[Sunbeam Talbot Email List] Joe DeFalco's Alpine

[Derek Cook]

Hi Everyone

The pictures of Joe DeFalco's Alpine caught my eye in the latest Stardust magazine (April 2010). Editor Paul Walby had chosen a colour page for the pics and included an image of the chassis plate.

The chassis number of this car is very early, making it a '53 car not '54. Also the body no. reads 1001. Now, owning one of six Alpine Specials known to STAR that have body numbers out of sync with the chassis no. (that's another story I wont go into here), gives me an interest in Alpine body numbers!! Has anyone else noticed that 1001 is the first one?

When I did my research for my article that appeared in The Automobile magazine a few years ago on the Alpine Prototype, it became very clear that the cars were in very short supply in March '53 when the car was launched. There were no RHD cars apart from the prototype and contempory accounts reveal that the first LHD car was shipped to the States only after the cars' launch in London.

Could Joe's car be the same one that was used in the first publicity photos and at the launch at Devonshire House in March in March 1953? This car crossed the Atlantic at very early stage in the proceedings.

Just a thought!

Best wishes,

Derek Cook
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