1948 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport ‘Freccia D’Oro’
Italy’s first postwar production car, the Freccia d’Oro took its name (“Golden Arrow”) from a prewar Italian rally and holds its place in Alfa Romeo history as the last model assembled by hand in the Portello workshops. It was also the first Alfa Romeo production model to carry bodywork designed in-house rather than by an outside coachbuilder.
The result was a five-seat berlina with full-width rounded rear haunches and a pronounced trunk, finished in steel rather than the aluminum construction used on some other 6C variants. Among the 680 examples produced between 1946 and 1951, buyers reportedly included King Farouk of Egypt and Prince Rainier of Monaco.
The 2.5-liter DOHC straight-six produces approximately 90 bhp through a four-speed manual gearbox, giving a top speed of about 96 mph, with independent front suspension and a live rear axle located by trailing arms. The single Weber carburetor distinguishes the Sport from the more potent Super Sport, which used triple carburetors and delivered significantly higher output.
In film culture, the Freccia d’Oro is most recognized from The Godfather (1972), where one appears in the Sicily sequences and is destroyed by a car bomb meant for Michael Corleone, killing his wife Apollonia instead. The car actually destroyed in the scene was a replica.
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