Motorsport and Vintage Vehicles »

1930 Alfa Romeo Zagato 6C -- Restored

One of the 400+ vehicles in this awesome museum

The Southward Car Museum has a fabulous collection of over 400 motor vehicles, many of which are unique. One of the superbly restored vehicles in their collection is this stunning 1930 Alfa Romeo Zagato, which is believed to have spent some time as a racing car at Brooklands in the UK.

Ugo Zagato began his coachbuilding career in 1919 in Milan where he wanted to build "and repair of bodies for automobiles and airplanes". His intention was to transfer some of the sophisticated construction techniques from the early aeronautics industry, those that combined lightness and strength, to the automotive sector.

At that time motor vehicles were still bulky and heavy and Zagato believed he could build them as lightweight structures, with a frame in sheet aluminium similar to an aircraft fuselage.

During the 1920's Zagato concentrated on building racing cars, including some for Alfa Romeo. In 1925 Vittorio Jano, Alfa Romeo’s Chief Engineer, asked Zagato to create a body for the Alfa Romeo 6C 1500. Using his aeronautics background, he succeeded in creating a sleek and light body for the racer, which scored a 2nd place at the 1927 Mille Miglia, and then a 1st place the same race in 1928.

Alfa Romeo improved the 6C 1500, which in 1927 became the Alfa Romeo 6C 1750, the same model vehicle as seen here at Southward Car Museum.

The founder and benefactor of the trust that owns Southward Car Musuem, Sir Len Southward, with his wife Lady Vera Southward began collecting cars in 1956 when they purchased a Model T Ford for 40 pounds. This vehicle was the start of what would become one of the largest privately owned car collections in the world, and the Model T remains in its original condition, and has pride of place in the museum. 

See what other fantastic exhibits the Museum has: www.southwardcarmuseum.co.nz

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Text provided by Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagato

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