(Editor’s note: In 2016, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, offered “Bellissima! The Italian Automotive Renaissance, 1945-1975,” an exhibition of classic cars in the setting of an art museum. Featured were the famed Bertone B.A.T. cars, 3-D studies in automotive artistry and aerodynamics. The exhibition fills various galleries, and in one of them was the 1946 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale, a large and amazing convertible that I found to be absolutely stunning. This story, based on a recent news release from Alfa Romeo, celebrates another of the 6C 2500 vehicles, the one known as the Villa d’Este.)

“The 6C Villa d’Este was a trailblazer in terms of elegance, technical innovations, performance and prestige,” Alfa Romeo says in its retro report on the car, which it calls “the most elegant synthesis of the motorcar… marking a transition from the era of the artisan to a more modern industrial organization.”

The 6C 2500 model was launched in 1939. The car’s development was led by Ugo Gobbato, an Italian who studied mechanical engineering at a university in Germany before being hired as the first director of Alfa’s Lingotto factory in Torino. He led the construction of Fiat facilities in Germany, Spain and the Soviet Union. He returned to Italy in 1933 and was appointed by the government to reorganize an Alfa Romeo company that was struggling financially. He also rebuilt Alfa factories destroyed during the war. 

“A down-to-earth man who was at home in the workshops, Gobbato often chatted with his teams and always stubbornly tried to understand how to improve efficiency,” Alfa Romeo reports. “From his arrival, his first focus was on studying things that were substandard: faulty machinery, ‘a factory lacking harmony’ with too much ‘false movement of materials’.

“Based on this analytic diagnosis, Gobbato launched his cure. He expounded his methods in two manuals published in 1932, with the title ‘The organization of production factors.’ He devoted himself to theorizing and carrying out a well-planned synthesis between a modern manufacturing system and the tradition of artisan precision that had characterized Alfa Romeo until then.”

Gobbato’s goal was “rational production but not mass production” and he hired a generation of young engineers assigned precise responsibilities as they implemented new methods. 

Although the Portello plant had been severely bombed in 1943 and 1944, 6C 2500 mechanical parts survived, enough that several new cars could be produced by Alfa engineers and technicians. In 1946, nearly 150 such cars were either finished at the factory or sent to coachbuilders. 

Among those coachbuilders was Batista “Pinin” Farina, who wrapped the Alfa in a convertible body. Even though Italy was banned from the Paris Motor Show in 1946, Farina and his son, Sergio, driving a coachbuilt Lancia, arrived in Paris and parked the cars outside the Grand Palais during show hours and at the Place de L’Opera in the evenings. Their show of defiance drew worldwide media coverage of their cars.

Powerboat champion Achille Castoldi did much the same thing when he bought a Touring-bodied coupe and displayed it outside the Geneva Motor Show.

“Once again, the technical uniqueness of the model and its sporting successes became the key to attracting an elite clientele,” Alfa reports.

Among those buying 6C 2500s were actor Tyron Power and political leaders including Juan ad Evita Peron, Egypt’s King Farouk and Ranieri III of Monte Carlo. In 1949, Prince Ali Khan bought a 6C 2500 for his bride, actress Rita Hayworth, as a wedding present.

Another 1949 version, and one of the last produced, was the SS Coupe Villa d’Este, which earned that nickname when it won the Gold Cup at the prestigious concours d’elegance on the shores of Lake Como. 

Departing from the 6C 2500 SS Coupé built by his own Touring coachbuilding company, Bianchi Anderloni introduced major changes. The front was redesigned with the four headlights better integrated within the bodywork, and two superimposed elongated cooling sockets were added. The wheel arches were integrated with the sides, but remained clearly visible. The windscreen was split in two parts and inclined. The back was very low and pronounced, with two small, elegant round headlights clearly visible.

“A masterpiece of twentieth-century motorcar art was born,” Alfa adds proudly.

Back by popular demand, another installment in our series on car companies with unusual names that we found while paging through the nearly 1,800 pages of The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. 

Actually, this is the third in the series. The first installment was on car companies that shared their names with sports. The second covered car companies from Affordable to Black. 

