In 1967, an Australian settled in England and started to look for a race car with which to go Historic (Vintage) Racing. Our friend was no ordinary enthusiast, having headed an engineering company in Australia that specialized in building race car engines. Our friend particularly like pre-war racing Alfa Romeos and, almost by chance and, after some searching, discovered and bought an 8C Alfa Romeo in need of restoration.
Upon getting the car home, our friend scanned Luigi Fusi s book that listed all the cars made by Alfa Romeo since 1910. From the book, the new owner discovered that the chassis was from a 1938 6C Corto Pescara-type car but could not find an engine number. This is the sixth to last chassis made of a run of 188 cars. All the other chassis are documented as to which engine and gearbox were installed, what type of body was fitted and who the car was delivered to. There are no details of where 813392 went wich means that the chassis was used for a special project.. It is fitted with an 8C 2600 engine, modified from a 2.3 in the way which the Scuderia Ferrari used on their Monzas, i.e. it has a carburettor for the supercharged engine marked "DCF1 Tipo 36 18C". These carburettors were only manufactured for the Scuderia Ferrari in Modena.
Other salient Ferrari pointers are as follows. The engine has no valve seat inserts, the valves running directly in the aluminium. The valves and ports were increased in size. The cylinder blocks were bored out and thicker cylinder liners of 68.5 mm bore were installed. 7.5:1 compression ratio pistons were fitted. All this is in the manner of Ferrari-modified Alfa Monzas from 1933 onwards of which Ferrari made several. 813392 has an unusual double-throated induction trumpet, pointing forwards in the manner of the Alfa Tipo 158 (also made by Ferrari). There was no evidence of the block ever having been damaged and the crankshaft has not been reground. The angled drive mounting from a 6C 2300B is fitted to lower the Bosch distributor. The engine assembly number is 76. A specially-made exhaust manifold, stamped aR (Alfa Romeo), is fitted. The oil cooler is by Radiatore Colini and is fitted under the radiator. The oil tank has cooling tubing running through it. The car came with a 4-spoke Grand Prix type, wood rim steering wheel. It also came with a high-sided Grand Prix driving seat. The chassis has been professionally shortened to 104 inches. The gearbox, made in 1933, has different ratios to a standard 8C and the differential ratio is 3.8:1. Borrani wire wheels with rolled steel rims of 18-inch diameter rear and 16-inch diameter front also came fitted to the chassis. Fuel is supplied via twin Autoflux electrical pumps. The fuel tank is a shaped pressed steel affair, fitting the taper of the rear chassis rails, probably from a 2.9 Mille Miglia car.
The car has coil sprung rear suspension, not the torsion bars that would have originally been fitted to a 2300 chassis, (there are no mounting holes). The front suspension is identical to that of the Alfa Romeo Bi-Motore which was also built up in the Scuderia Ferrari workshop in Modena. The petrol and oil tanks had drilled lugs fitted to the filler caps for lead seals (as fitted by scrutineers). When the car arrived in England in 1967, a cavity in the car had 12 cut-off seals in it. The radiator grill appeared identical to that of a Tipo 12C Grand Prix car of 1937. All the parts are stamped "aR", showing that they are correct Alfa Romeo parts. Luigi Fusi, the Alfa Romeo historian who had known and worked with Enzo Ferrari since 1921, sent the owner over one hundred drawings appertaining to the car, including many drawings of the original style bodywork which had been fitted to the car.
"Enzo Ferrari left Alfa Romeo in 1938. He agreed not to build any cars under his name for the next four years. It was during this period that this car was constructed. No records of this period have survived, according to the Ferrari factory. The car bears all the hallmarks of having been built at the Scuderia Ferrari headquarters in Viale Trento, Trieste in Modena. It is likely that having been sold to a customer living outside of Italy, Ferrari believed that this was a project he could carry out without the Alfa Romeo factory seeing a car with Ferrari's name on it."
All the evidences show that, this is a "Special" made up by Enzo Ferrari, just after he left Alfa Romeo in 1938, to sell to an Italian, Romeo Paola of Asmara in Ethiopia, to run in the 1940 Tobruk-Tripoli race. In fact, it will be may be the first real Ferrari built ! When the car came to England, it had a faded racing number ("36") upon its battered bodywork and some crudely hand-painted Scuderia Ferrari badges on either side of the scuttle. Amongst the spares was a set of induction manifolds, stamped "aR" to fit four carburettors to the engine. The 1940 Tobruk-Tripoli race was for unsupercharged cars.
The present owner acquired the car in 1969. He is a superlative engineer who has helped many other Alfa Romeo owners with the mechanical aspects of their cars. He had great help from Cavaliere Luigi Fusi, the Alfa Romeo historian, who supplied many drawings to him to assist him with the restoration of the car. Since its completion in the early 1970s, the car has been enthusiastically and well raced in hill climbs and sprints by the current owner.
