I have copies of some sketches by Gino Jankovits dated 1935: one is about brakes modified from a 1933 Buick, another one presents the front suspensions including parts modified from a Ford V8 Saloon 1935. There are also drawings of both front and rear suspensions and general layout, signed by Gino and dated 11 December 1935, and the already published in this Forum side and aerial views by Gino, again dated 1935. The engine is clearly a V6 2.300 single carb. It was actually taken from a 1935 Pescara saloon. Another sketch by Gino confirms that.

It is interesting to note that the idea of the three-seater with central driver seat was probably taken from a patent filed by Lancia in 1934: a prototype following such a layout was, I heard, actually built around 1949 with the “A10” identification.
A few photos show the car still in prototype form, without the body (in heavy steel), and fully finished in Fiume, year 1938.
Fiume was then part of the Kingdom of Italy. The licence plate reads FM 2757. FM means Fiume (today, Rijeka).

In 1946, Fiume and the adjoning territory were in a sort of “suspended” state as far as government was concerded. The whole area, including Trieste, was a buffer zone between Italy and Yugoslavia. The small territory around Trieste, and the city itself, were under the government of Allied powers (UK and USA), and were named “Zona A” (A Zone). The rest of territory, larger and today split between Slovenija and Croatia, was the “Zona B” (B Zone) and governed temporarly by the Yugoslavians.

While Zona A was reunited to Italy in 1954, Zona B became de-facto Yugoslavia much earlier. The official border treaty between Italy and Yugoslavia was signed some decades later.

The Jankovits applied for a “Licenza di Circolazione”, i.e. permit to use the car, on December 24, 1946 to the local authorities in Fiume. It looks like being the first one ever asked for the car, after the war.

The document (number 2720) has printed explanations in Italian, Croatian and Slovenian. Handwritten words are in Italian only.

The Alfa Romeo car was registered as no. R0559 (is this the chassis number?) with engine number 700316, as three-seater.

The owners are listed as “Fratelli Jancovits fu Matteo”, i.e. Brother Jankovits, sons of the deceased Matteo. The typo in the name is the document. They lived in “Fiume, via Ciotta 27”. The permit expired on December 31, 1946 and its validity was for “Istria, Litorale Sloveno e Zona A”.

It means that the Jankovits had a permit only for a week, good for driving into the A Zone, i.e. Trieste and the whole area around Fiume. Therefore, the stories about bullet dents when they “escaped” into Trieste are sheer fantasy. They drove the car with a regular cross-border permit.

Apparenly, as already written, the car went then into the US, while the Jankovits settled in Sirmione, a beautiful resort on the Garda Lake, Northern Italy, where they ran the Astoria Lido Hotel (the hotel is still there, but no more Jankovits’).

A letter by Malcom Templeton, Alfa Romeo dealer in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to the Jankovits (dated June 5, 1981) confirms that the car is in his ownership. He reports on a letter by Mr. Luigi Fusi of the then forming Alfa Romeo Museum, who passed the information about the Jankovits as builders of the car. Mr. Templeton, apparently, didn’t know the origin and the story of the car.