The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was a lover of super-luxury cars from the Lombard brand Alfa Romeo and did not hesitate to drive them, promote them and even give them as gifts for the most varied political or sentimental purposes. In the Spanish Civil War, fascist Italy and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany strongly supported Francisco Franco’s coup rebellion. Both powers established their headquarters in Vitoria, where there were also two ministries, those of Justice and Education. And Mussolini’s men registered in the Basque capital at least nine exclusive units of the Alfa Romeo model 6C that entered Spain by boat through Cádiz and that received all the facilities from the Franco authorities to avoid having to pay tariffs.
The first, with registration VI-1798, was registered in the name of General Gastone Gambara, general commander of the CTV (as the fascist contingent in Spain was called) and later ambassador of the Italian kingdom to Franco’s first cabinet once the war ended. The fifth, with plate VI-1824 and which could be valued at hundreds of thousands of euros based on the prices they fetch at auctions, continues to circulate after an eventful life and participates in classic car meetings and elegance competitions. The seventh, VI-1853, was assigned to Carlos Pérez-Seoane y Cullén, third duke of Pinohermoso and supporter of the uprising. The ninth and last, the VI-1926 convertible, was taken by the powerful Ramón Serrano Súñer, Franco’s brother-in-law, Minister of the Interior and Foreign Affairs in the first period and a great ally of the Italian fascists.
The importance of the operation is greater if we take into account that, in Vitoria, the first city conquered by the coup plotters on July 18, 1936, only 48 vehicles were registered during the Civil War and no more than 300 if the months are included. after the end of the war, until April 1940, in which fascist Italy continued to have a very relevant presence in the city. And not only Alfa Romeo cars were imported. Lancia units also appear in the registration files. The Duke of Pinohermoso, who in addition to being a rider and bullfighter was an assistant to the military high command Lorenzo Martínez Fuset—very close to Franco and in turn a friend of Federico García Lorca—took, for example, an Aprilia with registration VI-1854. It is another luxury sedan, the last one designed by the founder of the house, Vincenzo Lancia, before he died.
And there are also numerous FIATs. The EFE agency preserves photographs of General Gambara delivering a convertible Topolino in Burgos to the dictator’s daughter, Carmencita Franco Polo, just twelve years old. The images are from August 1939 and, although the car numbering is not visible in them, in that month two imported vehicles similar to the one delivered in Vitoria were registered. Both were in the name of CTV major Gino Ercole Bruno.
The Álava Archive, which brings together the funds of the Provincial Council but also those of the State organizations in the province, has records of each of the vehicles registered in the territory from 1906 – the VI-1 was precisely a FIAT – until mid-1970s. In many cases it also keeps a folder with the file of each of them, that is, with their technical sheets, fines or sales, for example. Motor enthusiast Miguel Martín Zurimendi dedicates his free mornings to going through those boxes and boxes of documentation accompanied by some colored pencils. It was thus, by chance, that he notified the archive management that Franco’s brother-in-law had registered a very high-end car in Vitoria.
A more complete review of the files allows us to discover a system that goes beyond a possible free gift for those who dealt with Mussolini on so many occasions and who was the ideologist of a first Franco regime clearly inspired by Italian fascism, from which he imported its ways. and customs. A couple of Alava officials even expressed in writing their concern about the botched behavior of the Italian ‘guests’, who asked to expedite registrations at the highest level for cars that, initially, carried a CTV series registration number, the used by military vehicles deployed in Spain.
The first to receive a “targa civile” – civil registration, in Italian – at the Vitoria Traffic Headquarters was an Alfa Romeo 6C for Gastone Gambara, one of the chief generals in Spain during the Civil War. It is a model for which there is no documentation beyond the registration form in February 1938 and which was the one that inaugurated these luxury imports. There is evidence that, later, during World War II, Gambara also worked for Alfa Romeo in Africa, where he was stationed.
The Alfa Romeo 6C, which had numerous versions and variants, but all of them with luxury as a common denominator, is a highly sought-after model among collectors and in antique vehicle competitions. Mussolini himself tried to flee in one of them, very similar to those in Vitoria, when the end of his regime was approaching at the end of World War II. He was caught with his lover, Ciara Petacci, in the vehicle he had given her. In 2008, a British man got it for 550,000 pounds sterling, about 665,000 euros at the current exchange rate.
