by CHB’s mystery correspondent
It was 1987 when I came across the fabulous Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Pininfarina roadster seen in these photos. I had been given a lead that the car, which apparently belonged to a notary in Geraardsbergen in Belgium, was languishing in a garage and for sale at around 600,000 BF (just over 15,000 Euros!). However, when I finally got to see the car I was disappointed with its condition and I also didn’t quite like Pininfarina’s double headlamp design. So, I left the car where it was and forgot about it. Until many years later, when prices for the 6C 2500 SS with attractive coachwork soared. In 2011 I placed an enquiry on postwarclassic to see if anyone knew what had happened to the car subsequent to my visit in 1987. Strangely there was only one response, from a gentleman who said the car had been the property of the King of the Belgians, Leopold III, and that he had last seen it being restored at Lusso Service Holland, a company in The Netherlands which by then didn’t exist anymore.
But that was it and I now wonder if anyone has seen it in more recent years, perhaps in Italy? If restored, it should be a smashing car, the type which is shown at a concours. Corrado Lopresto has won multiple prizes with his Pininfarina twin headlamp coupé, but the Geraardsbergen roadster was much more attractive.
One also wonders, if the car really belonged to HRH King Leopold III, then no doubt there should be a period photo of the King with this Alfa somewhere?
The black/white photo: Prince Leopold III and Princess Astrid of Belgium visiting Alfa Romeo at the race track, being hosted by Prospero Gianferrari
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