1929 OM 6C 2300 – Brief Brilliance

Societa Anonima Officine Meccaniche (OM) was born in 1918 with the merger of A. Grondona Conic & Co. and Miani Silvestri & Co., who manufactured steam- and petrol-driven railroad locomotives and equipment, airplane parts and war materials. The new company quickly took over the manufacturing plant of Brixia-Züst, a car manufacturer in Brescia, Italy. The first OM car, the Tipo S305 was produced that same year, but was not much more than a reworked Züst. In 1923, they introduced a new model, the Tipo 665 “Superba,” a 2-liter six-cylinder, which was produced until 1930. This model began OM’s rise to prominence in racing.

OM cars were hand built and often altered to the customer’s specifications. The alterations could include sporting modifications such as cam grinds and compression ratios, or changes to suit the driver’s physique such as steering column height. In Italy, bodies might come from Castagna, Zagato or, in the case of one particular racecar, Carrozeria Sport. The cars were very representative of most cars of the era. They had lines very similar to Alfa Romeos and Maseratis—canted grille, bicycle fenders, long hoods and short tails. In England, L.C. Rawlence & Company, Ltd. was the concessionaire for OM. The company also built bespoke cars for its customers. Bodies, for example, were installed on OM chassis by Cadogan, Corsica, Freestone and Webb, Carlton Carriage and Mulliner. A supercharged 2.2-liter OM in England was priced at £925 with an additional £250-373 for the coachwork. Few cars were exactly alike, and they were not inexpensive. Still, in the years between the wars, 350-370 OM automobiles were imported to England, of which about 30 survive.

In 1925, OM added trucks and buses powered by Swiss Saurer engines to its product line. The company appears to have been successful, and it eventually drew the attention of Fiat, who took over OM in 1938. A year later, passenger car production ended, and OM became a producer of only commercial vehicles and train parts. The next major change came in 1968, when OM became a brand in Fiat’s commercial division. It was absorbed into IVECO in 1975, and then the OM brand disappeared for good except on a line of forklifts.

Racing’s Shooting Star

The 1923 Tipo 665 was OM’s first truly new car, and it was an exceptional performer. In 1925, the Tipo 665 Superba finished 1st and 2nd in the 2-liter class, and 4th and 5th overall, at Le Mans. Driven by Ferdinando Minoia and Giusieppi Morandi, the leading Superba finished 119 laps, only ten behind the winning Lorraine-Dietrich 3.5-liter. The OM team repeated this accomplishment at Le Mans in 1926 with Minoia and Giulio Foresti 13 laps behind the winning Lorraine-Dietrich.

An OM car finished 2nd in the 1927 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but it was at Italy’s Mille Miglia where the OM star shined most brilliantly before burning out. That year, OM shifted its focus to the first Mille Miglia. It made sense that a car built in Brescia should compete in a race starting and ending in Brescia. An OM Tipo 665 Sport was driven to victory by Ferdinando Minoia and Giusieppi Morandi at an average speed of 48.27 mph (77.7 kph). The single 1000-mile lap from Brescia to Rome and back to Brescia took the winners 21 hours, 4 minutes, and 48 seconds—brutal. OM actually finished 1st through 3rd overall and in the 2-liter class in 1927, beating 76 other cars with displacements ranging from 750-cc to 8000-cc. In 1928 OM cars, Tipo 665 SMMs, finished 2nd overall, driven by Rosa and Mazzotti, and 1st through 8th in the 2-liter class. These 2-liter cars were fast and strong. Of 82 cars that started, 42 failed to finish.

In the 1929 MM, the OM 665 SMM driven by Morandi and Rosa took 2nd place overall and in the 2-liter class to an Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 SS Spider Zagato driven by Giusieppe Campari and Giulio Ramponi. A new car, a Tipo 655 MM, driven by Pietro Ghersi and Guerrini placed 2nd in the 3-liter class, a portent of things to come from OM. Alfa Romeo’s dominance of the Mille Miglia overall win continued through 1938. OM built a new car late in 1929 for the 1930 Mille Miglia, and they produced  another good result in the April race. Three of their cars finished in the top three positions in Classe Fino 3000-cc—the 3-liter class—and 5th, 7th and 12th overall. Alfa 6C 1750 GS Zagatos finished 1st through 4th overall and in the 2-liter class. The OM finishers were led by Bassi and Gazzambini in a Tipo 665 SS MM. Their time was 17 hours, 18 minutes and 34 seconds at an average speed of 59.047 mph (94.627 kmph)—nearly nine miles per hour and four hours faster than the Tipo 665 Sport that won in 1927. These three cars were 6-cylinder, 2350-cc, supercharged racecars that were not available for sale to the public; they were available only to the race team. The winning car was GN 8762 (the subject of this article). OM had only one more decent year at the Mille Miglia—1931—when Mirandi and Rosa took a Tipo 665 SS MM to 3rd overall and 1st in the 3-liter class. Another OM was 3rd in class and 16th overall. A third finished well down, and two failed to finish. It was the last of the great race finishes for OM, and 1931 was the last year the OM factory entered the Mille Miglia.

