Alfa Romeo Disco Volante, Case Study

Study in Scarlet – A study into automotive styling with the ambition of capturing the essence of the original Alfa Romeo Disco Volante from 1952, reimagined within the parameters of modern design and dimensions. To achieve this, the wheelbase and overall dimensions of the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta were employed, forming the foundation upon which a new bespoke coachbuild body was meticulously crafted.

It started as a simple and passionate sketch that gave birth to the project which originally was intended as an internal experiment only.

Since the revival of the coachbuilding industry over the last decade and a half, sports car manufacturers have seized these opportunities to embark on low-volume, high-return projects, addressing the burgeoning market demand and enhancing their brand prestige. Hence, the aspiration to revive the iconic 1952 Disco Volante on a contemporary chassis is not merely a dream but a viable reality that can be realised.

Miroslav decided to base this on a chassis that’s already available within the Fiat group – Ferrari’s V12 front engined platform that underpins car such as F12 Berlinetta or 812 Superfast. Therefore with small to reasonable effort this case study can be turned into a reality.

The primary challenge lay in striking a delicate equilibrium between preserving the iconic elements of the original 1952 Alfa Romeo Disco Volante and interpreting them through a contemporary lens – – the car was neither to look like a restomod or be retro inspired cyberpunk design. Exercising utmost restraint was essential, ensuring the design remained untouched by the aggressive styling trends prevalent in today’s automotive landscape.

One of the most interesting features is the chrome strip wraps around the car and slices it in two – a theme borrowed from the original car – that works not only as a styling element, but helps integrating the door handle and the rear end lights. The clean and expressive front hood design was a straight forward execution, but to find a simple and matching rear end to the vehicle was not an easy task. 3D model done in Autodesk Alias – a combination of SubD & nurbs modelling. Rendered in Autodesk VRED in GPU mode with NVIDIA RTX 3090.