Tag Archives: Alfa

Win on Sunday sell on Monday – Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Lungo #2111022

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Vehicle manufacturers love to see their vehicles win races on Sunday and then reap the rewards with sales on Monday. Now racing has become so sophisticated that what ever you see racing on Sunday bears very little relation to anything you can actually go and purchase on Monday.

When this Alfa Romeo 8C Lungo (long) was built winning on Sunday and selling on Monday was still possible.

Short wheel base chassis with the same supercharged 2336 cc / 142 cui straight 8 twin over head cam engines were used in the first of two consecutive Targa Florio victories and the first of four consecutive Le Mans victories in 1931.

8C 2300 vehicles were also driven to a one – two victory in the 1931 Italian GP which in those days was a just under a thousand mile race and took two drivers 10 hours to complete !

The straight 8 cylinder engine comprised two aluminium blocks of four cylinders each, the master work of Vittorio Jano, the Alfa Romeo Corse team was managed by Enzo Ferrari.

Thanks to an acquaintance Joerg from Chile on the Alfa BB forum this vehicle has been identified as one of just 188 8C 2300’s built for road use, it took part in the 2008 version of the Mille Miglia run.

Hope you enjoyed todays win on Sunday sell on Monday edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres and that you’ll join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now!

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You can’t go wrong with a Bristol under the bonnet – Lister Bristol

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It’s a great pleasure to present another couple of photo’s today by Ed Arnaudin courtesy of his son Steve.

In 1954 Brian Lister produced an MG powered sports car at his Cambridge iron works for Archie Scott Brown to drive. Disappointed with the results on it’s debut Brian had a 6 cylinder 2 litre Bristol engine installed and Archie won his class next time out at a meeting supporting the 1954 British Grand Prix beating half a dozen more powerful C-type Jaguars.

For 1955 a handful Lister Bristol’s were built for customers and the vehicle pictured at Thompson CT is one of those cars, driven to a class win on 20th July 1958 by Ray Cuomo who raced a huge variety of interesting vehicles from the mid 50’s to mid 70’s.

The #132 in the back ground top picture is the Lester MG driven by F Stone and the #32 is an Alfa Romeo Veloce driven by R Anderson in a different race.

My thanks to Vince H and Terry O’Neil at The Nostalgia Forum for helping me with some of the background information and as ever to Ed and Steve Arnaudin for taking and furnishing these photographs.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Bristol powered edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, tomorrow I hope you will join me tomorrow for a look at an unusual Bristol 401.

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Born out of an Austin Maxi – AC 3000 ME

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Born out of an Austin Maxi – AC 3000 ME

Stumbled across this lovely little AC 3000 ME at Silverstone many, many moons ago.

Auto Carriers (AC) can trace it’s roots back 1903, but is probably best known to my generation for two cars that it did not design, namely the AC Ace a design which started life as a Weller engined Tojero and was purchased by AC before eventually morphing into the brutal AC Cobra.

Similarly the AC 3000 ME started out as an Austin Maxi, I’ll repeat that for the more incredulous reader Austin Maxi (!) powered special built by Peter Bohanna and Robin Stables which after AC took it over became a Ford, top of the UK range, 3 litre / 183cui Essex V6 powered vehicle.

AC made just 71 of these vehicles starting in 1979 until production was halted at the Thames Ditton works in 1984. A further 30 3000 ME’s were produced under license by AC (Scotland) including a unique Alfa Romeo V6 prototype. One for collectors to look out for one would imagine.

No AC’s of any kind were built between 1985 and 1996.

Wishing you all a relaxing Sunday and hoping Kevin Harvick can put one over the #48 and #11 at Matinsville tonight. Hope springs eternal for this ‘Happy’ fan 🙂

Don’t forget to come back now !

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Column Shift Racer – Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint 2

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Today’s featured car is a 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint Series 2 powered by a 1975 cc / 120.5 cui 4 cylinder engine.

This particular car featuring a 5 speed column shift was delivered on the 31st March 1954.

Vehicles of this type are known to have competed in events like the Targa Florio & Mille Miglia .

I am not sure if these vented rear window’s were part of the original specification, but they would indicate this particular car might have a competition history, if you know anything about it leave a comment below.

The body work is made by Touring of Milan using their trade mark Superleggera (Super light) Duraluminim construction technique featuring a light steel frame covered in aluminium panels.

Anyone who has seen Goldfinger might remember James Bond telling one of his molls about his ‘Aston Martin DB5 Superleggera’ in that fabulous Scottish brogue.

Aston Martin bought a licence from Touring to use the Superleggera technique which has one major flaw other than being very expensive, steel and aluminium when they come into contact suffer galvanic corrosion.

Galvanic corrosion occurs between aluminium alloy wheels and steel hubs making it difficult to remove aluminium wheels after they have remained bolted to a vehicle after long periods of time.

A similar problem often occurs between steel screws and aluminium licence plates.

Allegedly Bristol Cars with their experience in the aircraft industry are the only manufacturer to have satisfactorily minimised the problem of galvanic corrosion by using a special paste twixt aluminium and steel.

The sunken rear lights on this car look particularly fetching though the heavy duty steel bumper rather spoils the effect IMHO.

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend, don’t forget to come back now !

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