While the 1950 Ferrari 166 MM won the public’s award at this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the jury of experts gave the “Best of Show” trophy to a gorgeous Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider from 1932.
Owned by American collector David Sydorick, the classic Alfa Romeo derives from the most successful racing car of its period.
The competition model launched in 1931 as an evolution of the 6C 1750 GS and was the last chapter of the Alfa Romeo 6C project initiated in the middle of the 1920s by the great engineer Vittorio Jano.
Alfa Romeo’s partner was the Carrozzeria Zagato, which built beautifully crafted bodies for the Italian race cars. Enzo Ferrari himself had selected Zagato as a technical partner because of its specialization in creating light and aerodynamic racing bodies, inspired by aeronautics. At the time, Il Commendatore was the sports director of the Alfa Romeo official racing team.
Built in different versions (two-seater Spider “Corto,” four-seater Tipo Le Mans Tourer and Tipo Monza), the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Zagato dominated the most important races of the period (among them the Mille Miglia of 1933, the 24 Hours of Le Mans of 1931 and 1932, the Targa Florio and 24 Hours of Spa). The car was powered by a 2,336 cc inline-eight cylinder engine.
Zagato also built a few 8C 2300s for road use, one of which is the gorgeous 1932 Spider model that you can admire in the photo gallery.
PHOTO GALLERY
