Ultimostile

The real Alfa Romeo works

 

I made the above video in an attempt to convey my impressions of the original Portello and subsequent Arese works in Milano. I visited the Arese factory in 2001 and 2006, while it still produced cars - or at least engines. In 2006 my friends and I even got a tour of the Centro Stile facilities by Wolfgang Egger. It was a very big factory, and you would always see the gigantic Alfa Romeo sign from the motorway when you drove from the north into Milano.

The Giulietta was the first proper monocoque - after Alfa 1900 trials.

Giulietta engine assembly was semi-automated for large-scale production.

The original engine shop during WW1.

Finished produce - chief engineer Merosi in grey jacket.

The Portello works when Nicola Romeo took over after WW1.

As it looked during WW2 from the same view - now expanded to the other side of the towers.

Racers lineup circa 1920 - Enzo Ferrari at the wheel in the second car.

Produce lineup autumn 1950 after winning the first F1 world championship.

U.S. Air Force photo from after the second bomb raid on Alfa Romeo during WW2.

Aluminium foundry in rubble.

A sad sight - Varzi's racer in the Portello workshop after his 1947 fatal crash.

Apart from the Portello and Arese plants, Alfa Romeo also had a big factory near Napoli. Before and during WW2 they produced aircraft engines here, and from 1972 this was the Alfasud factory (as seen in this picture). Alfa Romeo had a fourth factory in the north for the Alfa-Nissan Arna - but nobody wants to remember that!

The Portello works were used by the Alfa racing team from 1910 to 1960 - the same guys who developed the new road cars also tended to the racers. But when Luraghi and his management team instigated the big move to the countryside north of Milano in 1960-1965, the racing team was moved to Autodelta in Settimo Milanese and Alfa Romeo built a test track in Ballocco - halfway to Torino.

The Portello was abandoned by the company in 1986 and is now virtually downtown Milano - and the Arese grounds are also getting surrounded by the growing city these days. Both factories have been totally demolished and replaced by modern buildings. Only the original Alfa Romeo Museum still stands - very proud indeed, but nothing like the old days.

 

The 1957 Mille Miglia results

(click chart for larger version)

As I have mentioned before, the 1956 Mille Miglia was the serious break-through for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. That was when the Veloce model came out and it started winning races all over Europe and soon also on the North American scene. I sat down and charted the positions all the way through the 1,600 km of the 1957 race for the 1300 GT class. I got all intermediate times from lists in the book "Mille Miglia 1957, Le Classi Minori", and was able to produce the above chart in an Excel spreadsheet. Let's look into some details:

The 1957 route - red cities are timed in the above chart.

The start at Brescia was seeded. As you probably know the cars were numbered by their starting time (103 was 01:03 in the night) and the fastest cars started later - like for instance when Stirling Moss famously started at 07:22 in the morning and drove in daylight all the way back to Brescia and arrived 10 hours 7 minutes later, still in daylight. As is clearly visible in the chart, the seeding of the 43 starting cars in the 1300 GT class wasn't done particularly well. The eventual winner Convert #105 started 22-from-fastest although he was fairly known and had taken part in the 1956 MM. He surged up though the placings all the way down to Roma where he was P3 and after Bologna he took P1 - which he held until the finish at Brescia in the afternoon.

Frenchman Convert and his co-driver Martin during the night.

Negotiating a fast downhill corner somewhere on the route.

Ingenere Laureati in car #122 started from Brescia much later as 8th-best seeded and ran more cautiously across the northern plain to Padova where he fell back to P14. But then he sped up and took the lead after Pescara when the Mille Miglia turned in-land and up into the Abruzzo hills. He held the lead until Convert overtook after Bologna. Laureti ran solo and had done the whole 1,600 km with an average of 125 km/h.The Ravenna-to-Pescara stretch was run at a 145 km/h average from 03:33 to 05:48 while the sun came up over the adriatic sea.

Ing. Laureti has the engine oil topped up at an early morning stop-over.

The Greek car #102 from Athens with Spiliotakis also ran a well managed race starting from P25 in Brescia and rising steadily on the way down the adriatic coast. You can say that all the way from Ravenna they were in serious contention for a win; well done for a foreigner! Not all competitors had opportunity to gather information about standings when they punched in at control posts. First of all it would have been difficult if you were an early car and secondly you would have to have crew to calculate the positions - and you would have to sacrifice time to just grasp the information. Most drivers just charged on, and did their best.

