2300 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I ALFA AND ALFA ROMEO, MEROSI AND ROMEO 6 CONTENTS II VITTORIO JANO AND THE 8C PROJECT 16 III PRODUCTION, SALES AND REGISTRATION 28 IV COACHBUILDERS AND COACHWORK 36 V VI PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS AND TECHNICAL DESCRIPTIONS 54 DISAPPOINTMENT AT THE MILLE MIGLIA BUT TRIUMPH AT MONZA (1931) 64 VII THE 8C S FOREIGN VICTORIES COMMENCE (1931) 74 VIII 1932: A WONDERFUL START TO THE YEAR 84 IX THE TIPO B STEALS THE 8C 2300 S THUNDER (1932) 98 X XI XII ALFA ROMEO RETIRES FROM RACING AND THE SCUDERIA FERRARI TAKES OVER COMPETITION MANAGEMENT (1933) 108 A THIRD VICTORY AT LE MANS FOR THE 8C 2300S AND THERETURN OF THE TIPO BS (1933) 120 A SAD ENDING TO THE 1933 SEASON BUT THE 8C 2300S ENJOY SOME SUCCESSES DURING 1934 132 XIII 1935: SEVERAL WINS BUT QUITE A FEW DISAPPOINTMENTS 146 XIV POLITICS INTERVENE: THE END OF AN ERA AT PORTELLO (1936-37) 156 XV SOME OF THE MEN BEHIND THE 8C S REPUTATION 166 XVI SPORTING ACHIEVEMENTS 174 XVII BIBLIOGRAPHY 185 INDEX 186 5
Left: Two versions of Merosi s successful RL design, photographed outside Mulliners London showrooms - shared at the time with Alfa Romeo (British Sales) Ltd. - at 54 Baker Street. The touring four-door saloon is accompanied by the special sports RL prepared for Agostino Lanfranchi and raced by him at Brooklands during the mid-1920s. (Cherrett Stiles collection) area of the Portello site had been greatly increased by the purchase of a large piece of land and now covered approximately 160,000 square metres and a large cast-iron foundry (with its own laboratory and test department) had been set up in 1918. The company had obtained a licence from the USA to build Titan tractors but revitalising the car production line was more difficult; lacking a designer of sufficient stature, Romeo made his peace with Merosi and offered the latter a five-year consultancy contract in the field of automobiles, aeroplanes and engines which took effect from 1st August 1919. Car production was officially resumed in 1920 - the cars now bearing the legend Alfa-Romeo, Milano on their radiator badges (the only place, incidentally, where the words Alfa and Romeo were hyphenated) - but the number of chassis was pitifully small. 1920 was a terrible year for Milanese industry: at the beginning of the year, L Ordine Nuovo opined The city is infested with around 20,000 delinquents. The police are more brutal, more violent, more crafty than in any other place. The number of spies and informers is immeasurable. Thousands of working days were lost through strikes and those workers who wanted to continue working were frequently waylaid and abused by pickets; on August 30th the Alfa Romeo management ordered a lock out at the Portello Works. Retribution was swift, the Federazione Italiana degli Operai Metalurgici (the Metal Workers Union) called for the occupation of all the factories in the City and workers in Bologna, Firenze, Genova and Napoli swiftly followed suit. However, by the end of September most of the Portello workforce was back at work 11
4/1 Below: Early publicity for the Standard two-seater 8C 2300 showed this Zagato two-seater on the Corto chassis which, as well as having the oil tank mounted in the more usual mid-chassis position, differs in several respects from the Spyder Corsa version. (Centro Documentazione Alfa Romeo) 4/2 company s object was the "repair of automobile coachwork and the like" and that the number of employees ranged from ten to fifteen; the premises were in Corso Sempione (near the old Zagato Works) and Ugo Zagato was to be the technical director. This Ditta Individuale remained in business until 1938, the company producing bodywork for less expensive cars such as the Fiat 500 and 1100 models as well as for some Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 chassis and one or two very striking re-bodied 8C 2300 chassis, and in 1939 Carrozzeria La Zagato di Ugo Zagato was formed. During the period leading up to Italy s entry into the second World War (1940), Carr. Zagato produced cabs for lorries in association with Isotta Fraschini, mostly on the D65 chassis. When the Zagato premises in Via M.U.Traiano 37
