Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Alfa Romeo P3 wins GP, parks in Croydon

A startling little story about a car that should be in a museum but has been restored in NZ and is being 'looked after' in Australia..This month Mr Anderson, a plumber by trade, was asked to look after a 1932 Alfa Romeo, a car which once dominated racing, winning 28 Grand Prix races including the 1932 Italian, French and German Grands Prix. The slim-line eight-cylinder car, which carries a price tag of $4 million, was once road tested by a young Enzo Ferrari before he went on to form the company which bore his name. Mr Anderson has been keeping the vintage car, owned by British millionaire Peter Giddings, finetuned for demonstrations at this year's Grand Prix and Phillip Island races, with a last appearance scheduled at next month's Historic Winton race in Benalla.

It looks like a P3, and the description fits, so I'll assume that to be the case. More on the P3 here:
The P3 was first genuine single seater racing car, and was powered by a supercharged eight cylinder engine. The whole car weight just over 1,500 lb (680 kg), very light for the period. Had it not been for the engine block being cast in iron the car would have been even lighter. The P3 was introduced in June 1932, halfway through the European season, winning its first race at the hands of Tazio Nuvolari, and going on to win 6 races that year driven by both Nuvolari and Rudolf Caracciola, including all 3 major Grands Prix in Italy, France and Germany. 1933 brought financial difficulties to Alfa Corse so the cars were simply locked away and Alfa attempted to rest on their laurels. Enzo Ferrari had to run his breakaway 'works' Alfa team as Scuderia Ferrari, using the older, less effective Alfa Monzas. Alfa prevaricated until August and missed the first 25 events, and only after much wrangling was the P3 finally handed over to Scuderia Ferrari. P3s then won six of the final 11 events of the season including the final 2 major Grands Prix in Italy and Spain.