In 1983 Matt Jones of Livingston, Texas, received an unexpected telephone call from a man in Porterville, California. The man said, “I hear you’re interested in Alfa Romeos, and I have a Disco Volante I want to sell.” Jones said, “I dropped the phone! I was a young man back then but the opportunity to acquire a Disco Volante would make anyone’s hands tremble. After picking up the phone I found out the car was located just 14 miles away. I stopped whatever I was doing and rushed over there.”
When Jones arrived he did not find a Disco Volante. But what he did find was nevertheless interesting…an aluminum-bodied sports racer of unknown origins. The seller wanted $400, but Jones didn’t have the funds. Jones said, “So I called a crazy friend named Jerry in Venice, California, who was interested in weird cars. Jerry said he’d buy it and I gave the seller $100 as a deposit. Jerry later sent me the $100 but he never picked up the car.”
Jones didn’t think much about the car until he received a call from George Ratterink of Colorado six years later. Jones continued, “George told me he had a sports racer for sale that looked similar to an Alfa Disco Volante. I told him it sounded like a car I’d seen in California years before. At the time (1989) the hobby was at the beginning of an investor frenzy for old cars, and I bought the car from George. When I received it, the box of rear end quick-change gears that was with it in ’83 was gone. Otherwise the car was exactly as I remembered it…except now it cost me a lot more than 400 bucks!”
Jones stored the car for 10 years without any clue as to its identity or history. Then in 1999 he posted a photo of the car on his company website (www.reoriginals.com) and offered a cash reward if someone could identify it. No one responded and years passed.
Then a young man named Alex, from Phoenix, contacted Jones. Alex told Jones that he used to own the car and he knew the history. Jones hopped on a plane to meet Alex and deliver his cash reward.
According to Jones, “Alex told me he had purchased the car from Charlie and Debbie Fife who operated an Alfa and Fiat parts and restoration shop in Phoenix. We went to see them and between Alex and the Fifes, I learned several tidbits about the car’s history. Most importantly, I learned that the man who had built and raced it in the early 1960s was Bo Miske. As I understand it, Bo Miske and his mechanic met at a pub one night. Bo noticed his mechanic sketching a sports racer on a napkin when he arrived. He liked the design and said, ‘Let’s build it.’ So they did!”
“George told me he had a sports racer for sale that looked similar to an Alfa Disco Volante. I told him it sounded like a car I’d seen in California years before. At the time (1989) the hobby was at the beginning of an investor frenzy for old cars, and I bought the car from George. When I received it, the box of rear end quick-change gears that was with it in ’83 was gone. Otherwise the car was exactly as I remembered it…except now it cost me a lot more than 400 bucks!”
The car was constructed starting with a one-off steel tube chassis. Front and rear suspension was by unequal length A-arms (upper non-adjustable, lower adjustable) with coilover shocks and transverse rear leaf springs. Dunlop discs were used up front and drum brakes were fitted at the rear.
For power, Miske used an Alfa DOHC engine and race-prepped it to compete as an F-Modified. Induction was by way of twin 40 DCOE sidedraft Webers. The body was a one-off of all-aluminum construction. Jones has been told by more than one person that the metal-crafter was an Indy car builder. The car was equipped with a quick-change rear end and rolled on magnesium wheels.
Jones had owned the car for more than 23 years and was quite frustrated with his inability to uncover any racing history or find a single period photograph. When a talented fact-finder named Nick Idoni saw the car at Jones’ shop in 2012 Jones had a feeling that good things were about to happen. Idoni quickly discovered that Miske had raced the car as the “ACI Special” and with this information the two quickly put the racing history together.
According to Jones, “Miske raced the car at the 14th Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, on September 23, 1961 and finished 20th. He also drove the car at the 20th Annual Cumberland National Championship and Regional Races on May 13, 1962 but was a DNF. The car was entered at the NE Ohio Regional Races in August of ’62, but it’s not known if it started the race. Miske and the car finished 17th at the 15th Annual Grand Prix at Watkins Glen on September 22, 1962. I’m continuing to research the car’s racing history and feel certain that I’ll uncover more events.”
When Jones bought the car in 1989 the body was in very rough condition. Although the body panels were all there, Jones really didn’t have a clear picture of what the ACI Special originally looked like. Still without any original photographs, he could only imagine.
That all changed earlier this year when a fellow who had researched the ACI Special through the International Motor Racing Research Center at Watkins Glen sent Jones a period photo showing how the car looked back in its racing day. And although Jones had seen the car for more than 8,000 days in his shop, he had no idea just how beautiful it had once been, and could once again be.
Jones has four cars ahead of the ACI Special on his restoration list and, hearing between the lines of our conversation, he might just let it go for the right offer. Here we have a reasonably well-documented early ’60s aluminum-bodied sports racer powered by an Italian thoroughbred engine. And the thing is absolutely gorgeous.
My hands are starting to shake thinking about adding this splendid sports racer to my own collection. Trouble is, I’ve run out of spots in friends’ garages to hide cars from my wife.