4/25 first 'Carrozzeria Alfa display had been at the Salone di Milano in 1931), there is no record of an 8C 2300 being fitted with in house bodywork. These early, all-metal Alfa saloon bodies probably appealed more to the purchaser of a 6C 1750 Turismo or, later on, a 6C 2300 than to the fortunate person who could aspire to an 8C 2300 chassis at a minimum cost, in Italy, of around 75,000 lire (about 1000 - although the price in Britain was higher - at a time when one could buy a three-bedroom semi-detached house in south London for about 300) and who could, presumably, afford to commission coachwork of their own choosing. Compared with chassis prices, coachwork was relatively cheap: the cost of the handsome Zagato-like two-seater built by Brianza was only 9000 lire and a luxurious cabriolet from the same firm cost 18,000 lire ( 250). Examples of the 6C 1500 and 1750 models had made numerous appearances at various Motor Shows between 1927 and 1933 but the 8C 2300 s appearances were much less 48 frequent. An 8C 2300 Corsa and an 8C Corto, the latter with Zagato spider sport bodywork painted "colore amaranto" (the nearest translation of which appears to be a purple colour), appeared at the 1931 Paris Salon and an open four-seater - red, with red upholstery and chromed fittings - was exhibited at the London Show later in the same autumn. A wider variety of 8Cs appeared at the 1932 Paris Salon, with a Corto chassis and a Pinin Farina cabriolet on an 8C Lungo on the Alfa Romeo stand and other Alfas exhibited on the Zagato, Brianza, Boneschi and Touring stands. The two Touring models were a red twoseater Spyder and a Coupé two seater in red and grey. The Soc. Anon. Alfa Romeo stand at the London Motor Show held at Olympia in 1933 included two 8Cs, both with Italian coachwork - a Corto with two-seater sports bodywork (price 1700) and a Lungo with what was described as Folding Head Coupé coachwork seating two persons...and two occasional seats (price 1985). At that year s Salone held at the Fiera di Milano, 8Cs on display included a Royal Cabriolet 8C by Castagna painted dove grey with cream lining and leather upholstery in the same colour, a Carrozzeria Touring Coupé Spyder Aerodinamico in two tones of red and with beige upholstery and a "Flying Star" two-seater in red, with red upholstery. There were also a Coupé Victoria 4 seater by Pinin Farina and three Zagato two-seaters - the red 1000 Miglia winner, a black spyder with chrome body line and another two-seater which was painted ivory with a dark body line. Touring was also present at the Paris Salon (with a Spyder 2-seater) and Figoni showed a two-seater with an ingenious, Figoni-patent hood mechanism where the hood was folded away out of sight under a body panel when not in use. This car s colour scheme was a sober light grey with grey leather upholstery, but in much the same period the magazine Auto-Carrosserie recorded a far more striking colour scheme
14/3 In France, Mlle Hellé-Nice had a successful day at the La Turbie hillclimb, winning the over 2000cc Sports Car Class in her Monza and beating Rossi (Talbot) by 47 seconds. That indefatigable pair of Monza drivers, Bjornstad and Widengren, finished first and second in a race at Helsinki on May 10th and Anthony Powys Lybbe s Monza finished second to Reggie Tongue s ERA at the 200-mile Cork Road Race organised by the Irish Motor Racing Club. Powys-Lybbe s Irish successes continued the following month, when he and his 8C Monza won the County Down Trophy race, run over twenty five laps of a six mile course at Bangor; presented with the winner s laurel wreath, Powys- Lybbe said that his success was all due to the old car knowing the course... The Duke of Grafton s 8C 2300 was The Rio de Janiero Grand Prix held on 7th June 1936 attracted four Alfa Romeo entries - Marinoni and Pintacuda with 8C 2900s and Hellé- Nice and De Teffé with 8C 2300s. Marinoni s Scuderia Ferrari entered 8C 2900 (number 4) retired on the first lap and Pintacuda s similar car (number 6) also retired, but De Teffé s Monza (number 22) was third and Hellé-Nice s similar car (number 2) fourth. The race was won by Coppoli s Bugatti, with Caru s Fiat second. ( Zagari) one of several Alfa Romeos competing at the Inter-Varsity Speed Trials at Syston Park when, despite a trail of black smoke and some misfiring on his first run, his second run time of 30 seconds was good enough for a second place in his Class, behind Oliver Bertram s big Delage. Grafton was competing again on May 9th, this time in a ten lap handicap race at Donington, when his 8C (which, remarked the MotorSport reporter, had until recently carried comparatively sober saloon coachwork ) was rather cruelly put on Scratch position together with Charlie Martin s 3.2-litre tipo B monoposto. Martin managed to fight his way up the field to finish third but Grafton s 2300 was unplaced. Mlle Hellé-Nice and her Monza turned up in Argentina for the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix at the beginning of June, other Alfa Romeos in the line-up being Manuel De Teffé s similar car and two 8C 2900As entered by the Scuderia Ferrari for Marinoni and Pintacuda. The two latter cars retired, Marinoni on 159