1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35

This is one of the cars that competed in the HGPCA Pre '52 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Paul Grist and has an 8-cylinder 3,822cc engine with twin overhead camshafts. It was built to challenge the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars but rarely managed to get the better of them. The Alfa Romeo 8C-35 was introduced when the Tipo B Monoposto – or P3 as it is more popularly known – became overdue for replacement.  The P3 had itself been derived from the Monza and had flown the Alfa flag with great success between 1932 and 1935. The 8C-35 never beat the German cars in a top level Grand Prix but did succeed in doing so in a number of smaller races, in the hands of Tazio Nuvolari.

1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre '52 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Paul Grist and has an 8-cylinder 3,822cc engine with twin overhead camshafts. It was built to challenge the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars but rarely managed to get the better of them. The Alfa Romeo 8C-35 was introduced when the Tipo B Monoposto – or P3 as it is more popularly known – became overdue for replacement.  The P3 had itself been derived from the Monza and had flown the Alfa flag with great success between 1932 and 1935. The 8C-35 never beat the German cars in a top level Grand Prix, but did succeed in doing so in a number of smaller races, in the hands of Tazio Nuvolari.

 

1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre '52 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Paul Grist and has an 8-cylinder 3,822cc engine with twin overhead camshafts. It was built to challenge the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars but rarely managed to get the better of them. The Alfa Romeo 8C-35 was introduced when the Tipo B Monoposto – or P3 as it is more popularly known – became overdue for replacement.  The P3 had itself been derived from the Monza and had flown the Alfa flag with great success between 1932 and 1935. The 8C-35 never beat the German cars in a top level Grand Prix, but did succeed in doing so in a number of smaller races, in the hands of Tazio Nuvolari.

1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre '52 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Paul Grist and has an 8-cylinder 3,822cc engine with twin overhead camshafts. It was built to challenge the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars but never beat the German cars in a top level Grand Prix, although it did succeed in doing so in a number of smaller races in the hands of the legendary Tazio Nuvolari.

1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre '52 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Paul Grist and has an 8-cylinder 3,822cc engine with twin overhead camshafts. It was built to challenge the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars but never beat the German cars in a top level Grand Prix, although it did succeed in doing so in a number of smaller races in the hands of the legendary Tazio Nuvolari.

1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre '52 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Paul Grist and has an 8-cylinder 3,822cc engine with twin overhead camshafts. It was built to challenge the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars but never beat the German cars in a top level Grand Prix, although it did succeed in doing so in a number of smaller races in the hands of the legendary Tazio Nuvolari.

1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre '52 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996.

It's the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Paul Grist and has an 8-cylinder 3,822cc engine with twin overhead camshafts. It was built to challenge the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars but rarely managed to get the better of them. The programme of the event said this about the car:

'The Alfa Romeo 8C-35 was introduced when the Tipo B Monoposto – or P3 as it is more popularly known – became overdue for replacement.  The P3 had itself been derived from the Monza and had flown the Alfa flag with great success between 1932 and 1935. The 8C-35 never beat the German cars in a top level Grand Prix, but did succeed in doing so in a number of smaller races, in the hands of the legendary Tazio Nuvolari.'

Here's Paul Grist at Luffield Corner during the race followed by two ERAs - R9B driven by Jost Wildbolz and Tony Merrick at the wheel of R1A.

Alfa Romeo 8C-35

These photographs were taken at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2006.

This is the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Peter Greenfield that took part in two of the races at this meeting. The car is chassis 50013 and has a supercharged 3,822cc straight-eight engine. It was raced by the Scuderia Ferrari team, by Tazio Nuvolari amongst others, on behalf of Alfa Romeo in 1936, and by Hans Ruesch as a privateer in the latter part of 1936 and in the 1937 season. Hans Ruesch and his co-driver Richard Seaman won the 1936 Donington Grand Prix in this car.

At this 2004 Donington Park meeting the car competed in the Historic Seaman Trophy Race bearing the number 24 as in the above two photographs taken in the pit garage.

Later in the day the car took part in the Flockhart Trophy Race as a reserve entry bearing the number 20, presumably because a Cooper Bristol in the same race had already been allocated the number 24. In the above photograph Peter Greenfield is leading David Wenman in his 1952 Connaught A4 at McLean's Corner during this race.

50013 was owned by Dennis Poore after WW2 and was raced by him between 1947 and 1955, later ending up in the Donington Park Museum where I took photographs of the car in 1989.

Alfa Romeo 8C-35

Here are some photographs I took when I visited the Donington Park museum in October 1989.

It's a 1936 Alfa Romeo 8C-35, an ex-Scuderia Ferrari car, chassis #50013, that was owned by the late Dennis Poore from just after the war until he died in 1987. He competed regularly, and successfully, in the car in this green livery until 1955, after which it was put in storage until it was sold after his death. 

The car then spent a few years in the Donington Park museum, but was subsequently sold to Peter Giddings who had the car fully restored in its original Scuderia Ferrari guise - and painted red, of course.

On 27 February 2016 I showed photographs I'd taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in 1997 of an Alfa Romeo 8C-35, but I don't know if it's the same car.

Alfa Romeo 8C-35

This car took part in the Magneti Marelli UK Race for Pre-1952 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997.

It's the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Paul Grist, and the Ferrari badges on the car's bonnet signify that it is one of the ex-Scuderia Ferrari cars from the time when Enzo Ferrari had control of the Alfa Romeo racing programme.