Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera

Carrozzeria Touring traces its origins to a small Milanese coachbuilder called Carrozzeria Falco, which was founded by Vittorio Ascari — the brother of Antonio Ascari, the Alfa Romeo racing driver who died at Montlhéry in 1925. In 1926, Milanese lawyers Felice Bianchi Anderloni (1882–1948) and Gaetano Ponzoni acquired a controlling interest in Carrozzeria Falco and renamed the business Carrozzeria Touring. The coincidence that Alfa Romeo’s most important coachbuilding partner had roots in the family of one of its great pre-war drivers is characteristic of how tightly woven the world of Italian motorsport and coachbuilding was.

Felice Bianchi Anderloni had worked at Isotta-Fraschini and at the Italian operations of Peugeot before entering the coachbuilding trade. His approach was shaped by his conviction that automobile bodies could be made far lighter without sacrificing strength, and in 1936 he patented the technique that would define the company: Superleggera — “superlight.” The Superleggera method used a skeletal three-dimensional cage of small-diameter steel tubes welded into the structural frame of the body; lightweight aluminium panels were then formed and attached to this cage without bearing structural loads. The result was an extraordinarily light body of great torsional rigidity. The Superleggera licence was acquired by Bristol, Aston Martin, and others, and the method influenced lightweight coachbuilding practice throughout Europe.

Alfa Romeo was Touring’s most prestigious client. In the 1930s, Touring built bodies for the competition 8C 2300 — including many of the cars entered by Scuderia Ferrari — and for the road and competition 8C 2900. The most celebrated is the 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta: five coupés built in 1937–1938 using the Superleggera method on the 8C 2900B long-wheelbase chassis. One, entered in the 1938 Mille Miglia by Scuderia Ferrari, won outright — the final Alfa Romeo victory in the race before the war, driven by Clemente Biondetti and Aldo Stefani. The Touring-bodied 8C 2900B specimens are now among the most valuable automobiles in existence; one won Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 1999.

Felice Anderloni died in 1948, during the reconstruction of the post-war business. His son Carlo Felice Anderloni continued, producing a series of post-war masterpieces: the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Villa d’Este coupé (one of the most beautiful Italian post-war cars), the Ferrari 166 Barchetta (which established the targa-and-barchetta Ferrari aesthetic), the Aston Martin DB2–4 and DB4 GT, and the Bristol 400. The Superleggera system was widely licensed across the industry.

Touring’s relationship with Alfa Romeo extended deep into racing. The coachbuilder’s landmark page records “Multiple Class and Outright Wins” for Alfa Romeo at the Targa Florio — Sicily’s mountain endurance race and the event where Alfa’s pre-war dominance was most pronounced. The Superleggera construction method, patented in 1936, was first applied to competition Alfa Romeo chassis in the 1937 Mille Miglia (6C 2300B) and carried into the Alfa Corse 8C 2900B programme under Enzo Ferrari’s sporting directorship. The four 8C 2900B Corto cars prepared by Alfa Corse for the 1938 Mille Miglia used Touring Superleggera roadster bodies; the 1938 Le Mans 8C 2900B wore a streamlined aerodynamic coupé by Touring — the first closed-body Le Mans car — and led the race before retiring. Touring’s combination of aerodynamic ambition and Superleggera lightness made it the technical partner for Alfa Romeo’s most serious endurance campaigns of the late 1930s.

There is an unlucky symmetry to Touring’s origin and end. The company traces to Carrozzeria Falco, founded by Vittorio Ascari — the brother of Antonio Ascari, who died racing an Alfa Romeo at Montlhéry in 1925 — a coachbuilder whose roots are entangled with one of Italian motorsport’s earliest fatalities. Touring’s own end echoed this: after forty years of masterworks, including the first Alfa Romeo Mille Miglia victories (the 8C 2300 Spider Touring that Borzacchini drove to win the 1932 Mille Miglia outright was a Touring body), the company proved unable to adapt to the structural shifts in the industry. By the early 1960s manufacturers were bringing coachbuilding in-house, and larger rivals like Pininfarina (with Ferrari) and Italdesign were absorbing the available bespoke commissions. Carrozzeria Touring folded in 1966. Many of its workers transferred to Carrozzeria Marazzi, which directly continued certain Touring commissions — including the body of the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1967), built by Marazzi but designed in the Touring tradition by Franco Scaglione.

A group of investors revived the name in 2006 as Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera Srl, still Milan-based. In 2012, the reconstituted company presented the Disco Volante — a homage to the original 1952 C52, built on the chassis of the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione (2006–2011 road car). The 2012 Disco Volante’s body, fabricated in aluminium, deliberately echoed the organic aerodynamic shapes of Touring’s original flying saucer; four coupés were built, joined by an additional spider variant from 2014. The project confirmed that the Touring Superleggera name, even in its revived form, retained genuine coachbuilding authority — and that the 8C’s Ferrari-derived V8 platform could support bodywork of the original’s quality. The company continues to produce bespoke and limited-series coachwork.

Connections

• Alfa Romeo — primary coachbuilding client 1926–1966; built 8C 2300, 8C 2900, 6C 2500 bodies, source: wikipedia.org
• Antonio Ascari — Carrozzeria Falco (Touring’s predecessor) was founded by Vittorio Ascari, Antonio’s brother, source: automobile.fandom.com
• Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 — built competition bodies for Scuderia Ferrari 8C 2300 cars, source: wikipedia.org
• Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 — built definitive 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta (1938 Mille Miglia winner), source: wikipedia.org
• Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale — Carrozzeria Marazzi (Touring’s direct successor employing former Touring workers) built the Stradale body, source: wikipedia.org
• Mille Miglia — 8C 2300 Spider Touring won 1932 Mille Miglia (Borzacchini/Bignami); 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta won 1938 Mille Miglia (Biondetti/Stefani); also won 1947 (first post-war), source: wikipedia.org
• Targa Florio — Touring-bodied 8C 2300 and 8C 2900 cars took multiple class and outright wins in the 1930s, source: touringsuperleggera.eu

Touring Superleggera [relates] Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Touring Superleggera [relates] Targa Florio Touring Superleggera [relates] Mille Miglia

• Alfa Romeo Disco Volante — 2012 homage Disco Volante built on 8C Competizione chassis by revived Touring Superleggera, source: touring-superleggera.it

Sources

• Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera (Wikipedia)
• Touring Superleggera: All cars built by the Milanese coachbuilder (Carrozzieri-Italiani)
• Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera: 11 greatest creations (Telegraph)

Note on German coachbuilders and Alfa Romeo: While the great Italian carrozzerie — Touring, Zagato, Bertone, Pininfarina — were Alfa Romeo’s primary coachbuilding partners, German coachbuilder Karosserie Erdmann & Rossi (Berlin, 1898–c.1949) also produced bodies on Alfa Romeo 6C and 8C chassis in the pre-war era. Erdmann & Rossi’s work — particularly on Mercedes and Horch chassis — was noted for aerodynamic ambition and luxury craftsmanship. The presence of German coachbuilding on Italian chassis underlines that the pre-war European luxury coachbuilder world was genuinely transnational, even as each national tradition maintained distinct aesthetic and structural philosophies.