Spiliotakis and Zanonos rushing down from the Raticosa pass at around noon.

Bruno and Paolo Grazioli immediately stormed through Verona and their home town of Vicenza to P1 at Padova after having done the first stretch at 150 km/h. They continued all the way around Italy in good style and ended up P4 after having sitting at P2 across from Pescara to Roma. Bruno did all the driving and little brother Paolo participated incognito (as it is noted in the inscription form). It can also be read from the inscription that Bruno had raced since 1954 and had placed well in various hillclimbs and had come home P7 in the 1956 MM.

Bruno Grazioli at the driver's door while a mechanic checks tire pressure the day before at Piazza delle Vittoria.

Racing two other Giuliettas down from Popoli - the car in front is #107 whom they had raced all the way down the coast.

P5 was Lanzini in car #117. They seem to have had a quite eventless race positioning themselves at around P3 to P6 all the way around the route, although they actually averaged 159 km/h on the fast Mantova-Brescia stretch - also known as the Coppa Tazio Nuvolari, where everybody wanted to be fast - to honor the ace who had died four years earlier..

Even the finish was calm and easy for the Lanzini car!

Now, let's turn our attention to some of the less fortunate competitors in the 1957 Mille Miglia race: For instance the two last starters in the 1300 GT class. At 01:28 Georges Burggraf from Grenoble, who ran alone and seemed to have had no experience in racing at all - probably with an all new Giulietta SV, started and fell back to P33 at Padova before he retired before reaching Ravenna. That seeding sure wasn't right, but he was probably a late entrant. One minute earlier another Giulietta SV with Parisian Jean Caracciolo started solo and ran almost all the way to Rome while dropping terribly down the charts and retiring while negotiating the Abruzzo hills at L'Aquila.

Monsieur Burggraf in great confidence at the start - last of the 1300 GT cars.

Monsieur Caracciolo at Popoli; looking fine just before he retired around 7 in the morning.

Another unfortunate entrant was car #125 Guarneri. He started really well and lay P2 at Pescara after a steady race down the adriatic coast; perfectly positioned for a win, because as legend tells us, 'he who leads at Rome will never win at Brescia'. But crossing over to Rome something went terribly wrong, causing him to fall back to P17 and only managing to climb back and maintain a P15.

Carlo Guarneri at scrutineering the day before in Brescia.

On the starting ramp - still with missing front grille.

One car is (obviously) of great interest to me: Car #042, Daniele Pistoja. He had placed P4 in 1955 in the crazy race with more than 400 participants and P2 in 1956; both years driving an Alfa Romeo 1900 TI - both places in the 2000cc class. This time he had one of the new Giulietta Sprint Veloces; a nice blue one. It looks like he did very well across the north, coming in at P12 in Padova and rising to P3 at L'Aquila. He ran solo and would have overtaken a lot of competitors in the smaller classes. But starting as the second car in the 1300 GT class it would have taken some time before he was overtaken by his immediate competitors?! Apparently he ran into trouble on the Futa or Raticosa pass after Firenze; before reaching Bologna where he was down to P17, and falling further to P21 at Piacenza. He also ended up at that position - not quite the result he would have expected after switching the sturdy 1900 Berlina for an agile Giulietta essevu, I suppose?

But; Oh - to have been part of it all ...

Signore Pistoja in the shiny new sports racer.

Arriving at Grottarossa near Rome placed P4.

Taking out time to stretch legs at 07:22 in the morning.

The book - very good indeed, there are two more books about the 1957 classes.

My video about the 1956 and 1957 races.

 

Pulling the parts

This winter Steffen Madsen will build a new engine for my Alfa Romeo Giulietta SV racer/road car. The goal is an engine that will allow me to go motor racing with FIA HTP papers all over Europe, while still being able to run the car every day of summer on the roads - also going abroad. The car should retain a reasonable comfort level - enough to make it possible to drive through Europe without loosing my mind. If you get it - I love it!

Upon removing the bonnet it is much easier to get at the engine. This engine is a 1600cc - a little taller than the 1300cc we will put in.

The engine is tilted over at 5 degrees.

This gives a 2.5 cm clearance for the carburetor trumpets.

Removing the carpets and getting access to the transmission.

