Two Alfa Romeo engined racing cars with mixed success and very clean Scirocco racer
During the 1930s the eight-cylinder engined Alfa Romeos won all major races in Europe multiple times. Especially on home turf, in the grueling Mille Miglia Alfa Romeo was nearly unbeatable. An 8C 2300 scored its first win in the 1000 mile race in 1932 and an 8C 2900B claimed victory as late as 1947. There are two distinct generations of the 8C model, the second of which was the 8C 2900 launched in 1936 with an enlarged engine and independent suspension. For that year's Mille Miglia, the Scuderia Ferrari team entered four examples of the new version. This 8C 2900A Botticella Spider was driven to victory by Antonio Brivio. At the end of the season it was renumbered and sold as a road car. A new racing car with the same chassis number was built for the 1937 edition and won again. So much to the historians' delight two different 8C 2900As with the same number won the 1936 and 1937 Mille Miglias. Simon Moore, the foremost historian of 8C Alfas, revealed the full history of the featured example and accordingly it was restored back to its Mille Miglia winning configuration.
During the 1970s Alfa Romeo's racing record was a little more varied but the Italian manufacturer did manage to win the 1975 World Sportscar Championship in great style with the 33 TT/12 Spider, powered by a three-litre flat-12. A year later that same engine was supplied exclusively by Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham Formula 1 team. The purpose built BT45 did not prove quite as successful. Its similarly engined successor did manage to win two Grands Prix. Only very few Brabhams of the 'Bernie era' have made it into private hands but at least one of the BT45s has. Fully prepared for historic racing, the Alfa engined Brabham was captured by us during the 2008 Monaco Historic Grand Prix.
During this weekend's season finale of the DTM championship Volkswagen launched the all new Scirocco Cup. Replacing the existing Polo Cup, it will be used in a one-make series to support the DTM races from 2010 onwards. Running on compressed natural gas, Volkswagen claim it is one of the cleanest racing cars out there today.
Enjoy the links:
1936 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900A Botticella Spider - Images, Specifications and Information
1976 - 1977 Brabham BT45 Alfa Romeo - Images, Specifications and Information
2010 Volkswagen Scirocco Cup - Images, Specifications and Information
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
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