EVENTS AND DIARY
Museum dedicates ongoing exhibition to Italian cars in Italian-street-themed surroundings
Autoworld Italian Car Passion and essential dates
La Vita e beLLa must have been the inspiration when Autoworld, in Brussels, came up with its latest winter exposition: Italian Car Passion. In fact, this is Autoworld’s fourth major year-end exhibition dedicated to the bella macchina Italiana of the period from the 1950s to the ’80s.
This is a very broad subject, of course, so the museum has dedicated a great deal of space to it. The entire upper exhibition floor is presented as an Italian village scene filled with cars ranging from normal family cars to rare coachbuilt beauties and supercars. It begins with an impressive line-up of special low-volume cars such as a one-off 1952 Siata 8V Bertone that rarely sees the light of day, and the equally unique 1964 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Pininfarina. In a further display that’s mostly devoted to racing heritage – which in Italy, of course, is a national pastime – highlights include the 1947 Cisitalia 202S MM Nuvolari Spider.
The main piazza (where there is also an Italianthemed wine bar and café) includes an astonishing array of cars, deliberately intended to evoke the chaotic street scene of an Italian town. Of the 75 cars and motorcycles present there are only six Prancing Horses, to be found sharing the limelight with products from Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, De Tomaso, Siata and even ASA.
That said, the chance to see 250 GT SWB, 275 GTB/4, 288 GTO and the ex-Raquel Welch 275 GTS together will please the crowds, but so will the Fiat Topolino, 500, Dino Spider and Alfa Giulietta Spider. The work of designers and coachbuilders such as Pininfarina, Bertone, Gandini, Giugiaro, Zagato, Ercole Spada and Touring Superleggera is demonstrated, including one of four 1952 Alfa Romeo Disco Volantes (on loan from the Turin Automobile Museum) and the recent Disco Volante by Touring Superleggera. Supercars include Ferrari F12 TdF, LaFerrari, Lamborghini Veneno Spider, Maserati MC12 Corsa and Bugatti EB110.
The exhibition continues until the end of January 2016. For details, visit www.italiancarpassion.be.