The old engine hovering over the empty compartment.

The engine was tilted extra by spacers on the right side of the engine.

The 1300cc pulley is much bigger than the (lightened) 1600cc pulley!

The clutch is a bit wet and worn - but not overly worn. It is a standard item!

The machined surface of the flywheel - we will not use a lightened item.

Exhaust side of the engine bay - with steering column, single circuit/non-assisted brake system and two-tone horn.

Carburetor-side of the engine compartment with ignition coil (will be moved), radiator fan adjustment and evidence from four open trumpets.

Needing a re-chrome.

Original mild-steel Sprint Veloce headers for the race engine.

 

The new engine - Block

This winter Steffen Madsen will build a new engine for my Alfa Romeo Giulietta SV racer/road car. The goal is an engine that will allow me to go motor racing with FIA HTP papers all over Europe, while still being able to run the car every day of summer on the roads - also going abroad. The car should retain a reasonable comfort level - enough to make it possible to drive through Europe without loosing my mind. If you get it - I love it!

Ready for assembly - looking good.

Back in autumn 2013 after having cleaned off the worst grime. The engine actually ran a month earlier at the Munkebjerg hillclimb. It sat in Severin Skallerup's Alfa Romeo 1300 GT Junior and it ran well. This was one of the main reasons why Steffen Madsen and I chose to use this block in the end.

It took two years before Steffen actually started on the engine-build. This picture is from the first assessment of the parts at Skallebølle Auto last winter. The circular holes are oil-ways to the cylinder head and the longer flat orifices are the channels for cooling water for the cylinder head. The surface has remnants of sticking head gasket.

All important surfaces interfacing the block with other parts in the engine were up for a machining. First of all in order to secure accurate alignment of mating and sealing surfaces, but also to get the best possible distribution of forces and tension under load for the final engine.

Cleaned up and properly aligned with the equally machined head gasket surface.

I am regularly in contact with Søren Poulsen, who originally sold me the car. He has both Spider, Sprint and Berlina Giuliettas and also asked me to take a look at some engines he had laying around. One was a tipo 10106 SS/SV spec engine. It lacked the oilpan and other important parts and it had a no-serial-number block. This was all very exciting; it could give me a more valuable engine in the end. The blank engine# plate was probably due to it getting a replacement block at some time in its history (Like Porsche, Alfa Romeo also issued blank engine blocks for race cars back in time). But ... we had no idea why the engine had been rejected and put away, and why it hadn't been repaired.

After checking the crankshaft journals and other details, Steffen advices me to continue with the 105-type block. The reasoning was that if it at some point became important for a sale, we could always find a 10106 engine ... hmmm. Decisions, decisions!

Bearings 1-3-5 are directly lubricated from the galleries of the block - bearings 2-4 are lubricated through internal channels in the crankshaft. This is known as a weak point in the Alfa Romeo engine.

Checking the oil way to the center bearing. The 10106 race engine had an external pipe in this position.

The new liners - machined on all surfaces.

Checking uniform and correct protusion of the liners over the top of the block. In order to get the right sealing properties under all operation conditions this is a very important property of the engine.

This tube is the main manifold for cooling water. It distributes water directly from the pump outlet to the cylinder head though the slits visible next to each cylinder. We were advised to drill ø3-4 mm holes in the manifold tube on the inside of the block. This would produce jets of water into the cooling water surrounding the cylinder liners.

Here the inside of the block is visible and it is possible to see the four areas where the water jets would create extra convection. But we abandoned the idea, agreeing that it probably wouldn't help as much as it would put coolant flow to the head at risk.

After getting all the machining right, Steffen blasted all surfaces for perfect cleaning. We used a new special media blaster that wouldn't harm the aluminium.

And the result was this delicious piece of hardware - ready for assembly.

It's important to have a proper jig for engine assembly.

Although the Alfa Romeo block is aluminium it is actually quite sturdy and robust because of the clever and simple design.

This view shows the elegant and consequent design of the bottom end of the block.

This is one of the main bearing caps - also of efficient design for lightness and robustness.

And once all is assembled it's easy to see that this will become a sturdy 1300cc engine - even the 2-liter looks the same, and they sometimes produce more than 200 bhp. This should definitely be sufficient for our high-revving but relatively low-torque engine.

At the rear-most bearing it is important to remember to lay in the threaded semi-circular parts that will hold the flywheel.

