CARROZZERIA TOURING

Carlo ‘Cici’ Anderloni is regarded as the design mastermind behind Carrozzeria Touring. Like his father, Felice Bianchi Anderloni, he became an automotive icon in his own right, having played a major part in many notable machines of the coach-built ‘golden age’. Felice founded Carrozzeria Touring in Milan, Italy, in March 1926. A race driver and coachbuilder during the 1930s for Isotta-fraschini and Alfa Romeo, he gained an enviable reputation for creating stylishly elegant, aerodynamic designs. He developed the patented ‘superlight’ Superleggera construction method, a creation of metal tube frames welded to a solid chassis and finished off by adding aluminium body panels. Things changed rapidly for Cici after the sudden death of his father in 1948, and the fortunes of the company soon followed when his 1:10-scale ‘little boat’ design of the distinctive Barchetta was accepted by prospective client Enzo Ferrari. The Superleggera concept soon became synonymous with Touring, and was incorporated into the name of the company, which became ‘Touring Superleggera Milano’ in the 1950s. The first two cars designed and built under Cici’s responsibilities are two of automotive history’s timeless masterpieces — the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500SS coupé and the Ferrari 166 roadster. Several other production models followed, including the Alfa Romeo 1900 Coupe, Maserati 3500 Coupe, and Lamborghini 350 GT. Cici also forged links with Aston Martin after licensing his father’s Superleggera production method. The svelte lines of the fabulous DB4 and DB5 models were indeed penned by Anderloni and his team. With the advancement of monocoque construction in the 1960s, the end for Anderloni’s company was inevitable. Competitors such as Pininfarina were front runners for the scarce coachbuilding work that remained. The talented Cici went on to become an advisor, and then the person in charge of the in-house design department at Alfa Romeo. After his retirement, Cici remained extremely active, and he was — among other things — judge and chairman of the jury at the world’s most prestigious concours d’elégance events at Pebble Beach, Bagatelle, and Villa d’este until his death in 2003. Touring’s designs have stood the test of time over the decades. The graciously combined flair and good taste with excellent workmanship created some of the most intoxicating automobiles ever built. Today, Touring-bodied cars are among the world’s most coveted collector automobiles.