Today’s flip of the 1960 Auto-Parade lands us on a handsome car indeed: Pinifarina’s proposal for an Alfa Romeo 2000 coupe. This coupe was never put into production, and the reason is pretty obvious: it totally lacks any semblance of the classic Alfa grille. Can’t have that, and rightfully so. Well, if Alfa can’t use that face, how about somebody else?
This 1960 Opel Rekord P2’s face looks way too much like that Alfa coupe’s. Did Pininfarina have a hand in the Opel’s design? Not officially, to my knowledge; GM was very proud of its design capabilities. Was it stolen? Might be, but it’s a bit hard to prove.
That Alfa Coupe was apparently a one-off, and probably actually built in 1959. And the Opel P2 arrived in 1960, but apparently sometime in the actual calender year, not in the fall of 1959. So there might have been enough time to crib it. Oh well, a bit late for legal action anyway.
(Update: The verdict is already in: stolen. That thanks to Laurence Jones’ picture of Pininfarina’s 1958 Caddy concept in his comment)
And then there’s the 1958 Cadillac Skylight by Pinifarina…
I was looking for an earlier version of this face, and this is it. Pretty much proves my hypothesis that the Opel was cribbed.
Australian Austin Freeway with Opel Badging very cool
There’s also the ’58 Studebaker. 🙂
Here’s a picture of the Austin Freeway.
Both also remind me of the 1942 Chryslers, which had wraparound horizontal-bar grilles with a similar grille/headlight relationship.
The rear 2/3 of the car reminds me a bit of the French Facel Vega from the early 60s.
Apart from the grill, and the step above the door handle, that Alfa has a Ferrari look to it.(250GT ?)
Until the mid forties it was common for Alfas to lack the “classic” grill, but I’m told that after the war Alfa made a policy decision to re-inforce their identity.
It looks like that Alfa may have evolved into the 2600 coupe? Uncle Mellow I agree it has an air of Ferrari about it – put a prancing horse in the middle of that grille and it would get away with it too, perhaps with some more prominent vertical bars.
The first free-association thought that came into my mind was ’57 Ford with round parking lights instead of rectangular: