1955 Alfa Romeo 1900 CSS Aigle Cabriolet

The Alfa Romeo 1900 was presented in 1950 at the Paris Salon de l'Automobile, and was offered as a four-door sedan and two-door coupe. Styled by Alfa's design director, Orazio Satta Puliga, it was Alfa's first new post-war production model, first built on an assembly line and their first production car with a unibody. Alfa's sales slogan was 'The family car that wins races.'

In 1951 the short-wheelbase 1900C was introduced. The body on this car came from Carrosserie Ghia S.A., Aigle Switzerland, a subsidiary of Ghia until 1953. Ghia bodied only eight Alfa Romeos, and this was the first.

This Alfa Romeo 1900 CSS Ghia Aigle Cabriolet was manufactured on May 10, 1954, and was immediately sold as a rolling chassis to Societa per il Commercio dei Prodotti Alfa Romeo in Lugano, Switzerland, the new location of Ghia Aigle. One of just eight Alfa Romeos bodied by Italian coachbuilder Ghia, it was designed by Giovanni Michelotti for the Geneva Auto Salon, where it debuted in March of 1955 (the earliest example produced). Two years earlier, P.P. Filippi had established an independent subsidiary of Ghia in Aigle, Switzerland, and the firm produced a number of spectacular cars for wealthy clients and for display at auto shows throughout Europe. After the Geneva show, the car was sold to a Swiss owner and then to Claude Fresard, who featured it in his Musee de l'Automobile Muriaux in Switzerland for about ten years.

The car is powered by a twin-overhead cam, inline 4-cylinder 1975cc engine developing 115 horsepower coupled to a 5-speed manual transmission. The chassis consists of coil-spring suspension, independent in front, worm-and-roller steering, and hydraulic drum brakes. The car weighs 2,205 pounds and has a top speed of 112 mph.

During the 1980s, the car underwent a restoration. It came to the United States in 2000. It was acquired by its current owner in 2009, and a restoration was completed in August 2013. That year, it won second place in its class at Pebble Beach.

The CSS was a rare 1900 combining the short wheelbase with a racing specification engine, five-speed gearbox, and revised final-drive ratios, along with self-adjusting front disc brakes with large Alfin drums at the rear. It is powered by a 115-horsepower version of Alfa's aluminum DOHC 1975cc four-cylinder engine. Suspension is independent in the front with double wishbones and hydraulic telescoping shock absorbers. Notwithstanding its solid rear axle, the suspension provided excellent all-around performance.