Here’s the next segment of the alphabet: 

Blood — Brothers Maurice and Charles Blood badged their cars, built in Kalamazoo, as “Michigan” models rather than using their family’s name. However, after a falling out in 1905 with their business partners, the Fuller brothers, the Bloods did label their final touring cars with the Blood badge.

Brough Superior — Though famous for its motorcycles, which are cherished by collectors, Brough Superior of Nottingham, England, also produced some 4-wheeled machines in the late 1930s. Its cars used Hudson 6- and 8-cylinder engines, though in 1938 it produced one example of the Brough XII with a Lincoln V12.

California — Since 1900, 10 companies have used the name California, including California Ace and Californian Six.

Chicago — There have been 5 Chicago and 1 Chicagoan automakers since 1895, starting with the Chicago Motor Vehicle Co., which entered one of its motorcars in the 1895 Chicago Times-Herald Race, which is recognized as the first auto race in the United States.

Classic — Since this website is part of ClassicCars.com, we have to mention the following automakers: Classic Automotive (both of them), Classic Cars of Coventry, Classic Coachcraft, Classic Connection, Classic English Racing, Classic Factory, Classic Glass, Classic Illusions, Classic Images, Classic International, Classic Motor Carriages, Classic Motors, Classic Replicars, Classic Replicas, Classis Reproductions, Classic Roadsters, Classic Sports Cars — again, there were two separate companies — and Contemporary Classics.

Csonka — No, not the fullback on the famed and undefeated Miami Dolphins pro football team, but Janos Csonka put his name on a car company in Budapest from 1899-1912.

Deere (yes, as in John Deere) — In 1906 and 1907, farm implement producer John Deere partnered with former Blackhawk automaker W.E. Clark to produce around 200 cars sold under the Deere brand.  In 1917, Deere’s grandson, launched his own car company with plans to produce 1,000 vehicles.

Detroit — They don’t call it the Motor City for nothing. Detroit (or Detroiter) has been the name of 10 car companies, the first one founded in 1899 by one Henry Ford, who in 1902 was replaced at the helm by Henry Leland, who later would found Cadillac. Ford eventually returned with a company bearing his own name.

English Mechanic — The Encyclopedia points out that English Mechanic wasn’t a real car company but rather a series of articles that ran from 1900-1913 in the magazine The English Mechanic and World of Science & Art. In those articles, engineer T. Hylder-White detailed how to build your own motorcar. There is no record of how many people actually followed his directions, but at least 4 such cars are still in existence.

Everybody’s — We’re not sure everybody could afford an Everybody’s, but the 2-seat runabout was produced in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1907-1909. 

Every Day — This was a Canadian brand produced from 1910-1912 in a factory that later produced fire engines.

Famous — This brand apparently did not live up to its name as Famous Manufacturing of East Chicago, Indiana, lasted only from 1908 to 1909. The company event changed its vehicle’s name from Famous to Famous Champion, “but this did not help sales,” the Encyclopedia reports.

Fitch — Racer-turned-auto and highway safety advocate (he created those water-filled, energy-absorbing barrels that have saved thousands of lives), John Fitch devised a series of modifications for the Chevrolet Corvair criticized by Ralph Nader. He also did mechanical and design modifications to the Oldsmobile Toronado and Pontiac Firebird. 

Flirt — The Encyclopedia points out “there was nothing flirtatious about this car,” which was built in Turin, Italy, in 1913-1914. The brand took its name from the first letters of the Latin words Fortis Levis Juctunda Rapida Transeat (strong, light, cheerful, speedy, it goes), though apparently for only 2 years.

Frisbie — Marine-engine manufacturer Russell Frisbie founded the Frisbie Motor Co., in Connecticut in 1901 and produced cars into 1909.      While Russell and his cars may not be widely remembered, a relative started a pie company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and also loaned the family name to a toy that looked like an inverted pie plate that could be flung back and forth.

Frontenac — There were several auto-making companies named Frontenac, but the one on which we focus was based in Indianapolis and in operation from 1921-1924. What makes it special? It was headed by Louis Chevrolet after he and his brothers sold their family name to Billy Durant and his General Motors corporation. 

This list gets us through the first of the Encyclopedia’s three volumes, so there’s more — much more — to come.