Re: vent wings, wind wings w/(ta-ta!) a smidge of Alfa content

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Ev-Arch1 writes, correctly enough, picking a nit with Andrew Watry, "Not to
quibble--well to quibble--vent windows/wings are not synonymous with the wind
wings of the mid 20th century. Wind wings are clamped or otherwise mounted to
the windscreen pillar to deflect wind away from the occupants. Vent
windows/wings refer to the windows, usually triangular, behind the A-pillar,
most commonly a factory designed and built-in feature of the auto. Wind wings
were usually an after market accessory most frequently seen on Triumphs, MGs,
Morgans, etc."

Wind wings were also often original equipment, or optional original equipment
(rather than after-market accessories) particularly on fully open cars
(roadsters or phaetons, as distinct from convertible coupes (cabriolets) or
convertible sedans. Carrozzeria Touring used them fairly lavishly in the early
thirties both on sports/racing cars and sports/touring cars, Zagato much less
so if at all. See Fusi p.196; the Touring-bodied Spider Corsa 8C 2300 Corto
driven by Nuvolari (codriver Guidotti) in the 1932 Mille Miglia had windwings
mounted to the short fixed windshield posts (the windshield split crosswise,
the top half sliding down to make a fixed stub wind-deflector) while the
Zagato-bodied version of the same car in the 1931 Mille Miglia had a
conventional Brit-style folding screen with no wind wings. Similarly on p.202
the Touring-bodied Le Mans 2300 had similar large wind wings on a similar
windscreen on a very spartan competition car, while the 1931 Zagato Le Mans
2300 on the following page again had a folding screen with no wind wings.
Coachbuilder's choices, not progress and year, make the difference; on p.89 in
Fusi a Castagna-bodied Torpedo on the 1925-26 RM chassis has wind-wings on
fixed posts with the V-windshield halves hinged at the top (as was common on
closed cars, see the 1920 G1 Limousine on p.53 in Fusi, and still done on
Fords in the thirties.)

What appear to be genuine vent windows in the modern sense, a vertically
hinged pane in front of the raising/lowering main door glass, not outboard
from it, first appears on closed Alfas on the factory-bodied 6C 2300 B Turismo
and Gran Turismo cars of 1935-37; see Fusi p.274, 282. Many of the more
spirited types of closed Alfas from about that time through the late fifties
had no lowering main door glass but had the front section of the door glass
sliding back for similar ventilation without the supposed extraction role of
the "no-drafts" discussed earlier.

Not claiming that any of this is more than a casual skim of one source, but Ev
is certainly correct that wind wings and vent wings were different things,
while his mid-20th century dating skips some precedents, as his "Triumphs,
MGs, Morgans, etc." also misses some Alfa content.

Yours for more and I hope better non-SUV trivia,

John H.
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