The Alfa Romeo 8C name was used on road, race and sports cars of the 1930s. The 8C means 8 cylinders, and originally referred to a straight 8-cylinder engine. The Vittorio Jano designed 8C was Alfa Romeo's primary racing engine from its introduction in 1931 to its retirement in 1939. In addition to the two seater sports cars it was used in the world's first genuine single-seat Grand Prix racing car, the Monoposto 'Tipo B' - P3 from 1932 onwards. In its later development it powered such vehicles as the twin engined 1935 6.3 litre Bimotore, the 1935 3.8 litre Monoposto 8C 35 Type C, and the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Miglia Roadster. It also powered top of the range coach-built production models. In 2004 Alfa Romeo revived the 8C name for a V8-engined concept car which has made it into production for 2007, the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.

History

In 1924, Vittorio Jano created his first straight eight cylinder engine for Alfa Romeo, the 1987 cc P2, with common crankcase and four plated steel two cylinder blocks, which won the first World Championship ever in 1925. Albeit it was a straight-8, the 8C designation was not used.





The 8C engine, first entered at the 1931 Mille Miglia road race through Italy, had a common crankcase, now with two alloy four cylinder blocks, which also incorporated the heads. The bore and stroke (and hence rods, pistons and the like), were the same as the 6C 1750. There was no separate head, and no head gasket to fail, but this made valve maintenance more difficult. A central gear tower drove the overhead camshafts, superchargers and ancillaries. As far as production cars are concerned, the 8C engine powered two models, the 8C 2300 (1931-1935) and the even more rare and expensive 8C2900 (1936-1941).

At the same time, since racing cars were no longer required to carry a mechanic, Alfa Romeo built the first single seater race car. As a first attempt, the 1931 Monoposto Tipo A used a pair of 6 cylinder engines fitted side-by-side in the chassis. As the resulting car was too heavy and complex, Jano designed a more suitable and successful racer called Monoposto Tipo B for the 1932 Grand Prix season. The Tipo B proved itself the winning car of its era, winning straight from its first outing at the 1932 Italian Grand Prix, and was powered with an enlarged version of the 8C engine now at 2665 cc, fed through a pair of superchargers instead of a single one.





Initially, Alfa Romeo announced that the 8C was not to be sold to private owners, but by autumn 1931 Alfa sold it as a rolling chassis in Lungo (long) or Corto (short) form with prices starting at over £1000. The chassis were fitted with bodies from a selection of Italian coach-builders (Carrozzeria) such as Zagato, Carrozzeria Touring, Carrozzeria Castagna, Pininfarina and Brianza, even though Alfa Romeo did make bodies. Some chassis were clothed by coach-builders such as Graber, Worblaufen and Tuscher of Switzerland and Figoni of France. Alfa Romeo also had a practice of rebodying cars for clients, and some racing vehicles were sold rebodied as road vehicles. Some of the famous first owners include Baroness Maud Thyssen of the Thyssen family, the owner of the aircraft and now scooter company Piaggio Andrea Piaggio, Raymond Sommer and Tazio Nuvolari.

Models

1931 8C 2300

The first model was the 1931 '8C 2300', a reference to the car's 2.3 L (2336 cc) engine, initially designed as a racing car, but actually produced in 188 units also for road use. While the racing version of the 8C 2300 Spider, driven by Tazio Nuvolari won the 1931 and 1932 Targa Florio race in Sicily, the 1931 Italian Grand Prix victory at Monza gave the "Monza" name to the twin seater GP car, a shortened version of the Spider. The Alfa Romeo factory often added the name of events won to the name of a car.

1931 8C 2300 Le Mans type

'8C 2300 tipo Le Mans' was the sport version of the '8C 2300' and it had a successful debut in the 1931 Eireann Cup driven by Henry Birkin. It won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1931 (Howe-Birkin); 1932 (Chinetti-Sommer); 1933 (Nuvolari-Sommer) and 1934 (Chinetti-Etancelin).

The 8C 2300 Le Mans model on display at the Museo Alfa Romeo was bought by Sir Henry Birkin in 1931 for competition use, but it is not the car in which Birkin and Howe won the 1931 Le Mans 24 hours.

