After 70 years, a past that includes the Second World War, a dazzling build, public shunning, a host of accolades, numerous owners, inspiration for future cars, a “lost” period, underworld ties, a multi-year, multi-million-dollar restoration and more, Battista “Pinin” Farina’s Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale headed back to Italy last month — if just for a visit.

The car, a two-seater Cabriolet that is timelessly elegant, was shipped back “home” to appear in the esteemed Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, May 23 and 24, where it subsequently won the Trofeo Foglizzo for best interior design as decided by the jury.

This vintage Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale took nearly $2-million and seven years to restore. Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

It had been in the care of David Grainger and his company, The Guild of Automotive Restorers, in Bradford, Ont., for the past seven years, after it was purchased, says Grainger, from a high-ranking member of the Japanese Yakuza as part of an estate sale. The car is owned by Chris Ohrstrom, chairman of the World Monuments Fund, and the client who had the Guild reconstruct the renowned 1935 Bugatti Aerolithe, mostly from a number of photographs.

In 1930, Farina formed Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in Turin, with a focus on design and construction of new car bodies for wealthy clientele, quickly gaining prominence. (After the war, as the Carrozzeria Pininfarina, the company became one of the world’s pre-eminent automotive styling houses, noted for its work with Ferrari, among many others.)

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Here’s where the Guild’s research picked up the story: An Alfa 6C 2500 chassis was sold to Farina in October 1942. As the Second World War was going on and his facilities were in use supporting the war effort, Farina held on to the chassis with the hope it would be used to build a new Cabriolet whenever hostilities ceased. In early 1946, with the war at an end, he began construction of his Cabriolet. Although no official finish date was ever recorded for the car, it was sold in October 1946 to Giuliana Tortoli de Cuccoli, owner of a perfume design company. The car was entered into several concours, including the Concorso D’Eleganza des Ente Moda in late 1946, and winning the Grand Prix d’Honneur category “C” at the Concours d’Elegance in Monte Carlo in October 1947.

The Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale in 1946. This car has changed hands a few times and has a lovely story to tell. Supplied , Pinin Farina Archives

The 1946 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale has a very interesting past. Supplied , Pinin Farina Archives

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Supplied , Pinin Farina Archives

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Supplied , Pinin Farina Archives

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Supplied , Pinin Farina Archives

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Supplied , Pinin Farina Archives

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Supplied , Pinin Farina Archives

During his investigation into the car, the Guild’s research head, Thomas Douglas, says he found this “amazing” story of Pinin Farina taking this car to Paris to defy the French at the 1946 Paris Salon. “I thought to myself: ‘Wow, wouldn’t that be really excellent if we had that car.’ And with more research … I found out it was the car. That blew me away.”

Again, the Guild picked up the story: With old wounds still fresh from the recently ended war, Italy was among the countries barred from appearing at the Paris Salon. Battista Farina and his son, Sergio, drove two cars — a Lancia Aprilia and the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 — to Paris to “make a statement.” When they arrived, they quickly washed the cars and displayed them in front of the Salon so that all who entered had to pass by them. It was credited as Farina’s “own personal ‘anti-Salon’” and he was offered space at the following year’s show.

Even though the Alfa was mostly “all there” when it first arrived at the Guild, it was a literal basket case, and the car’s body, which had not been built with the highest quality material in the first place, had suffered over the years. “When I opened that container,” Grainger says, “I thought, ‘Oh, Christ.’ It was worse than I thought. It was just scrap. The aluminum on that car was of such poor quality. (It) was pathetic.”

As you can see, this Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale was in "pathetic" shape when it arrived at The Guild. Supplied , The Guild

The Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale was a complete basketcase before it was restored. Supplied , The Guild

The restoration took several years and more than $2 million to complete. “To Chris’s (Ohrstrom) detriment, we probably could have saved him $300,000 to $400,000 if we had just remanufactured some pieces,” Grainger admits. “But that wasn’t his priority. He wanted (the car preserved).”

Grainger turns philosophical. “Where do you stop preserving the past? With a car like that, it’s very important because it is a very significant car. That car was made from drop tanks from P-51 Mustangs. Our welds are crisp and neat. The original ‘spattery’ welds were probably done by some 17-year-old kid in 1945. We preserved as much of that car as possible.

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“I can look at the Alfa and really appreciate it,” he continues. “A lot of people don’t get it, because it’s not like the 1950s when everybody had these super-exotic dream cars (that were) just way out there. But they weren’t functional. They weren’t good prototypes. A prototype is a messaging of things that are about to follow. Battista Farina thought about the Alfa during the Second World War and then went nuts building it. And although it’s a little busy in some of its areas from a design standpoint, it incorporates as fresh ideas a whole new shape that really didn’t exist before the war. So you have a prototype car that’s so radically different from everything that’s around it, but, 10 years later, it looks pretty ordinary. You have that with this Alfa. People look at it and don’t get that it was a radical concept. But that means it was successful. And that means to us it was a very important car. It’s exciting to get your hands on something that is that historically significant.”

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Speciale Clayton Seams , Driving

The Speciale’s classically simple shape left its impression on others. According to researcher Douglas, Farina re-sold the car to the Austin Motor Company of England, which used it as a design mule for the Austin A-90 Atlantic. The car was later given to designer Holden “Bob” Kodo, who worked with Raymond Loewy, the man responsible for many of Studebaker’s designs.

Unlike many concours restorations of the type that are trailered to grassy events like Pebble Beach and will never see tarmac, Grainger is adamant the Alfa will be driven. “I certainly have the feeling that someone is going to want to drive it. There are people who have multi-million dollar cars who actually take them out and drive them. It’s not going to get thrashed about, but I can certainly see a car like that going out on a tour or some of these special rallies or something like that.”

But, before that happens, it’s Grainger who is going to have first crack at the Guild’s painstaking restoration. “Honestly … I fully intend to take that car out on the road around Villa D’Este and around the Italian Alps and drive it.”