Assembly tool for the cigarette seals - either side of the rear bearing console. Steffen also used a loctite gasket in this position.

The steel plate closes the water jacket at the rear end of the block.

Final bearing and gasket assembly.

Adding fresh roller chains. Here the water manifold is clearly visible at the top of the block.

Timing chain case cover in place. This part also holds the spin-on socket for the oil filter - giving away that the block is newer than actually allowed in the FIA-121 homologation file. I hope and expect that this will not be a problem - especially considering how difficult (and expensive) it is to get my hands on a tipo 101 engine.

Water pump in place. This is one of the details that shows it is a 1300cc engine: The top edge of the pump is flush with the top of the block; for higher capacities the block height shows itself above the water pump top edge.

For comparison, this is our block next to a 2000cc block. The difference is huge!

Another comparison: The 1.3 Alfa Romeo block next to a standard Volkswagen aluminium item - actually the italian is smaller!

Finally the bottom-end is ready. Pistons, con-rods, crankshaft and block are now assembled. Next up is head and oil sump.

Ugliest Maserati ever - but the power!

 

What I enjoyed the most today on the internet was reading an interview with Joe Colasacco on Petrolicious about how he came to drive his yellow Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ hard - and winning so many races. It is a wonderful story - read it at www.petrolicious.com.

The Alfa Romeo Giulia Tubolare Zagato

The angry and deadly Maserati Tipo 151.

He mentions how he got to own the Maserati Tipo 151; and we all very well know that car, right. It was Giulio Alfieri's attempt at creating a Le Mans winner from the powerful 450S; it has a closed cockpit and (what was then seen as) clever aerodynamics. And of course it never won anything; this one car, the only surviving of three built, has tried to kill everybody who has ever driven it - Joe's own words in the article.

This is the Alfa Romeo 6c3000 he mentions in the Petrolicious interview.

... and a car he doesn't mention the Ferrari 1512 formula 1 - 1.5-liter 12 cylinder.

 

 

Video from the Sicilia trip

 

 

 

Greetings from fabulous Sweden!

Giulietta SV followed but unfortunate Ginetta (click for full size)

I spent friday through sunday in Sweden at the fabulous Ring Knutstorp for the final race weekend in the Danish Master series. Video and full report will follow shortly, but let me say already now that it was one of the most fantastic things I have ever experienced in the classic car community. Thank you all who stopped by and who helped me during the weekend! These pictures are all by Matthias Jensen, who is developing into a very good race photographer!

 

Racing in period

He got the number wrong - but it is actually a very special car.

Alfisti Johan de Munck from Belgium pointed out that a Giulietta SV raced at the Spa 6H meeting in september - and that it ran with number 41. His point was that I should have been there, and that I could have raced with number 42. This was in the pre-1963 GT race; a race in which I would very much like to take part. He posted these two shots on Facebook, and after I had stopped dreaming - I noticed the number plate on the car VYX 2, a british registration, and I was sure I had seen that somewhere before?!

VYX 2 - where did I see that before?

And then I remembered: It was featured in an old article I had read - John Bolster road-testing a Giulietta SV in the may 1959 issue of Autosport (read the report below). I searched the internet and found out that the young guy who lent the car to Mr. Bolster was a quite serious racing gentleman who was also featured in the september 1960 issue of Motorsport - although Boddy and Jenks didn't seem to think much of the young man.

The very kind gentleman who let Bolster borrow the SV for the road test in 1959.

VYX was apparently sold (back) to Italy after its short career in the UK and found its way to Holland in the mid-1980s and around the turn of the millenium it was owned and raced by a Belgian alfisti - Fred Corporaal. It was up for sale some time ago as can be seen in the pictures below. And now we all saw it race at Spa Francorchamps in one of the most fantastic fields on the European classic motor sport calendar. The car was entered by Andrew Lawley and Tom Smith from the UK.

 

John Bolster tests (Autosport 27th of March 1959):

THE ALFA ROMEO GIULIETTA

IN ONE WORD - BEAUTIFUL! The sleek, simple lines of the little Alfa make it undoubtedly one of the loveliest cars ever made.

The Sprint Veloce version of one of the worlds’s most desirable cars.

