Peter Collins on the Alfa Romeo 6C 2300B Mille Miglia. Click to see Gallery
BY THE MID-1930s Benito Mussolini’s increasingly bellicose actions and his encouragement of Italian re-armament had prioritised the country’s industrial output increasingly to the military. For Alfa Romeo this meant more emphasis on their traditional aircraft engine business with the effect that, according to Fusi, in 1936, Alfa only produced eighteen cars all year.
Two years before, at the Milan Motor Show, an entirely new Alfa had been announced. This was the 6C 2300; the genius Jano had completely reworked the old six cylinder 1900 motor and now, with two Solex carburettors, the new engine produced 68 bhp at 4400 rpm. One year on and further development was enough for the series to be re-titled 6C 2300 B. With independent suspension all round this was a serious step towards a modern Alfa that would be the basis of the Company’s passenger-car output for the years ahead. The emphasis on re-armament did not help and it was to take until 1937 before any sort of significant numbers were produced.
Carrozzeria Touring had been taken on to help and four-door saloons designed by them had appeared in 1934/5 which proved popular as well as relatively cheap and easy to make but the impetus of the increased pace of industrial output and Alfa’s success in races such as the Mille Miglia had caused development rates for Alfa’s engines to increase and in 1937 a 6C 2300 B Mille Miglia emerged from Portello that made use of the more powerful motor and more efficient, lighter bodywork construction methods.
Hey presto! The car you see here was introduced to a startled world. In addition to the bodywork, with much co-operation from Carrozzeria Touring, the new car was light and powerful. The 6C Mille Miglia was Touring’s first use of what was to become their trademark bodywork construction method called Superleggera. This involved a light frame of thin steel tubes which could be covered by an aluminium skin.
The method allowed Touring’s designers much more freedom and the results can clearly be seen with this fabulous Mille Miglia. The tapering bodywork towards the rear and the way the almost art deco strakes over the rear wheels blends round into the tail, were indications of the direction the Carrozzeria was to lean in its designs through the years immediately after the finish of the war.
With its more powerful motor developing 105 bhp and ultra-light construction helped by such detail as the skimpily-framed seats, plus the use of Plexiglas in the side and rear windows, the 1937 prototype was entered for the Mille Miglia. It finished fourth in the hands of Giovanbattista Guidotti and Ercole Boratto, who was Mussolini’s personal driver. The car went on to win the Bengazi-Tripoli race in December 1937 with Boratto at an average 134 kph for the 1,020 km event.
The exquisite example you see here comes from the next year of production, 1938, when just over 100 of these 6C 2300 B MMs were produced. It was clearly an Alfa Romeo of the future, but, typical of the company, owed its origins to the past.
I would like to thank Eddie McGuire for his whole-hearted assistance and the Bonfantis for allowing the use of their car. Their museum, Museo Bonfanti in the northern outskirts of Bassano del Grappa in the Veneto, enjoys an ever-changing selection of automotive exhibitions and is a must-see venue if you are ever in the area.