1933 8C 2600

In 1933 the supercharged dual overhead cam straight-8 engine, enlarged to 2.6 litres ('8C 2600') for the Tipo B, was fitted to the Scuderia Ferrari 8C Monzas. Scuderia Ferrari had become the "semi-official" racing department of Alfa Romeo, who were no longer entering races as a factory effort due to the poor economic situation of the company. With the initial 215 hp of the 2.6 engine, the Monoposto Tipo B (P3) racer could accelerate to 60 mph (97 km/h) in less than 7 seconds and could eventually reach 135 mph (217 km/h). For 1934 the race engines became 2.9 litres.

1935 Monoposto 8C 35 Type C

Eight 3.8 litre versions, sharing no castings with the earlier blocks, were individually built for racing in five months, most being used in the Alfa Romeo Monoposto 8C 35 Type C, as raced by Scuderia Ferrari. (The P3 designation was dropped.) The 3.8 produced at 5500 rpm, and had from 900 rpm to 5500 rpm. It had 15.5-inch drum brakes all round, using Pirelli 5.25 or 5.50 x 19 tyres at the front and 7.00 or 7.50 x 19 tyres at the rear. Though not a match for the big Mercedes and Auto Union on the faster circuits, they came into their own on the tighter circuits and races. In 1936 Tipo Cs fitted with the troublesome V12 did not live up to expectations, and the 3.8 continued to be used. From 1933 Scuderia Ferrari had managed the racing, and the Ferrari prancing horse appeared on the flanks of the Bimotore, but Alfa Corse began to become more active, and Vittorio Jano went at the end of the 1937 season. In 1938 four Alfa Romeo Tipo 308 racers were built for the three litre class using 8C engines.

1935 Bimotore

In 1935, to compete with Mercedes Benz and Auto Union, Enzo Ferrari (Race team manager) and Luigi Bazzi (Designer) built a racer with two 3.2 (3.165 litre) engines, one in the front and one in the rear, giving 6.3 litres and . The drivetrain layout was unusual. The two engines were connected by separate driveshaft to a gearbox with two input shafts, and two angled output shafts, so each of the rear wheels had its own driveshaft. It could never quite succeed against the Mercedes W25 B of Rudolf Caracciola, and was hard on fuel and tyres. The gain in speed was offset by increased pit times. On May 12, 1935, two were entered in the Tripoli Grand Prix driven by Nuvolari and Chiron who finished fourth and fifth. Chiron managed a second at the following 1935 Avus race. On June 16, 1935 Nuvolari drove a specially prepared Bimotore from Florence to Livorno and set a new speed record with an average speed of over . After that it was sidelined in favour of the Tipo C. It was the first racer to use the Dubonnet independent trailing arm front suspension. The V12 was under development, but was not race ready. It was noticed that the Bimotore had a traction advantage on rough ground, so a version of the Bimotore chassis with the independent Dubonnet front end, and a new independent rear with swing axles with radius rods and a transverse leaf spring was used for the Tipo C 3.8s.

1936 8C 2900A

In 1936 the '8C 2900A' model was introduced, as a twin seater version of the 8C-35 GP racer, with rear-mounted gearbox and full independent suspension. The 8C2900A was also a race car intended for the Sports Car category. Fewer than a dozen were built, followed by the '8C 2900B', very similar but also sold as road car in about 30 examples. At the same time Alfa Romeo's Tipo B 3.2 litre was becoming less competitive, yet Tazio Nuvolari managed the exploit of winning the 1935 German GP at the Nürburgring at the wheel of a 3.2 Tipo B against the more powerful Mercedes and Auto Union. The blocks had reached their capacity limit, and a new casting was needed to further enlarge the engine capacity to its final size of 3.8 litres. This was done in 1935 to be fitted into the Monoposto Tipo C which entered its first race at the Italian Grand Prix in September 1935. Earlier that year, another attempt to challenge the German car's superior power had been made with the Bimotore (basically a Tipo B modified at the Scuderia Ferrari with a second engine behind the driver), which raced at the 1935 Tripoli GP and AVUS GP, with little success as the tyres couldn't cope with the car's power and weight. The Monoposto Tipo C (aka 8C 35) 3.8 was entered with some success during the 1936 season, followed by the 12C36, a Tipo C now fitted with a new V12 engine of 4064 cc. In the major races, the Monoposto 12C 36 and 37 could not match the Mercedes and Auto-Union cars.