THERE are certain cars which are acknowledged throughout the motoring world as being thoroughbreds, and among these the Alfa Romeo Giulietta stands very high. Indeed, I would go so far as to suggest that, if a poll of the readers of Autosport were undertaken, the Sprint Veloce version would be voted just about the most desirable car that money can buy. This much-coveted model is the subject of the present road test.

As the concessionaires, Messrs. Thomson and Taylor of Cobham, Surrey, did not have a demonstrator of the latest Veloce type, I borrowed an immaculate example, which had only recently been run in, from a private owner, with their full approval. I have to thank Richard Shepherd-Barron for the loan of his delightful car, and for providing me with a memorable experience.

ALTHOUGH a good deal og chromium is used at the front the result is pleasing and not vulgar.

The Sprint Veloce is a two-seater coupe by Bertone of superb appearance, and in 'Alfa-red' it really looks a picture. It is a practical car, with wide doors and ample luggage space, while a very large fuel tank allows for long non-stop journeys. The beautiful finish of every detail is a joy to behold. The machine is small and compact, but it is extremely sturdily constructed for continuous high-speed use on Continental roads. It is therefore not exceptionally light.

The engine is a magnificent piece of work. The sturdy counterbalanced crankshaft runs in five main bearings; an almost unheard-of refinement in an engine of only 1.3-litre capacity. The bore and stroke are virtually 'square', and the three-ringed domed pistons run in wet liners. Naturally, the light-alloy head has the 'four-per-pot' arrangement of holding-down studs, which is standard on all the best 2-ohc engines.

The camshafts operate the inclined valves through inverted pistons. A two-stage duplex roller chain drive is employed, with a jockey sprocket on the upper run. The steel-backed main and big-end bearings are of lead-bronze. with a lead-indium overlay. There is a large oil filter, and the light alloy sump has what is, in effect, an oil radiator beneath it. This is a separate ribbed compartment, containing a labyrinth through which all the oil must pass. It is detachable for cleaning.

The Veloce engine is rated at over 90 bhp at 6,000 rpm, but it can run considerably faster than this. It differs from the 70 bhp Sprint engine in having a higher compression ratio and extremely radical camshafts, giving no less than 64 degrees of overlap. It also has two Weber twin-choke horizontal carburetors, which are fed from a cold-air box.

POWER UNIT: The twin-cam 1,290 cc engine develops 94.8 bhp at 6,000 rpm, which is a lot of horses from so small an engine!

In the past, the gearbox has been the least satisfactory feature of the Alfa Romeo. Now, an entirely new box, with Porsche-type synchromesh on all four speeds, has been standardized. The propeller shaft is in two sections, the front end having rubber universal joints for damping. The rear axle is very light, being built-up with steel side tubes and it is located positively by a pair of sturdy trailing arms beneath, and above, just to the left of the light alloy centre section, there is a tubular triangular member with very widely spaced pivots. Obviously, immense trouble has been taken in locating the axle so that cornering and torque reaction forces may be well resisted.

Helical springs and telescopic dampers are the suspension medium all round. In front, the wishbones have a very wide base to give excellent stability to the car. The present steering column could not readily be transferred to the right, without interposing several universal joints in the shaft. Indeed, the Veloce engine has to be canted 8 degrees to the left, for the big Weber carburetors fill the whole of the right side of the bonnet. The brake drums, with turbo-fins, are literally enormous for the size of the car. The two pairs of exhaust pipes do not join until they are about to enter the first of the two silencers.

'THE DRIVING POSITION' says Bolster, 'is very ‘Doctor Farina’. The gearbox is a delight with synchromesh on all four gears.

This Alfa Romeo is thus a small sporting car of immense technical interest. When I took my seat, I found that entry is easy, and that the all-round visibility is excellent, aided by the deletion of triangular ventilating panels from the front windows. The rear windows may be opened slightly outwards to give a draught-free extractor effect. The driving position is very 'Doctor Farina'. The engine takes a few moments to fire regularly on a cold morning, and twin batteries had been fitted to the test car for this reason. At all other times it is an instant starter, and idles regularly almost at once. At moderate speeds, the smoothness and silence are literally beyond belief, which I put down largely to the five-bearing crankshaft. As the revs mount, a hard and purposeful note is heard, though the unit is never noisy, and remains so throughout the range. The red mark on the rev-counter dial begins at 6,750 rpm.

