Alfa Romeo 8c 2300 Le Mans Touring

Due to a lack of money, Alfa Romeo pulled out of racing in 1933 – according to Alfa’s own account, the brand had already proven itself enough. The racing department was handed over to former works driver Enzo Ferrari, who founded his own team, the 'Scuderia Ferrari'.

The legendary racing driver Louis Chiron from Monaco took part in the 1933 Le Mans race for the Scuderia in this car, which has bodywork designed by Touring. The regulations for participating touring cars specified that they had to be fitted with a windscreen, mudguards, a silencer, lighting, a horn and four seats. Needless to say, everything was kept to a minimum in order to limit the weight. The rear seats, for example, aren’t really usable. The car weighs just over 1,000 kilograms. Note the fin at the rear, a first step towards the streamlining of racing cars. The 2.3-litre, eight-cylinder engine introduced by Alfa Romeo in 1931 was in fact made up of two four-cylinder blocks, one behind the other, with an ingenious gear mechanism that drove the camshafts as well as the compressor. The cylinder capacity was increased to 2.6 litres for this Le Mans version.