Racing the Alfa Romeo 8c35

Color photos by www.rprincephoto.com

By Pete Vack

This article originally appeared in VeloceToday on September 10th, 2008. The cars featured here may have changed hands since.

Peter Greenfield is in the enviable position of owning and racing not one, but two pre-war Alfa Romeo Grand Prix cars. Furthermore, chassis 50013 which he acquired from Peter Giddings in 2005, is the only complete, original Tipo 8c35 in the world.

He keeps the crown jewel–50013– for very special events such as the upcoming Laguna Seca event at Monterey where he will have it out for the Shell Ferrari Historics. For the race at Mt. Tremblant and most other vintage races, Peter drives a ‘clone’, which is referred to as 8c35 50015C, the “C” standing for clone. This car was built up from the parts of a vehicle obtained from South America, and uses an engine found by Peter Giddings years ago. Giddings explains: “The clone’s “C” section chassis came out of Argentina, and Paul Grist built a car up around it, using the transaxle out of the dismantled Rex Mays Tipo C (#50012), and fitted with engine #50015, which engine I used to own when it was shoe-horned into a 1932 Alfa Romeo Monza!” Giddings says “shoe-horned” because whilst the 2.3 8c and 3.8 8c engines look similar, the dual supercharged 3.8 is somewhat longer than the single supercharged 2.3.

Apparently the actual 8C35 chassis numbered 50015 has long disappeared, so something useful was done with the engine, based on the fact that Grist had access to 50013 and used it for comparisons. Thus, 50015 “C” was born.

Giddings described how both cars feature “dog” engage non-syncro transaxles. “Thus double declutching is very necessary.” Still, Giddings says it’s a huge improvement over the slow 2.3 8c gear box as fitted to the previous series of Alfa sports cars and the Tipo B (P3). In comparing Greenfield’s 50015C and his own frame #8 / engine #50012, Giddings notes that “Greenfield’s Tipo 8c has a little more torque and has better handling. (Relatively speaking …they are both a handful, as spectators will attest!). On the other hand, braking (indifferent at best) is the same for both cars.”

The 1936/7 50012 engine, still in the original chassis and raced by Mays, was reduced in bore and stroked down to 3000cc by the great Fred Offenhauser and Ed Winfield. “Thus,“ says Giddings, “both Greenfield’s #50015(C) and #50013 benefit from an extra .8 of a liter, resulting in more power and torque. On the other hand, my shorter throw engine can rev a little higher, with perhaps more balanced/ progressive power throughout the range.”

But of course it is the third of the 8c35 trio that is the most important car, because it is one of the very few pre-war Italian Grand Prix cars to have survived intact through the ages. Plus, what a provenance! There seems to be little doubt that 50013 was raced on occasion by Tazio Nuvolari during the 1936 season. Nuvolari won one of his finest races with an 8c35, the Coppa Ciano. Simply put, Nuvolari retired his 12c, walked back to the pits, took over Pintacuda’s 8c35, and proceeded to catch, pass, and defeat the entire Auto Union team.

According to Denis Jenkinson, when Hans Ruesch bought it from Scuderia Ferrari near the end of the 1936 season, it was said that this was the car that Nuvolari drove to victory in the Coppa Ciano. Ruesch, the author of a slender novel called “The Racers” (later made into a movie by the same name starring Kirk Douglas), was no slouch either, taking 50013 to victory at Donington Park on October 6th, 1936, won the Brooklands Mountain Championship, and also won the Frontieres G.P. in Chimay in 1937, to name a few.

The car changed hands twice and survived the war intact to be sold to Dennis Poore in 1947. Poore drove it to three VSCC Seaman Trophies, numerous other events, and in 1951 won the British Hillclimb Championship. Poore retired himself and the car in 1955 but he kept the car in his collection until his death. In 1995 Peter Giddings acquired 50013, had it restored and campaigned it all over the world, finally parting with it to Peter Greenfield in 2005. Giddings remarked that “Greenfield is one of a few “converts” I have enabled over the years! Peter was not enjoying himself that much with his modern car racing, and thus was a prime candidate for vintage/ historic competition, which he has taken to like a “duck to water”. His driving experience is critical, especially under the rain-soaked conditions at the fabulous Mont Tremblant circuit.”

Greenfield promises to get the ex-Ruesch 50013 out to Laguna this year, but in the meantime, proved his mettle at Mt. Tremblant in mid-July, when Giddings and Greenfield headed a field of post-war Ferrari and Maserati sportscars. Peter LeSaffre, who finished third behind the two titans, recalls the experience:

“Survival comes to mind. You either pass the big Grand Prix cars on a straight, which is difficult with all the horsepower they produce, or out- brake them, which is pretty dangerous. Those imposing, huge wheels help you make the prudent decision to live to fight another day. My Maserati 300S was running on only one magneto so there was not enough punch coming out of turns or down the straight. The results might have been different had the car been running better, but who knows – the two Peters are very good at man-handling those absolutely awesome cars. To drive behind them was a treat to the senses but your eyes burn like hell from alcohol. You might remember watching early cartoons of race cars climbing tight mountain roads and the wheels would be on the road, but the car’s body would be hanging over the cliff; that’s what it was like to follow and watch the 8c35s at Mt. Tremblant.”

Giddings was pleased but realistic. “We certainly did not expect to win against five speed cars of later era (and well driven by our Historic Challenge Series friends), but we shall long relish our minor victory against all odds, thus proving (if nothing else) that there is “life in the old dogs yet.”