1954 Alfa Romeo BAT 7

BAT stands for Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica and refers to a trio of cars built in 1953,1954 and 1955 in a joint project by Alfa Romeo and the Italian coachbuilding firm Bertone, and were a brainchild of Franco Scaglione. Nearly forty years later, at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in 1994, I photographed the three cars when they were part of the auction which Coys held on the Saturday evening of the weekend-long meeting. I showed all three cars in a post on 18 February 2013.

This is another photograph I took that day of BAT 7 being wheeled out for display.

Alfa Romeo BAT cars

On 18 February 2013 I showed photographs of the three Alfa Romeo BAT cars taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994 when they were they were part of an auction held by Coys on the Saturday evening of the two day meeting. here are a couple more photographs I took of the cars that day.

This is the 1954 BAT 7 car being wheeled out for the display. This article by coachbuild.com describes the three Bertone-bodied vehicles.

1953 BAT 5, 1955 BAT 9 and 1954 BAT 7. All three cars were built on the Alfa Romeo 1900 SS chassis and, as Dan Eastwood pointed out on my previous post, they were all the brainchild of Franco Scaglione. (Should that be 'brainchildren'?)

Alfa Romeo BAT concept cars

The BAT here is nothing to do with Batman and Robin, it stands for Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica and refers to a trio of cars built in 1953,1954 and 1955 in a joint project by Alfa Romeo and the Italian coachbuilding firm Bertone. I remember seeing photographs of these cars in the mid-1950s and how futuristic they looked compared to the likes of the Morris Oxford, Ford Anglia and Vauxhall Velox which were around at that time. Nearly forty years later, at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in 1994, I photographed the three cars when they were part of the auction which Coys held on the Saturday evening of the weekend-long meeting.

The BAT 5 from 1953

The BAT 7 from 1954

The BAT 9 from 1955

This Wikipedia article tells the story of the three cars, and also the BAT 11 which was built many years later in 2008.