1926 Alfa Romeo RL Super Sport with Wilkinson Coachwork

An Italian sports car with an American touch

By the mid-1920s, Alfa Romeo was establishing a reputation for building some of Europe's finest sporting automobiles. One of the models responsible for that reputation was the RL, designed by Giuseppe Merosi and introduced in 1921. It was the first entirely new model developed during the Nicola Romeo era of the company.

Produced from 1925 through 1927, the RL was offered in several versions, including the sporting RL Super Sport (RLSS). Its 2,994 cc inline six-cylinder engine featured dry-sump lubrication and produced 83 horsepower at 3,600 rpm. That was enough to propel the car to a reported top speed just over 80 mph, impressive performance for its day.

Like many sporting chassis of the period, the RL could be supplied to customers with bodies commissioned from independent coachbuilders. And that's where this particular example takes an interesting turn.

In 1926, a wealthy American Alfa Romeo enthusiast (not @karl... he doesn't enter the picture for another 100 years) commissioned Wilkinson of Long Island, New York, to create a distinctive open body for his RL Super Sport. The result was an unusual two-seat roadster with what is known as a spider bateau body style. Its long, tapered rear end resembles the inverted keel of a boat, giving the car a silhouette quite unlike the more familiar Italian-bodied Alfa Romeos of the period.

The construction was equally distinctive. The bonnet was made of aluminum, while the unusual boat-shaped rear section incorporated mahogany. The combination of metal and wood, along with the flowing lines of the body, makes this one of the more unusual coachbuilt Alfa Romeos of the 1920s.

Fortunately, this remarkable automobile has survived. It is now part of the collection at the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile (MAUTO) in Turin, Italy, where it can still be admired.

The model: Autodelta43, SR27

It isn't every day that an automobile this unusual turns up in 1:43 scale. So when I came across this example from Autodelta43, I didn't need much convincing.

I purchased the model from Autopioneer in Germany. Produced by the Italian artisan modelmaker Autodelta43, it is cataloged as SR27 and reproduces the 1926 Alfa Romeo RL Super Sport with Wilkinson coachwork.

The model is resin cast and produced in a limited edition of just 50 pieces. Autodelta43 specializes in small-production, handcrafted models, generally incorporating resin bodies with chromed white metal components, photo-etched parts and finely machined details. The emphasis is on capturing unusual and often overlooked automobiles that might never attract the attention of larger model manufacturers.

This Alfa Romeo is a particularly good example of that philosophy. Rather than reproduce another familiar competition Alfa Romeo or one of the more conventional bodies fitted to the RL chassis, Autodelta43 chose an automobile whose appeal lies in its one-of-a-kind coachwork.

The distinctive boat-tail profile is what makes the original so memorable, and it is also what makes this miniature such an interesting addition to the collection. It represents not only an important sporting Alfa Romeo, but also a fascinating example of the international coachbuilding business of the 1920s, when a customer could commission an Italian chassis and have it clothed by a craftsman thousands of miles away.

A production run of only 50 makes it an uncommon addition in its own right. But for me, the real attraction is the subject itself. It's a little-known Alfa Romeo, an unusual piece of American coachbuilding, and a surviving automobile with a story worth preserving.

Another interesting prewar Alfa Romeo finds its way into the collection!