In cases where there is a file, there are customs reports on the entry of vehicles by boat through Cádiz. Specifically, the steamer SS 6 is mentioned. These papers make it clear that the cars were “imported by the Intendancy of the legionary troops” from Italy, which before settling in Vitoria also had an important presence in Logroño. The documentation also appears as a participant in the imports of the Alfa Romeo, FIAT and Lancia from Vitoria, a type of company with an Italian name and with alternate domicile at the CTV headquarters in Vitoria – at 19 Postas Street, in the building of the old savings bank, now Kutxabank—or in a garage at 31 Calle de Menorca in Madrid that still exists. However, this newspaper has not been able to identify that company because it appears written in numerous ways given the difficulties with the Italian of the Spanish registrars.
The file on the car that Serrano Súñer took is complete. In some biographies about Franco’s brother-in-law, who died on his centenary well into the 21st century, there are some brief references to Mussolini or his ambassador in Spain—probably referring to Gambara—giving him an Alfa Romeo. However, until Martín Zurimendi found the VI-1962, so many details about his super-luxury car had not been known. It was registered on October 25, 1939, that is, a few months after the war ended. In June and that same month, the parafascist minister had been in Italy, where he took mass baths alongside Mussolini. In between, in July, Mussolini’s son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano, made a tour of Spain stopping in Vitoria, where he was greeted with an airfield decked out with the legend ‘Duce, Duce, Duce’ and fascist flags.
Serrano Súñer’s Alfa Romeo, processed by Enrique de Rico on his behalf, was “convertible.” It was five meters long. It came accompanied by the “franchise” or exemption from customs at the port of Cádiz and also by a “monthly quota” for gasoline consumption, no more than 30 liters in a devastated and impoverished Spain during the postwar period. Ironically, the brother-in-law of the head of state gave his address as “36” General Mola Street in Madrid.
This car, in principle, has already been scrapped, although that documentation is not strictly stated in the file. An international registry of Alfa Romeo cars indicates that frame 813.219, that of the VI-1962, may have appeared in a recent sale in the United States, but it is already being warned that it could be an error or manipulation. Successive previous sales and purchases do appear detailed. The first, to a businessman from Navarra named Carlos Eugui. It was in 1947. And it caused problems, because they demanded payment of the pending tariffs from 1939. A clearance was processed with the Irun customs to resolve it. 6,560 pesetas and 40 cents were paid, but many years after it was transferred, in 1955.
In fact, two officials write – in the midst of the dictatorship and about a relative of Franco – that they saw “impediments” in the regularization of the car in 1939. “I knew something, without specifying, about the car registered in the name of Mr. Ramón Serrano-Súñer. Without being able to specify anything, since this was 14 years ago, the only thing my memory retains any memory of is a certain letter, of which there were no traces left, collecting, interesting or urging (I don’t know what the appropriate word would be), to to enroll without further formalities. As you say very well, the ‘request’ could not be ignored,” says a senior Vitoria Traffic official in response to a letter from his superior, José Félix Cabasés, from the Pamplona office. The latest data on this car, from the 1970s, leads to a furniture factory near the town of Oyón in Álava, bordering Logroño in La Rioja and Viana in Navarra. This business has not responded to this newspaper’s request for information.
The best-known car of the nine Alfa Romeos from Vitoria is the VI-1824. Maroon in color, it is of the 2300 Mile Miglia subtype, of which it is said that there are only 106 units manufactured, and it continues to function after having been restored. In recent years, reports have been made about it in specialized magazines, there are detailed files on Internet portals about classic vehicles and, although its license plate appears pixelated, it is presumably the one that heads the Wikipedia page on the 6C of the Italian automobile company. But at no time has its origin been explained.
With chassis number 815,085, it was registered on March 23, 1939, a few days before the definitive end of the Civil War, by the Italian soldier Gastone Radami. 815.053, black in color but identical in the rest of the characteristics, has recently been sold at Sotheby’s for 850,000 euros. After several changes of ownership, it passed into the hands of a family from Navarra at the end of the 1960s. But, without it being clear how and when, it was sold abroad. In recent years it has been seen at motor events in Italy. To be able to circulate abroad with that license plate, you need a metallic E for Spain on the back. Radami registered at least two other similar Alfa Romeos. The others, up to a total of nine, are in the name of the Italian agency with a name similar to Monti and another person called Pippo Belmonte, presumably also linked to CTV. Presumably, two of the FIATs would also still exist, those with plate VI-1815 (seen for sale in Milanuncios) and VI-1835 (restored in Pamplona).
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