1953 Alfa Romeo 1900 Sprint Supergioiello (Ghia)

The Alfa Romeo 1900C was introduced in 1951 as the coupe version of the four-door Alfa Romeo 1900, the addition of the C in the name wasn’t for coupe as many assume, but for corto – the Italian word for short.

The 1900 model series was the first new Alfa Romeo to be built after World War II, it was also the first Alfa with a unibody chassis, and the the first to be fitted with the new 1884cc DOHC inline-4. Interestingly the then general manager of Alfa Romeo, Iginio Alessio, chose to develop the unibody chassis in such a way that the iconic Italian carrozzerie, or coachbuilders, could build custom bodies for it.

He had become concerned with the difficulty posed by creating custom bodies for these newly engineered cars – and as a result of this decision the Alfa Romeo 1900 and 1900C were both bodied by some of the greatest names in Italian coachbuilding – including Zagato, Touring, Pinin Farina, Bertone, Boneschi, Boano, Colli, Stabilimenti Farina, Vignale, and of course, Ghia.

The 1900C you see here is the 1900C Sprint Supergioiello, just nineteen were made and just three are known to have survived to the modern day.