The first time I ever heard the name Franco Scaglione was at at Los Angeles based Italian night during the early 1970’s. I remember coming across this unique little rear engine coupe called an ATS 2500 that had a unique sound and incredible coachwork upon the chassis. It was my first time to hear Scaglione’s name mentioned and the appeal that has his coachwork had upon everyone that evening. It was enough to inspire me a few weeks later when visiting John R Bond (editor ) at Road & Track magazine who introduced me to the research library they had and thus I learned how to spell Franco’s name! And the woman who ran the research library went and found much of their research articles for the Alfa B.A.T.’s, 33 Stradale, Abarth 1500 and many more designs he had created and I spent almost eight hours that day just enamored by the discovery I had made of this unique Italian designer.

I do not have pictures from the event that night of the ATS — but the R&T librarian gave me a copy of the below Alfa Romeo B.A.T. 9d designed by Franco Scaglione and I’m sure I read it several hundred times over the years! (and admittedly it has created an obsession for myself in regard to the B.A.T. designs)