Naturally, a race-bred unit of this type does its best work above 4,000 rpm. It behaves impeccably in traffic, however, if one uses a little consideration with the accelerator pedal. The performance figures, as shown on the data panel and the graph, are really outstanding for a 1.3-litre car. However, I treated the clutch gently and observed the rev-limit scrupulously as I was driving a private owner’s pride and joy. With a little more brutality, my figures could be beaten. The maximum speed of 112.5 mph is tremendous, and the little car certainly felt as though it was traveling. As is usual, the speedometer became rather gay at the top end, indicating as much as 125 mph. The engine was running well within its limit and seemed entirely happy to maintain this considerable velocity. Around 90 mph is a very pleasant cruising speed.

The Alfa handles particularly well, especially on wet roads. The cornering power is very high, and one gets a splendid feeling of being fully in command of the little machine. There is a certain amount of roll, but this is scarcely noticed from inside the car. The suspension, steering and roadholding are all of a very high standard. The rear suspension may appear complicated, but it achieves results that could never be approached by a conventional semi-elliptic layout. Larger cars can equal the performance figures of the Veloce, but they cannot be flung around with the abandon which one may employ with this machine.

THE BOOT is not very large, and the spare wheel takes up a lot of space, but there is plenty of room behind the seats.

It is necessary to emphasize that this is a meticulously constructed luxury car, and not an ultra-light machine which will need rebuilding after one season. The controls work beautifully, and in this connection one must give full marks to the new gearbox. It is light and quick in action, yet the synchromesh is unbeatable. With this type of engine, one often wants to engage bottom gear at quite appreciable speeds. The perfection of the synchromesh encourages one to do this, rather than let the engine labour while pulling away on second. This box is so much better than the old one that it transforms the pleasure of driving the car.

The very large brakes have the situation well in hand at all times. They are smooth and progressive, and the wheels are pierced to assist the turbo-fins in their dissipation of heat. Regrettably, the hand-brake is of the umbrella-handle type, which hardly seems worthy of the car. Another small point of criticism is the absence of a high-beam indicator for the headlamps, though there is an indicator for the sidelamps.

The kind of driver who likes to stay in top gear all day will have no use whatever for this Alfa, but the keen motorist, who enjoys making intelligent use of the box, will love every moment of his journeys. It is a pity that punitive import duties render this a car for the very few, for it is as enjoyable to drive as it is beautiful to look at, which is praise indeed. 

SPECIFICATION AND PERFORMANCE DATA

Car Tested: Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce 2-seater coupe, price £2,698 7s. including tax.

Engine: Four cylinders 74 mm x 75 mm (1,290 cc). Twin overhead camshafts. 8.5-to-1 compression ratio. 94.8 bhp. at 6,000 rpm. Two twin-choke Weber carburettors. Coil and distributor ignition.

Transmission: Single dry plate clutch. Four-speed gearbox with central lever and synchromesh on all gears. Open two-piece propeller shaft. Hypoid rear axle.

Chassis: Platform chassis in unit with steel body structure. Independent front suspension by wishbones, helical springs, and telescopic dampers, with torsional anti-roll bar. Worm and roller steering with three-piece track rod. Rear axle on lower trailing arms and single upper triangulated member, with helical springs and telescopic dampers. Girling hydraulic brakes, 2 L.S. in front, in large light alloy turbo-finned drums. Bolt-on pierced disc wheels fitted 155 x 15 Pirelli tyres.

Equipment: 12-volt lighting and starting. Speedometer, Rev-counter, Oil pressure and temperature, water temperature, and fuel gauges. Self-parking windscreen wipers and washers. Self-cancelling flashing indicators. Heater.

Dimensions: Wheelbase 7 ft 6.5 in. Track 4 ft 2 in. Overall length 13 ft 0.5 in. Width 5 ft 0.5 in. Weight 18.75 cwt.

Performance: Maximum speed 112.5 mph. Speeds in gears: 3rd 84 mph. 2nd 57 mph., 1st 34 mph. Standing quarter-mile. 18.4 secs. Acceleration: 0-30 mph. 3.8 secs., 0-50 mph. 8.6 secs., 0-60 mph. 11.8 secs., 0-80 mph. 21.2 secs. Fuel Consumption: 25 mpg. (approx.)

 

What happened between P2 and P3?

