Bertone Alfa Romeo BAT Series History

The Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica (BAT) series comprised three concept cars commissioned by Alfa Romeo and designed at Bertone by Franco Scaglione: BAT 5 (1953), BAT 7 (1954), and BAT 9 (1955), each presented at the Turin Auto Show in the year of its creation. All three were built on the Alfa Romeo 1900 chassis.

Scaglione, trained as an aeronautical engineer, pursued the lowest possible drag coefficient without wind tunnels or computers — attaching wool tufts to the bodywork and photographing them at speed. The BAT 7 achieved a Cd of 0.19, a figure that remained extraordinary for decades. Their sweeping, fin-tailed shapes were a visual manifesto that aerodynamics and beauty could be synonymous.

The three cars survived intact and were reunited for public display and auction in the 2000s. Their influence is traceable in the later Giulietta Sprint Speciale, which applied the BAT's lessons to a production-viable body.