An elegant and refined touring car, theAlfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport Aerlux – Coupé Touring Superleggera was selected by an Italo-Mexican businessman to take part in the Carrera Panamericana. It has recently been brought back to life after a lengthy, meticulous and painstaking restoration
The story of this specific car began in Milan on 11 November 1949, when a wealthy Milanese entrepreneur bought a rare Alfa Romeo 6C Super Sport with Touring Superleggera bodywork. The luxurious coupé ennobled by its aluminium body, a trademark of the Milan coachbuilder, featured an original Plexiglas sunroof that gave it the name “Aerlux”, a portmanteau word of two Latin terms meaning 'air’ and ‘light’.
The Alfa Romeo 6C family came to be before World War 2 and, alongside the versions with bodywork produced directly by Alfa, Pinin Farina and Touring, different variants were made: berlinetta, coupé and spider, starting with the Turismo with a long wheelbase (3.25 m) or medium (3 m) Sport chassis. From 1939, Alfa also produced a version with its wheelbase shortened to 2.7 m, fitted with the most advanced mechanics. It was named Super Sport. Fewer than 500 models of the 6C 2500 SS rolled out of the Portello plant, most of them a bare chassis, some destined for the Pinin Farina bodyshop that produced the spiders, others for Touring to kit out the coupé, including only 19 in the Aerlux version.
The mechanics and chassis were truly top-notch: the 2,443-cc in-line 6-cylinder engine had an aluminium cylinder head with two camshafts controlled by chain and gears, three Weber carburettors, four-speed gearbox, drum brakes and independent suspension on all four wheels, a sophisticated component at the time. The 6C 2500 SS with Touring bodywork ensured brilliant performance as well as being an elegant Gran Turismo, as demonstrated by the version renamed “Villa d'Este” after its victory in the prestigious 1949 Concours d'Elegance there.
In September 1951, the Milan entrepreneur's Aerlux changed ownership and was purchased by Carlo Panini Binosi, a native of the province of Mantua, Italy who later became a wealthy businessman in Mexico, where he was known as Don Carlos. A great enthusiast for motoring and aviation, after traveling around the world aboard a tourist plane, he founded the first Mexican airline: Servicio Aéreo Panini.
He had no less passion for motorsport, leading him to buy the elegant but fast Aerlux that he had developed in Milan – at Alfa Romeo and Touring – to improve its performance and transform it into a racing car. The intent was to take part in one of the most gruelling races in the world, held in his adopted home: the Carrera Panamericana.
His unusual choice of a car not specifically created for racing may have been the result of Piero Taruffi and Isidoro Ceroli’s fourth placing in the first race at the wheel of the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport “Freccia d'Oro”. They drove brilliantly, making the car stand out among a panoply of American cars fitted with massive V8 engines with much higher displacements.
Don Carlos enrolled in the second race with his daughter Teresa. However, she was listed as the driver, with him as the co-driver. As was often the case at the time, the story didn't end well: while at the wheel, Panini lost his life, with Teresa only suffering minor injuries, having been taken to hospital by another competitor who gave up on the race to help them.
But like in an engaging film script, the remnants of the car were recovered in 2013 by a collector who already owned another Alfa Romeo 6C. He succeeded in the exhausting but exciting task not only of its restoration but also of the reconstruction of its entire history down to the original documents, still held by Panini’s nephew, Teresa’s son, who lives in France.
The team of professionals from the Stellantis Heritage team, together with brand experts, also conducted a thorough analysis to deliver a Certificate of Authenticity.
The Carrera Panamericana was one of the most dangerous but exciting car competitions of the 20th century, despite only being held five times. Created to advertise the American automotive industry, it was actually dominated by Italian and German manufacturers.
Certain aspects of the Carrera Panamericana require exploration in further depth. Despite only being run five times from 1950 to 1954, it managed to excite manufacturers, drivers and fans of motorsport, almost as much as the historic Mille Miglia and Targa Florio races in Italy. The appeal was based above all on the difficulty of the race, held on roads that still remained partly unpaved and were very uneven, on a route of over 3,000 km from the US to the Guatemalan border.
Over the years, the roads improved with better paving and performance increased, although the race was made no less dangerous with frequent accidents occurring, some of which were even fatal. Average speeds increased from one year to the next: 126.17 km/h in the first edition, 141.72 in the second, 165.09 in the third, 169.22 in the fourth and 173.69 in the last.
European drivers and manufacturers incurred prohibitive expenses, especially those aiming for overall victory, due to the need to test the track ahead of the race with all the staff of technicians and mechanics in tow and the cost of the overseas trips needed, both in terms of time and money.
It was no coincidence that, for the first time, the cars were presented with the opportunity to bear the names of generous financiers. Panini’s car was a curiosity: as well as the names of the technical sponsors of the fuels, lubricants and electrical components, it sported an advertisement for an emerging German face cream. There was a notable contrast between the elegant amaranth of the bodywork and the logos and lettering, painted on with a brush. In the final race in 1954, the crew of Senesi and Cagna took the Alfa Romeo 1900 T.I. to 15th place overall, with funds provided by Finmeccanica. Three other 1900s under the same sponsor ended the race in 18th to 20th.
In the first edition, American manufacturers were in the absolute majority and took all three steps of the podium, but between Oldsmobile and Cadillac, the fourth and eighth placings of the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport “Freccia d'Oro” stood out. The tune changed from the second race, with Europeans then dominating: Ferrari with two wins in 1951, Mercedes coming first and second in 1952, an all-Italian podium topped by two Lancia D24s and preceded by a third Lancia D23 in the fourth edition. Finally, Ferrari and Porsche shared the last podium, after which the race was definitively suspended due to safety problems, according to the official version.
Although the race was intended as an advertisement for American automakers beyond US borders, the extraordinary wins by European manufacturers became the embarrassing downside. When the Mexican authorities announced in 1955 that the race would be cancelled, the European press were suspicious that this was not actually due to 27 deaths in only five years but rather to pressures from American manufacturers.
Very much as a result of the unexpected termination, all manufacturers had to stop dead. The most striking example of this was in Italy: the Lancia D25 Spider Sport was raring to go in the sixth race but remains in immaculate condition, never having raced. It is now on display in the Style Marks section at the Stellantis Heritage Hub.