Giuseppe Campari in the World Championship winning Alfa Romeo P2 at Spa Francorchamps in 1925. This was the year when Alfa Corse were said to serve a three-course dinner for their drivers at a pit stop - because they were so far ahead. Not true, but they did have time to feed Ascari, Campari and Brilli-Peri. This was the first time the Spa circuit was used - and the Eau Rouge section was a couple of T-junctions down by the stream - with a tough pull up the hill to Radillion. This was later changed to one of the most exciting bends in GP racing.

I am sure that you have wondered - just like I have - what happened in the years between 1925, when the "pi due" convincingly won the World Championship and 1932, when the "pi tre" even more convincingly won almost all Grands Prix on the calendar. Jano's 2-liter/8-cylinder P2 was going to become obsolete in 1926 when the AIACR announced that GPs would be run as a 1500cc formula. He did design the 6c1500, but although it actually won GPs in the following years, that particular model was meant as a touring (and sports) car - not a Grand Prix racer.

Giuseppe Campari again as winner in a P2 at the 1928 Coppa Acerbo posing with his riding mechanic after the race. The racers were by then in private ownership and were continuously improved upon by Portello over the period of 1926-1929, even though they didn't enter any GPs during that period.

According to Luigi Fusi, the Portello built 6 cars, but - although two of them may have been cannibalized over the 1924-1925 seasons because of a couple of serious accidents - there really isn't files for more than 4 cars. Quite impressive for such a convincing row of victories. In 1926 two were sold to Campari, who sold one to Brilli-Peri and another two were sold to a Swiss race driver and an italian gentleman driver. That year many young talents tested and raced the P2s - among them the new star Archille Varzi, who had stopped racing motorcycles, just like another young star, Tazio Nuvolari, who had actually crashed an Alfa Corse P2 severely in a test back in 1924 at Monza.

Compare this to Bugatti: In 1924 Ettore Bugatti presented the Type 35; a 2-liter car for GP racing, just like the Alfa Romeo P2. Production numbers for this very efficient design were Type 35 (96 pcs from 1924), Type 35A a more simple and cheaper version with 3-bearing engine (139 pcs from 1925), Type 35C 1.5-liter with compressor (63 made, including a 2.3-liter version called 35T, for Targa Florio, from 1926), Type 35B 2.3-liter with compressor (45 pcs from 1927), Type 37 1.5-liter without compressor (223 pcs from 1928), Type 37A 1.5-liter with compressor (67 pcs from 1929). All in all 633 Bugattis - versus 4 or 6 Alfa Romeos.

Scuderia Ferrari on their way to their first ever race. Having loaned a P2 with uprated suspension, brakes and compressor - and a new 6c1500-type radiator, they drove to the Trieste-Opicina Hillclimb with an open 3-axle lorry. Tazio Nuvolari is the driver and two mechanics join the proud team in Modena. Note that Commendatore Ferrari has already secured sponsorship from Shell.

The 1.5-liter formula only lasted two years. Bugatti took the World Championship while winning 16 out of 28 GPs in 1926 and Delage were World Champions in 1927 by winning 5 of the counting races, although Bugatti won 23 out of the 35 races that year. From 1928 all Grands Prix were run as Formula Libre and this is when the privateers began winning races in Alfa Romeo P2s again: 1 out of 15 races in 1928 and 8 out of 29 races in 1929. Alfa Corse focused on sportscar races like the Mille Miglia and Vittorio Jano was developing the 6c1750 and the 8c2300 during this period.

My all-time favourite Alfa Romeo photograph shows Archille Varzi with Vittorio Jano standing on the right; ready for departure on the 1930 Targa Florio. The P2 looks absolutely fantastic from this angle, and Varzi was the only man brave enough to take the GP bolide on the 540 km Madonie distance. Jano and his team had installed the old type compressor after a new design had seized during practice on the dusty roads, and he was sure that the P2 was the only car who could take victory back from Bugatti, who had won every time since 1925, saying that the 6c1750 wasn't strong enough - and he was right!

