Alfa Romeo 2000 which entered production in 1958.