Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Coupé De Ville

Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Coupé De Ville was built by Balbo in 1930. Its Coupé de Ville body gave the car a formal arrangement, with a partially enclosed passenger cabin and an open chauffeur compartment. This particular example does not retain strict originality, yet it preserves the principal visual character of an early-1930s formal Alfa Romeo. Balbo shaped it as a stately, chauffeur-driven car rather than an out-and-out sports design.

That approach followed the changing language of coachbuilding at the turn of the decade. The rigid, angular forms common during the 1920s gave way to more fluid lines, while refinement and aerodynamics entered the design of luxury automobiles. On this car, the wheel-cover discs are among the clearest period details. They conceal the spoked wheels that would otherwise remain exposed. For formal cars, covered wheels were treated as a refinement: visible spokes could appear mechanical or utilitarian beside a carefully finished enclosed body. The discs also accord with contemporary streamlining, adding a smoother treatment to the flanks without altering the car’s dignified road presence.

Alfa Romeo introduced the 6C 1750 series in 1929. The range was among the most advanced sports-car series of its time, and its higher-performance variants used a supercharged inline-six engine. Many 6C 1750 chassis received bodies from Zagato and Touring, whose sporting interpretations contrasted with the formal Balbo coachwork. The Balbo body placed the emphasis on accommodation for passengers and chauffeur service, while retaining the 6C 1750 as its mechanical basis.

The Coupé de Ville configuration suited aristocratic and affluent customers who preferred to be driven. Its division between the passenger compartment and chauffeur’s position followed a formal-car convention, applied here to the 6C 1750. The enclosed and open sections of the body, the wheel discs and the flowing surfaces reflect luxury coachbuilding fashions of the early 1930s.

Balbo’s treatment retained the formal character expected of a Coupé de Ville while using the softer visual language then replacing the more severe forms of the previous decade. The covered wheels formed part of that treatment, bringing a cleaner finish to the car’s side view and reducing the visual prominence of the underlying spokes. This 1930 body thus presents the 6C 1750 in a chauffeur-oriented form rather than as a lightweight sporting coupé.