After the 1930 Mille Miglia, four team cars raced in the Targa Florio, in Sicily, in May. This race was not quite as long as the Mille Miglia, but five laps of the 67-mile (108-km) course were brutal on cars and competitors. Morandi finished 4th overall, and GN 8762, the car that won the 3-liter class in the Mille Miglia, was 10th with Minoia driving. The cars that raced in the Mille Miglia were then sent to the United Kingdom, where Captain Edgar Fronteras financed and handled the importation of the cars for the Irish Grand Prix at Phoenix Park near Dublin and the Tourist Trophy at Ards. The Irish races required cars to have rear seats, so the OMs were modified to meet the rules some time before the races. The cars went to the L.C. Rawlence & Company, which played a role in running and maintaining the cars in the two races. The factory team sent the cars and separate parts, including crankshafts, flywheels and connecting rods, all of which were sent by Rawlence to Laystall to be re-machined and balanced.

The Irish Grand Prix for the Phoenix Trophy was a two-day event on July 18-19, 1930. Four cars—the three Italian 2.3-liter OM team cars and a supercharged 2.2-liter car—were entered. The drivers were Fronteras, Minoia and Ramponi in the team cars and R.F. Oats for the Rawlence entry. Oats was the Rawlence chief engineer and Grand Prix driver. Results for the over 1500-cc race on Saturday, July 19 show Ramponi finishing 9th, driving team car GN 8762, and Oats 11th, in the 2.2-liter. Fronteras apparently crashed, and Minoia retired after cold water was added to his hot engine on a pit stop. One reason the team cars did not perform well was that they were using fuel faster than the autovacs could supply it.

The next event was the Ards TT in August. Five cars were entered—the three team cars and two 2-liter cars. Once again Fronteras, Minoia and Ramponi were to drive the team cars.  Unfortunately, Ramponi put GN 8762 on its top in a ditch during practice. In a 1960 letter to the owner of GN 8762, spectator R. Galbraith said that he had ridden in the car as a boy and remembered seeing it slide into a ten-foot ditch early on the morning of practice. The car had some chassis damage and a bent front axle. The axle was taken to an Irish blacksmith for repair, but the blacksmith overheated and ruined the axle. As a result, the car could not start the race, so Ramponi took over Fronteras’ car, and Fronteras bumped Oats from his 2-liter.

OMs continued to be raced in Britain, but with few good results. Possibly the last good result was when T.A.S.O. Mathieson won a race at Brooklands in his OM at an average speed of 60 mph. Accounts differ about whether Mathieson had one of the team cars or a blown 2.2-liter car that Oats raced in 1931 at Phoenix Park.

GN 8762’s Journey

After the two Irish races, the OM team cars were left in England. Fronteras sold them either for himself or the factory in order to recoup some of his expenses. No matter which, one of the cars, the one thought to have belonged to Mathieson, has been lost. The second eventually found its way to Australia, where it now lives. The third, GN 8762, seemed lost until Eric Lister found it after WWII: “I wandered into Finglass’ garage, looked at his stock, couldn’t find anything. Just before I left, I saw something in a corner under a white sheet. I lifted it up and looked at what I thought was an Alfa at first, then discovered it was an OM, a car that I had heard of but knew very little about. Finglass told me it was an ex-OM team car that turned over in practice during the 1930 Phoenix Park Races. The car was never sent back to Italy, but repaired and stored by Rawlence, the concessionaires, and really only used for about 30,000 km, completely original in every way, with 30,000 km on the clock only.” This account, in a letter to Anthony R.A. Hopton, a later owner, seems consistent with memories of Michael Rawlence, son of L.C. Rawlence. In his letter to Hopton, Rawlence said he thought all three team cars remained in England. He knew Finglass, and his father did have a garage in London where one of the cars was stored under a sheet at the back of the garage, although he remembered it only being there for a year or so.

Lister did a deal for the OM, swapping another car for it, and kept it for an undetermined period of time. While he owned it, he did some repairs and on a drive saw 100 mph on the speedometer. Eventually, he sold the car to another dealer in London, Simonds. Then Leslie Byrom from Manchester bought it in 1952, according to the Federation Internationale des Vehicules Anciens (FIVA) ID Card dated 11/26/2009. The car remained in Manchester and was allowed to deteriorate. It was uncovered again in 1964, and is listed as being owned by Hopton in 1966. Hopton undertook a search for the car’s history. He wrote previous owners, drivers of the car and Fiat in order to document much of the car’s history, while he took care of the deterioration the car had suffered. All of his documentation, including original photographs and letters, went with the car to its subsequent owners. One document, a list of all OM owners he was able to find, included one F. Schlumpf. Apparently, the Schlumpf brothers accumulated more than Bugattis.

