Pebble First-In-Class And Louis Vuitton Best-Of-Show 1931 Alfa 6C Comes To Gooding Pebble Beach

Winning Best in Class at Pebble Beach in the late summer, then claiming a Best in Show the following year at the Louis Vuitton Classic at Rockefeller Center is a rare accomplishment, but this Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 did just that in 1996 and ’97. A Series V Gran Sport with Zagato bodywork, this immaculate car has been with the same owner for a half-century, but will be offered by Gooding at the official Pebble Beach auction in August. Chassis number is 10814349.

Though ALFA was founded in 1910, origins of the legendary 6C 1750 model trace to 1923, when Nicola Romeo hired Vittorio Jano from rival Fiat to engineer a successful Grand Prix car. Less than a year after joining Alfa Romeo, Jano delivered the P2, which won numerous Grand Prix races and claimed the first manufacturer’s championship for Alfa Romeo.

Romeo then tasked Jano with design of a road car with sporting capability. The result was a series of six-cylinder (6C) cars built between 1927 and 1933 in various specifications. During this period, 3514 Alfa Romeo 6Cs of all types were built, the rarest and desirable the short-chassis Super Sport and Grand Sport 1750s, which featured all-alloy straight six engines with twin overhead camshafts, hemispherical combustion chambers, and a Roots-type supercharger. In total, just 309 Super Sports and Grand Sport 6C 1750 Alfa Romeos were built, many with Zagato bodywork.

Light and nimble, with excellent road-holding and reliable power, 6Cs were among the finest high-performance automobiles of their day. In both Gran Sport and Testa Fissa forms, 6C 1750s won major sports car races, including the Mille Miglia, 24 Hours of Spa, Brooklands Double Twelve, and Monza Grand Prix.

The car offered here, chassis number 10814349, is an original 6C 1750 Series V Gran Sport, one of 106 built. Its ownership history can be traced to February 23, 1934, when the car was imported into Switzerland. Provenance between 1934 and 1947 is unrecorded, although a roster of Swiss owners from 1947 through 1959 is well documented by marque historians. Little is known of the Alfa’s time in Switzerland, except that the original Zagato body was damaged and repaired, leaving only the original substructure and some interior panels intact.

Around 1960, the car was purchased by Jean de Dobbeleer, a Bugatti agent and exotic automobile dealer in Brussels. Soon after, the Gran Sport was sold to American enthusiast Gene Cesari and exported to the U.S., where it eventually landed on the lot of a Cadillac and Rolls-Royce dealer in St. Louis, Missouri, where Vivian Krespi of Princeton, New Jersey, purchased the car.

In 1966, the car’s current owner purchased it from Ms. Krespi, then trailered it to his home in Ohio. In poor condition, the Alfa saw little use over the next two decades, though extensive research was carried out and parts accumulated in anticipation of a high-level restoration effort.

In 1993, after an initial restoration attempt did not satisfy the owner’s high standards, the project was entrusted to Clay Cook Enterprises, a pre-war specialist based in Erlanger, Kentucky. During an exhaustive three-year restoration, two complete and original Zagato-bodied 6C 1750 Gran Sports were referenced to ensure a completely authentic and accurate re-creation of the coachwork.

As example of the exacting work, the door interiors of one of the original cars was disassembled so that parts for the door latches and the back-up wood for the upholstery panels could be replicated perfectly, even though they would not be visible after final assembly. Similarly, great pains were taken with external details, such as the Italian color scheme, markers for the shock absorbers, and the distinctive crackle paint finish on the dashboard, features that are rarely restored with accuracy.

As this work was being carried out, the chassis was rejuvenated, the matching-numbers engine completely rebuilt, and every step of the process documented with photographs, notes, and invoices.

The car was unveiled at the 1996 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it earned Best in Class and the Strother MacMinn Trophy for the Most Elegant Sports Car. (MacMinn was the rock on which the Art Center automotive design program was built, which has provided the auto industry with many of its star designers over the past 60 years.) The car then claimed Best in Class at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance and a perfect 100-point score at the Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) National Meet. At the Louis Vuitton Classic at Rockefeller Center in 1997, it took Best of Show from a field of significant classics and sports cars. Among the judges was no less than fellow Gran Sport owner and America’s first World Champion, Phil Hill, who owned and operated one of the world’s greatest restoration facilities for many years.

The car has a selection of important accessories and components, including an owner’s manual, took kit, jack, and original Italian “EE” export license plates. Also included with the sale is an additional central headlight and two mirror spotlights, all with the appropriate mounting brackets, which would serve well on long-distance touring events like the Mille Miglia retrospective. There’s not a rally that would deny this car’s participation.

For anyone dedicated to assembling a collection of the finest sports cars, a Jano Alfa is every bit as mandatory as a 1950s Ferrari or Bugatti Type 35. A similar Series V 6C 1750 Gran Sport sold for just shy of $2.5 million in 2015, though it should be noted that car was in a mostly unrestored state but also did not have the remarkable concours successes of the car featured here.