1938 Alfa Romeo 8C2900B

lthough it could easily be considered one of the more

beautiful cars selected for this volume, in fact this

Alfa Romeo’s looks do not reside at the top of the list

of this car’s most remarkable attributes.

Instead, it is the innovative construction that

makes this elegant coupe stand apart. While the

word superleggera has been adopted by Lamborghini most

recently to describe “super light” versions of its road cars, in fact

this term was first used to describe a construction technique

that was used to great effect in the 8C2900B. Rather than

the conventional body-on-frame arrangement, superleggera

construction used triangulated, small-diameter tubing welded

together to create a very light, very stiff chassis, upon which a

body would be formed and shaped. Maserati’s later “Birdcage”

racecar, which incorporated superleggera-style construction,

A