1938 8C 2900B Mille Miglia Roadster

The 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Miglia Roadster (or Spider) pictured is the ultra-light short-chassis (Corto) competition version, with a Carrozzeria Touring (patented) Superleggera body. The motor was 2.9 litres. This was the fore-runner of modern Alfa Romeos, in that the 2900B had hydraulic brakes, fully independent suspension and a four speed rear transaxle, instead of the live rear axle of earlier models. It had 19-inch rims and used Pirelli Corsa tyres front and rear. In the 1938 Mille Miglia, Clemente Biondetti and Carlo Pintacuda took the first two places. Biondetti's car used a Tipo 308 engine, while Pintacuda's used a 2900B. Phil Hill won several west coast United States races in Pintacuda's car in 1951 before driving for Ferrari.

The engine in a production 2900B is a dry sump twin Scintilla magneto supercharged inline 8-cylinder 2.9 litre using two Roots type superchargers fed by two updraught Weber carburettors. The output was and was the world's fastest production road car in 1938. (Competition versions gave at 5200 rpm) About 30 short-wheelbase ( ) 2900B models were built, mostly with spider bodywork by Touring and Farina, about ten Lungo, long wheelbase, ( ) models were built. and only five with the Mille Miglia bodywork also by Touring of Milan. All were coachbuilt to the owners specification, so few, if any, are exactly alike.

The last time a roadster was auctioned, in August 1999, by Christie's at Pebble Beach, it brought four million and seventy two thousand US dollars, making it one of the ten most expensive cars ever auctioned. The Mille Miglia roadsters are even more valuable, so valuable that some owners of the more usual Farina or Touring Spiders have had them professionally rebodied to match the Touring Mille Miglia Spider, as driven by Biondetti.

Technical drawings of the 2900B Mille Miglia by the American historian Jonathan Thompson survive. (They are included in Simon Moore's book, The Immortal 2.9, and are viewable online - See External links)

1938 8C 2900B Le Mans Speciale

Alfa Corse, the racing department set up by Alfa after having bought the Scuderia Ferrari shares, entered a single 8C 2900B for the 1938 Le Mans. The car featured an innovative and stunning streamlined coupe body, when Le Mans racers had almost always been open cars. The aerodynamic coupe was built by Touring. In 1987, an Italian magazine had the car tested at the Pininfarina wind tunnel, where a Cx of 0.42 was measured, down to 0.38 with air intakes closed. The coupe performed particularly well initially gaining a 160 km lead over the next car, but tyre trouble was then followed by a broken valve. This was the only time the coupe raced officially. After the war, it was entered in minor races under private ownership, was then displayed at the Donington museum from the 60s before being added in 1987 to the Alfa Romeo museum which now runs it at many events.

References

1. Title:"Classic and Sportscar" magazine, Published: March 1997, Article: "Alfa 8C 35", Page 75, ISSN
2. [1] ConceptCarz.com Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B (retrieved January 1 2007)
3. [2] ForbesAutos.com Most Expensive Cars Ever Auctioned (retrieved January 1 2007)
4. Fusi, Luigi: Alfa Romeo Tipo A Monoposto, Emmeti Grafica, Milano, 1982
5. Title:"Classic and Sportscar" magazine, Published: April 2007, Article: "Alfa 8C-2900B MM", Page 192, ISSN
6. Moore, Simon: The Legendary 2.3, Parkside Publication, Seattle, 2000 ISBN 0961726603
7. See article by Simon Moore in MotorSport (UK) May 2008 p94
8. Moore, Simon: The Immortal 2.9, Parkside Publication, Seattle, 1986 ISBN 9780961726607
9. Ruoteclassiche N°1, November 1987
10. [3] Ultimatecarpage.com Le Mans Speciale (retrieved November 14 2007)
11. [4] VsrnOnline MCT Scale Plan Series Number Five, 1935-37 8C 35, 12C 36 and 12C 37 Alfa Romeos, Pages 6 & 7(retrieved January 1 2007)

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Sources

External links

• New ALFA ROMEO 8C Limited Edition - Gallery
• vsronline.com Page 3. A modellers plan website; featuring Jonathon Thompson's plans for the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Miglia Roadster, front, rear, and RH side views, as used in Simon Moore's book, "The Immortal 2.9"
• vsronline.com Page 4.The LH side and above views of the above mentioned plans. The other pages not linked here are readable .jpg s of an article on the Mille Miglia Roadster.
• Alfa Romeo Spider Historical Article and Gallery Carsguide Car of the Week