A superb and rare photo of the beautiful 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Cabrio , made for Alfa Romeo by Carozzeria Touring , photographed for the new model year 1939.

The 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Cabrio was a convertible, or cabriolet, made by the Italian company Carozzeria Touring for the Alfa Romeo factory. The Alfa Romeo 6C name was used on road, race and sports cars made between 1925–1954 by Alfa Romeo. The term ‘6C’ refers to a straight or inline 6 cylinder engine. Bodies for these cars were made by coachbuilders such as James Young, Zagato, Touring, Castagna, and Pininfarina. Starting from 1933 there was also a 6C version with a factory Alfa body, built in Portello. In the mid-1920s, Alfa's RL was considered too large and heavy, so a new development began. The 2-liter formula that had led to Alfa Romeo winning the World Championship in 1925, changed to 1.5 liter for the 1926 season. The 6C1500 was introduced in 1925 at Milan, production started 1927, with the P2 Grand Prix car as starting point. Engine capacity was now 1487 cc, against the P2's 1987 cc, while supercharging was dropped. First versions were bodied by Young and Touring. In 1928, a 6C Sport was released, with a dual overhead camshafts engine. Its sport version won many races, including the 1928 Mille Miglia. Total production was 3000 (200 with DOHC engine). Ten copies of a supercharged (compressore, compressor) Super Sport variant were also made. ntroduced in 1938, the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 (2443 cc) was the last 6C road car. World War II was coming and car development was stopped, but a few hundred 6C 2500s were built from 1940-1945. Postwar, the first new Alfa model was the 1946 6C 2500 Freccia d'Oro (Golden Arrow), of which 680 were built through 1951, with bodies by Alfa. It was sold to wealthy customers like King Farouk, Alì Khan, Rita Hayworth, Tyrone Power, and Prince Rainier. The 6C 2500 Villa d'Este was introduced in 1949 and was produced until 1952, named for the Concorso d'Eleganza held in Villa d'Este; a Touring Superleggera-bodied version won the prize. Villa d'Este was Alfa's last hand built model, only 36 examples made. The last 6C was produced in 1952, and was replaced by the 1900.

Carrozzeria Touring is an automobile coachbuilder established on March 25, 1926 in Milan, Italy by Felice Bianchi Anderloni (1882–1948) and Gaetano Ponzoni. Carrozzeria Touring became well known for both the beauty of its designs and patented superleggera construction methods. After achieving success through the middle of the 20th century, business began to decline as automobile manufacturers replaced body-on-frame with monocoque construction and took coachbuilding in house. The original firm ceased production in 1966, but Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni and Marazzi preserved the "Touring Superleggera" trademark and used it on several occasions to support the company's heritage. The trademark was purchased by the current owner, Zeta Europe BV, which resumed business activities in 2006 under the name Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera s.r.l. The firm is headquartered in its traditional hometown Milan, Italy and manufactures coachwork under Head of Design Louis de Fabribeckers.

The company that became Alfa Romeo was founded as Società Anonima Italiana Darracq (SAID) in 1906 by Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan, in partnership with the French automobile firm of Alexandre Darracq. The firm initially produced Darracq cars in Naples, but after the partnership collapsed Stella and the other Italian co-investors moved production to an idle Darracq factory in the Milan suburb of Portello, and the company was renamed A.L.F.A. (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili). The first non-Darracq car produced by company was the 1910 24 HP, designed by Giuseppe Merosi. Merosi would go on to design a series of new ALFA cars with more powerful engines (40-60 HP). ALFA also ventured into motor racing, drivers Franchini and Ronzoni competing in the 1911 Targa Florio with two 24 HP models. However, the onset of World War I halted automobile production at ALFA for three years. 1916 saw the company come under the direction of Neapolitan entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who converted the factory to produce military hardware for the Italian and Allied war efforts. Munitions, aircraft engines and other components, compressors and generators based on the company's existing car engines, and heavy locomotives were produced in the factory during the war. When the war was over, Romeo took complete control of ALFA and car production resumed in 1919. In 1920, the name of the company was changed to Alfa Romeo with the Torpedo 20-30 HP becoming the first car to be badged as such. Their first success came in 1920 when Giuseppe Campari won at Mugello and continued with second place in the Targa Florio driven by Enzo Ferrari. Giuseppe Merosi continued as head designer, and the company continued to produce solid road cars as well as successful race cars (including the 40-60 HP and the RL Targa Florio). In 1923 Vittorio Jano was lured away from Fiat, partly thanks to the persuasion of a young Alfa racing driver named Enzo Ferrari, to replace Merosi as chief designer at Alfa Romeo. The first Alfa Romeo under Jano was the P2 Grand Prix car, which won Alfa Romeo the inaugural world championship for Grand Prix cars in 1925. For Alfa road cars Jano developed a series of small-to-medium-displacement 4, 6, and 8 cylinder inline power plants based on the P2 unit that established the classic architecture of Alfa engines, with light alloy construction, hemispherical combustion chambers, centrally-located plugs, two rows of overhead valves per cylinder bank and dual overhead cams. Jano's designs proved to be both reliable and powerful. Enzo Ferrari proved to be a better team manager than driver, and when the factory team was privatised, it then became Scuderia Ferrari. When Ferrari left Alfa Romeo, he went on to build his own cars. Tazio Nuvolari often drove for Alfa, winning many races prior to WWII. In 1928 Nicola Romeo left, with Alfa going broke after defense contracts ended, and in the end of 1932 Alfa Romeo was rescued by the government, which then had effective control. Alfa became an instrument of Mussolini's Italy, a national emblem. During this period Alfa Romeo built bespoke vehicles for the wealthy, with the bodies normally built by Touring of Milan or Pininfarina. This was the era that peaked with the legendary Alfa Romeo 2900B Type 35 racers. The Alfa factory (converted during wartime to the production of Macchi C.202 Folgore engines) was bombed during World War II, and struggled to return to profitability after the war. The luxury vehicles were out. Smaller mass-produced vehicles began to be produced in Alfa's factories beginning with the 1954 model year, with the introduction of the Giulietta series of berline (saloons/sedans), coupes and open two-seaters. All three varieties shared what would become the classic Alfa Romeo Twin Cam engine, initially in 1300cc form. This engine would eventually be enlarged to just under 2 liters (1962cc) and would remain in production through 1995.

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This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful era of Alfa Romeo ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 10.5" (ca. 20 x 27 cm).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.