For 1930 Alfa Romeo bought the four cars back from the private owners, and made some serious upgrades to them. They got new suspension and brakes from the 6c1750 Gran Sport and the bodywork was altered - especially at the front end where the rounded narrow radiator was changed to wide raked 1750-type brass items on three of the cars. Today only two cars survive; one has the round radiator and is exhibited at the Museo Storico in Milano (I spent a long moment with it at last year's Padova exhibition) and the other one is the car that Varzi won the 1930 Targa Florio in - car #30. The season was a preparation for 1931, when the AIACR would run a European Championship for GP cars, with a 900 kg formula libre rule set. Alfa Romeo was preparing for this by using the 2-liter 8-cylinder P2, and they would learn a lot from these races. Varzi won in Allessandria in April, Nuvolari won three hillclimbs in row at two-week intervals; the Opicina hillclimb in June and the Maddalena hillclimb where he cut best time by ten minutes from the previous year's 40 minutes, and finally at the Consiglio hillclimb at 10 km/h faster than the previous year. The P2 was still a powerful car - 6 years after its conception.

Works driver Borzacchini presenting his ride for the Italian GP at Monza in september 1930. All three modified cars were entered by Scuderia Ferrari for this particular race; the only time all three cars raced together. Campari and Nuvolari had the other two cars, and the race was badly managed with wrong timing of stops in the qualifying heats, and all three cars retiring with worn rubber after only 7-8 laps in the final. Varzi was racing with the Maserati brothers and won in their Tipo 26M.

At Coppa Ciano Varzi was entered by Alfa Corse and Nuvolari was entered by Scuderia Ferrari - both in modified P2s. The rivalry between these two italian aces was at its highest, and they both retired. Archille Varzi left Alfa Romeo for Maserati and they would never run in the same team again. Two weeks later Nuvolari was the sole defender of Alfa honors at Coppa Acerbo, where he retired with plug trouble, giving victory to the new Maserati star, Archille Varzi in the 26M. The same thing happened at Monza in september, when Enzo Ferrari fielded three perfect cars for Borzacchini, Campari and Nuvolari, but totally missed the opportunity and ran a badly organized race, where Varzi once again won in good style on the Maserati 26M.

A wonderful photograph from Livorno, where - presumably the gentleman with the cane has rented a garage to the Alfa Romeo team. Five mechanics let him and four proud children see the car while posing for this fantastic tableau. Marvelous!

The final race of the the 1930 season - and the final race for the P2 - was only the second time for Scuderia Ferrari abroad. They had sent a 6c1750 to the Klausenpass hillclimb and now it was time to go all the way to Brno in Czechoslovakia. Portello was busy designing the contender for next year's European Championship, so it was quite convenient to send Commendatore Ferrari, two P2s, Nuvolari, Borzacchini and a team of experienced mechanics. The competition was mainly from private Bugattis run by local drivers who new the track very well, and naturally they pulled away. Feeling their way into the race, the Alfa Romeos bettered lap times from approximately 20 minutes to begin with to almost 15 minutes at the end. Nuvolari came in with a cracked crankcase, but Borzacchini motored on and soon looked like a sure winner, until his engine also developed a water leak, and halfway he stopped for a fill-up, when Nuvolari asked if he could take over. Borzacchini was exhausted and let the little Mantuan take the wheel, because everybody else were also getting over-cooked; both men and machines. Local hero, von Morgen, had taken over a more fresh Bugatti, and when Nuvolari had to stop for water again, he was closing in on the red Alfa. On the final lap Nuvolari was out and the Scuderia had two wrecked, worn-out and out-dated P2 Grand prix races on their hands. They drove back to Modena - much wiser, and prepared for 1931.

Borzacchini smiling before the Brno race. Nuvolari is in car #32 on the right. This dramatic race in Czechoslovakia was to become the final swansong for the fabulous race cars who had premiered back in 1924. But in the meantime Jano and his staff were cooking a new winner - without knowing it. They would send the 8c2300 to Monza, where they expected the Tipo A, twin 6c1750-engined, to be their main contender. Jano was preparing the Tipo B (which would ultimately be known as the P3) and with the P2 definitely out, he thought that a bimotore was Alfa Romeo's only chance at winning anything in 1931. But the 8CMonza surprised everybody, and the Tipo A only won a single race - the 1931 Coppa Acerbo with Giuseppe Campari.

Then began the next era - also instrumented by Vittorio Jano!

 

Coast to coast drive

 

As an end-of-year drive, I took the Giulietta SV from the north coast near my place, and drove to the south coast in the nice autumn weather. Enjoy the film and revisit some of the stuff I experienced during the 2015 season. Next year will be more of a racing season - hopefully.