The FIVA ID shows that the car underwent a restoration in Germany from 1997-1999 while owned by Heiko Seekamp, a collector in Bremen. Seekamp entered the car in the Mille Miglia Storico—the modern version of the race—six times and was first car off five of those times. Seekamp sold the car to Dr. Richard Lisman, a plastic surgeon at the Institute for Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at New York University Medical Center. He and his long time co-driver, Clive Doyle, are serious vintage racers. They have competed in the Winter Challenge in Monaco (3rd place), Le Mitiche de Bassano, at Bridgehampton and, most important, in nine Mille Miglias. Five of those MMs were in a Lagonda Rapide LG 45 Le Mans team car, in which they won “First American Finisher” in 2004. They raced an ex-works Peter Collins Aston Martin DB 2/4 once in the Mille Miglia, but suffered a DNF because of a fuel pump failure. And they have run the OM in the Mille Miglia twice, winning “First American Finisher” in 2011. This May will be their third time at the MM in the OM. Original Mille Miglia cars are given a multiplier for their scores; the OM gets the highest multiplier possible—1.8. In March 2013, the car was shown at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance for the first time. It won Best in the Pre-War Racing Car Class, a well-deserved award.

The OM spends its time in New York and England, and is registered in both places. In England, it receives its care from Simon Bish at SPB Historics in Hampshire. In the States, it is maintained by Tony Dutton at Northumberland Engineering in Southampton, New York. Dr. Lisman is a true auto and racing enthusiast. He beams when showing the OM and discussing its history.

Driving Impressions

The OM is a car for a lithe driver. Lightness is an important asset for this racecar, since it allows a 2300-cc engine to propel the car quickly—its acceleration makes driver and passenger smile. Starting the car is simple: you pump the kigass pump once or twice, and then you turn the key. Even from cold, the car starts immediately—a tribute to the care with which it is maintained. There is a little more pumping to do if you want to know how much fuel is in the tank—the Le Nivex fuel gauge needs a few pumps to build up air pressure so the fuel level will register. Once the car is underway, sloshing fuel in the tank maintains the pressure and the reading.

Getting under way is a little tricky, especially for someone with big feet. The pedals are close together, and the accelerator is in the middle between the clutch on the left and the brake on the right. Perfect for heel-and-toeing, but an 11 wide shoe can nearly span all three pedals and requires considerable care so as not to hit two at once. The transmission has square-cut gears—four forward and one reverse—and the clutch is very quick. Double clutching is the best way not to gnash gears, although a driver familiar with the car can match revs and shift without unsettling noises from the transmission. Once the gearbox is warm, however, the well-lubricated gears seem to mesh without any extra effort. The shifting effort and the stress of driving someone else’s valuable racecar are much reduced once the car is at operating temperature.

Driving the car out from behind the hauler and onto the local roads was simple enough. It ran smoothly and had no bad habits at low revs. Turning onto South Fletcher Avenue from the Amelia Island concours venue gave the opportunity to drive north along the beachfront. Traffic was lighter than it would be on the day of the concours, so it allowed an opportunity to put the car through the gears with a bit of gusto. Even driving the car courteously is exhilarating. This car accelerates wonderfully. Its supercharger winds up quickly, and the car just goes! It is smooth, the ride is firm, and the unassisted steering becomes surprising light and responsive as speed builds up. Once through the gears and up to speed—a reasonable speed for the traffic on this public road—the only concern was about how many bugs might be swallowed because of the wide, open-mouthed smile. A slowing minivan provided a slightly unexpected opportunity to test the brakes. It is a lot easier to put a big foot on the brake pedal than on the accelerator, and the car responded by slowing quickly and in a straight line. The big, finned, steel-lined aluminum, rod-operated drums were more than adequate to slow the car from this moderate speed. The speed, while moderate, was exhilarating in this lightweight, relatively small, open car. And the “head turn coefficient” for this racecar is significant. There are a lot of cars on the roads of Amelia Island that cause people to turn and watch as they go by, but the OM is certainly in the top ten percent. This car was such a pleasure to drive on a straight road, that it must be nearly orgasmic to drive it in the Mille Miglia.

SPECIFICATIONS

Body: By Carrozeria Sport, framed and paneled in aluminum

Chassis: Two side channels with crossmembers

Wheelbase: 8 feet 11 inches

Track: 4 feet 11 inches

Weight: 1650 pounds

Length: 12 feet 7 inches

Width: 5 feet 6 inches

Suspension: Underslung half-elliptic springs all around

Shocks: Hartford or Houdaille friction shocks

Engine: Six-cylinder, side-valve, aluminum crankcase constructed to provide cooling to the center bearings; submerged rotary oil pump; modern Carrillo con rods, forged Arias pistons, and original crankshaft

Displacement: 2280-cc

Bore/Stroke: 67mm by 110mm

Induction: Twin-choke Memini carburetor with Roots-type supercharger

Power: 110 hp @4000rpm (RAC rating)

Torque: 132 lb-ft

Transmission: 4-speed crash box with reverse, cast in one piece with clutch and flywheel casing and bolted to engine to form one complete unit

Clutch: Dry single-plate

Rear axle: Conventional spiral bevel

Electricals: Bosch. Dynamo “fitted on off side of engine, gear-driven from timing wheels”

Steering: Worm and wheel

Brakes: Large diameter, rod-operated finned aluminum drums with steel linings operating on all four wheels; no servo; parking brake operates on all four wheels

Wheels: 4.5 x 19 inch Rudge-Whitworth detachable wire wheels mounted with 5.5/600 Blockley tires