Brazilian prototypes and other oddities

While mere coincidence we have another post on South American cars so soon after the Argentine Cadillac hearses, we do find cars from that continent fascinating, if only because they’re so rarely seen in traditional media. So we’re getting a special kick out of Carro Antigo, the site that reader Gene Herman recently sent us that presents some unusual Brazilian prototypes, dating back as far as the 1890s. And with Google Translate, we can start to figure out the stories behind the cars.

The befinned spectacle above was apparently called an Alfa-Cadillac, built by Henrique Cassini from an Alfa-Corsa Formula 1 chassis, 1954 5.4-liter (331 cubic inches) Cadillac V-8, Buick wheels, Chevrolet radiator and handbuilt aluminum body that seems to borrow quite heavily from Studebaker in the front. Apparently built in 1956, weighed in at 900 kg (1,984 pounds) and reached a top speed of 210 kph (130 mph).

Another custom-bodied Alfa, though all we know of the chassis is that it was a six-cylinder. We do know that Joachim Küsters, a boat designer, built it in 1932. Looks like he’d have gotten along swimmingly with Henri and Maurice Farman.

Allegedly the first racing car built in Brazil, João Geraldo Woerdenbag, the man behind Woerdenbag Motors in Rio de Janeiro, built it in 1939. It used an Alfa Romeo suspension and a Studebaker eight-cylinder engine and competed until 1952. Three years later, Woerdenbag converted it into the lithe machine seen here and fitted it with a Packard engine (presumably a V-8). The site notes that it still exists in the hands of a collector in São Paolo.

Raul Werner Lepper apparently custom-built the chassis and body of this sport coupe in 1957, then installed a Lincoln V-12 for power.

And finally, we still get comments on Jim Donnelly’s Ford crew cab post, so I thought I’d grab this photo just to catch those eyeballs again. Apparently a São Paolo dealer, Itacolomy Automobile, concocted this pickup sedan in 1963.

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