1942 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Cabriolet

Legendary at the house of Pininfarina as the famous lost 'anti-Salon Car', this 1942, 6C2500 Alfa was purchased and bodied in 1946 by Pininfarina as the 1946 Paris Show Car. Flamboyant in the extreme, its extensive use of lucite and chrome combined with a coachwork design far ahead of its time, it foreshadows the automotive style of the mid-1950's and clearly stood out amid the drab postwar design in 1946 post war Europe. However, France spitefully banned autos from former enemies Italy and Germany from the 1946 'Salon de l'Automoible.' Irate at hearing the news, Pinin drove the Alfa overnight from Lausanne to Paris where he parked it directly in front of the Grand Palais Salon on the opening day, and called the press, staging his own 'Anti Salon.' The car later went on to win the best-in-show at the 1947 Concours d'Elegance of Monte Carlo. Pinin then re-purchased and drove the Alfa as his personal vehicle and then sold it to Austin where it was used as a design mule and personal car of Austin's managing directory, George Harriman. Bob Koto who led the Austin design team for Loewy and Associates, purchased the car and brought it to America. Damaged slightly in transit, Koto took the car to Loewy's workshop to repair it, and Raymond Loewy insisted on a color change to bottle green. Since then, it has been returned to its original nitro-cellulose based metallic champagne paint color.