Alfa's Road Rocket

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The darling of concours judges the world over, Alfa Romeo 8C 2900s all seem to lead blessed lives of pampering, polishing and sunny days at the shores of Pebble Beach and Lake Como while the wider automotive world can only gaze at them in awe. It could be no other way, as the sculpted form and features are beyond improvement – the sort of car that, if it were a woman, could turn the most silver-tongued Casanova into a stuttering fool. It blows Plato’s Theory of Forms to pieces, for it is the essence of eleganza.

Of course, it was more than just a pretty face, since the supercharged engine could offer 180bhp and 120mph in 2900B form, and the model can claim four Mille Miglia victories alongside its beauty pageant trophies.

Of all the bodies to cloak the 2900 chassis, Touring’s Berlinetta must rank as the best of the best. Of the five made, chassis 412024 offers a particularly rich history. A very brief time in Italy, possibly at the hands of a high-ranking Fascist minister, was followed by the ownership of Jack Bartlett, the ex-Brooklands racer-turned-upmarket London dealer. He made 412024 a favourite on the postwar concours circuit. It passed through a few more owners before travelling to the Netherlands, where it has stayed in one loving family for 42 years. Mick Walsh makes an admiring analysis of this most excellent of Alfas in the February issue of The Automobile, available now.

If you want to see this great car in person, it will be auctioned by Artcurial at thier Rétromobile auction on 8th February at the Porte de Versailles, Paris. It is estimated at an astonishing €16-22m...

Words by Zack Stiling. Photographs by Dirk de Jager.

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