This unique Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS was first registered in Milan on 19th July 1930 with the plate ‘MI 28360’. Its original registration particulars make reference to the sports two-seater body and Castagna have confirmed the fact that ‘8513078’ was bodied by them (see correspondence on file). It was during this period that the car was also believed to have been upgraded with the much more powerful, supercharged 6C 1900 6th Series engine that it has today. Milan-based Carrozzeria Castagna had been founded in the mid-19th Century when Carlo Castagna took over the carriage-making business of his erstwhile employer, a Mr Ferrari. With the coming of motorised transport, Castagna turned to making motor bodies, specialising in the chassis of prestigious makes including Isotta Fraschini, Mercedes-Benz, Hispano Suiza, Daimler, Lancia, Duesenberg and Alfa Romeo. By 1920 Castagna was Italy’s biggest coachbuilder, with approximately 400 employees. However, the collapse of the American economy in the early 1930s and resulting closure of Isotta Fraschini was a serious blow to Castagna, which lost its biggest market and best customer at the same time. The firm went into decline, bodying its last cars in the early 1950s, but was revived in the mid-1990s and continues today.
