Lamley Single File: Yow Modellini 1952 Alfa Romeo 1900 Disco Volante Coupe

It’s been a fair while since I’ve propped up the bar in the Single File club, but I’m back in my favourite Lamley feature with a superb bit of diecast from Yow Modellini and their Festa Mille Miglia series. I’ve used Single File to showcase a car from the Mille Miglia set before; the beautiful OSCA MT4. Now I have added another car to my collection; the gorgeous Alfa Romeo 1900 Disco Volante.

The Disco Volante (Italian for “flying saucer”) was created in 1952 with a view to compete in sportscar racing. The bodywork was crafted by Italian coachbuilders Carrozzeria Touring and extensively wind tunnel tested to achieve as low drag coeffeciency as possible. As the name suggests, the Disco Volante shared some parts with the Alfa Romeo 1900 saloon, namely the engine which was a lightened and fettled version of the 2 litre inline-4 found in the 1900. The modifications gave an output of 156bhp, which coupled with the low kerbweight and low drag gave a top speed of 140mph.

5 were built in total: 3 spiders with the original 2 litre engine and 2 cars with a 6 cylinder engine from the Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM. Two of the original spiders were modified for further testing, one becoming the narrow bodied “Fianchi Stretti” version and another one into a fixed roof coupe, the car Yow Modellini have replicated. And just like the OSCA, they’ve done a rather good job of it.

The proportions are a little out and the back end of the car could have been raked a little more, but this isn’t a new model by any means and the swoops and curves of the Carrozzeria body would have no doubt been challenging to any diecast manufacturer, let alone one not used to 1/64 scale or indeed diecast. Yow Modellini’s releases are normally 1/43, resin and produced in low volume. No doubt at all though they’ve done very well with this and it’s still a stunning looking thing very in keeping with the original.