1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta #19
Pilots: R. Sommer, C. Biondetti
Team: Raymond Sommer
Race: DNF (5.0 class) at Le Mans in 1938
Spark - S9439 (resin)
Published 06/06/25
The Hungarian Vittorio Jano started working for Alfa Romeo in 1923, as their chief engineer. Shortly after, he designed an inline-8 engine for Alfa’s P2 Grand Prix car. With that car, Alfa Romeo won the inaugural Grand Prix world championship in 1925. After two successful seasons, however, Alfa retired from competitions, and Jano focused on passenger cars. The first road car he designed was the 6C (“Sei Cilindri”) 1500, released in 1927. Though designed and produced as a passenger car, the 6C proved to be a race-worthy machine. To the point that it won the Mille Miglia for three consecutive years! Encouraged by those results, Alfa decided to produce a new race car for 1931, both for GP and sportscar racing. The GP car was a failure – too complex to be competitive. However, the 8C 2300 would become one of the most successful racing cars ever constructed.
For the new car, Jano’s foremost consideration was engine power. He designed two blocks of four cylinders with the gear drive to the overhead camshafts in between. That allowed a shorter camshaft, reducing flex. Initially the blocks were steel, yet shortly after were replaced with a lighter aluminum alloy, displacing 2.3 liters. Also in the middle of the two blocks was a Roots-type supercharger, that allowed up to 132 kW (180 hp). Jano placed the engine behind the front axle, bolted to a 4-speed gearbox. The chassis came straight from the 6C – a sheet steel ladder frame, offered in short and long wheelbase versions. Suspension duty came from live axles, semi-elliptic leaf springs and friction dampers all-round, all very conventional. And to stop the car, Jano used cable operated drums on all four corners.
The car was ready for the 1931 Mille Miglia in April, yet both factory cars crashed out. However, just one month later Tazio Nuvolari brought the 8C to victory at the Targa Florio. And in June that same year, the 8C 2300 won Le Mans. In fact, an 8C won at La Sarthe in 1931, 1932, 1933 and in 1934! With that, those years are known as the “Alfa Romeo Era” of Le Mans. The 8C 2300 raced once again in 1935, and came in second place. In 1936, to keep the car competitive, Jano expanded the 8C’s engine to 2.9 l, calling it the 8C 2900A. Alfa Romeo produced six 2900A, and entered three in the 1936 Mille Miglia, coming in first, second and third. A year later Alfa released the 8C 2900B, which was a detuned version of the 2900A for road use.
However, the 8C 2900B was the same car as the 2900A, with a less powerful (detuned) engine. Consequently, it was no surprise that the 2900B went racing. In fact, the 2900B won the Mille Miglia in 1938 and 1947. Moreover, Raymond Sommer, who won Le Mans in 1932 aboard his 8C 2300 LM #8, had the same idea. Therefore, for the 1938 Le Mans race, he bought a brand new 8C 2900B (chassis # 412033). For the body, he commissioned Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera of Milan to fit the chassis with a berlinetta body. With #19 painted on the maroon body, Sommer and Clemente Biondetti piloted the 8C 2900B superbly. To the point that by the 22nd hour, they had a 160 km lead over the second-place car! At the time, it was the largest lead ever recorded for the 24 hours race.
However, despite the record lead, you never can take Le Mans for granted. With just two hours to the finish line, the engine inhaled a valve and seized. With that, the beautiful 8C 2900B was out of the race. After that heart crushing result, the next Alfa to race at La Sarthe would only be in 1958. As always, Le Mans is never easy, and the 8C 2900B #19 is another proof of that. Such a beautiful car deserved better… Nonetheless, in scale it’s a winner – once again Spark delivers perfection. I wanted this model ever since TSM released it a few years ago, though I wasn’t able to score one. Fortunately, Spark released this version last year, and I finally managed one for the W-143 Garage. And once again I’m curious: who makes the better model, Spark or TSM?
What I can say is that Spark’s version is stupendous. To the point that it’s almost overkill. On my model the absurdly delicate windshield wipers came loose. One fell in the case, while I was opening it, and the other right after. No, I didn’t touch them, they just came loose. I was absurdly lucky that I could find them, and then re-glued them back on (with Testors’ windshield glue). Again, I was ABSURDLY lucky to find them and repair the model. So if you take the model out of the case, mind the itsy-bitsy small parts.
PS: Apologies for the out-of-the-norm outdoor shots. I just bought a new Tamron 70-300 mm zoom lens and was dying to try some bokeh effects on my shots 😁. Yet, worry not, I’ll get back to “studio” shots after this.