The Grand Prix formula changed at the end of 1937 limiting engines to 3-liters (supercharged) or 4.5-liter (unblown) so the 4.5-liter V12 supercharged engines that had been used in the 1936/37 Tipo C Alfa Romeos became redundant. At least two were converted to marine use in racing speedboats and powered Antonio Passarin to much success in 1938 and 1939.
Probably four others were converted to normally aspirated format, which also necessitated new castings for the lower half of the crankcase which featured a four bolt fixing into the side rails at the front of the engine, as well as at the back. Installed into an 8C2900A type frame, these became the Tipo 412 sports cars of 1939. The Touring body was similar to the lovely 8C2900B Mille Miglia cars but more muscular (we might say “on steroids” now).
Several organizers of races for sports cars had banned superchargers so these Tipo 412 cars were targeting some of those races. First time out was at Antwerp on May 21, 1939, where the two cars finished 1-2 followed by the Luxemburg GP two weeks later where one car ran supercharged to compete with Wimille’s blown Bugatti. This blown car retired leaving the Bugatti to win ahead of the second (unblown) 412. Last time out was in late August, at the race in Liege, where two unblown cars practiced but the race was cancelled due to the imminent outbreak of war.
One car was used for practice for the 1940 Mille Miglia (a 10-lap event based around Brescia, not the normal race to Rome and back) but otherwise the car had a relatively low key career with Alfa Corse, the factory racing team.
At the end of the War, Alfa Romeo still had Tipo 412 chassis numbers 412151 and 412152. These cars would have been very competitive in post-war sports car races but for some reason they remained unraced until 412152 was sold to Swiss hillclimb specialist Willy Daetwyler, in 1949. His successes are detailed (along with a great deal of other information about these interesting cars) in the completely revised second edition of my book The Immortal 2.9 published in 2008 (and still available from the publisher). That car survives in the Schlumpf Collection in Mulhouse with a revised body designed by Michelotti.
Chassis number 412151 was sold ahead of the 1950 season to Felice Bonetto who ran up with the leaders in the Mille Miglia as far as Pescara before retiring. However, he did win a race at Oporto, in Portugal, later in the year. For 1951, he initiated a major rebuild of the car including a new Vignale body, modified engine, relocation of the oil tank etc. In this form, the car finished 6th in the Mille Miglia running against many more modern post-war designed cars, notably Ferraris. After that, the car was sold to Spain for a few years before returning to Enrico Nardi in Turin.
The story of the “Silver Ray”
The first Nardi “Blue Ray” show car (based on Lancia running gear) had been bought by Florida-based William Simpson in 1959. Simpson asked Nardi to make him a model of the car – and several more models of cars subsequently. Simpson then approached Nardi to make him a completely new car featuring a big American V8 engine but with European running gear and a Michelotti-designed body. The 6.5-liter Plymouth Golden Commando engine and automatic gearbox arrived in Italy in late 1959 and the car was christened “Reggio d’Argento” or “Silver Ray”, based on the chassis of the Tipo 412, chassis number 412151. The car was finally shipped to its new owner in late 1961. It is worth stressing that this was really the very first European sports car featuring Italian designed bodywork fitted with a big American V8, pre-dating all sorts of other exotic offerings from the likes of Monteverdi, de Tomaso, Iso Grifo etc.
As an aside, Nardi built another special “Raggio Azzurro 2” also based on Lancia running gear with Michelotti-designed body built by Vignale. Both the two “Blue Ray” cars are owned today by Jim Simpson of Washington State in the USA (no relation to William Simpson) and he showed them at Pebble Beach a few years ago.
The photographs here of the car under construction at Nardi’s facility in Turin clearly shows the Alfa Romeo front suspension although the rear mounted gearbox/differential unit was removed at that time.
Simpson used the car in Florida for several years but sometime before December 1967 it was sold to David Hersh in the Los Angeles area. There is a considerable file of old bills over the next few years from various repair shops in Southern California showing that Hersh had quite a lot done to the car including making a new dashboard and rewiring the car. Hersh died in 1985 and the car appeared at a concours event in Sacremento in 1986, shown by J B Moak of Cameron Park, California.
However, he subsequently sold it on to Robert Amick (date unknown) and then to another Californian, Monroe Strawn in December 1987. It was in Mr. Strawn’s ownership that the car was finally located. It was then returned to running condition in the USA – a powerful and fast car!
The car now lives in England having joined Julian Majzub’s fabulous collection. One thing that is clear from the photos of the car as it survives today is that the front suspension features large coil springs and not the Alfa Romeo IFS that can be seen on the car during construction. When the chassis was modified and this new suspension fitted is unknown.
More from Simon Moore
Simon has just completed a substantial Addendum (over 500 pages) to his earlier books, concentrating on “new” historical information and photographs but without updates on changes of ownership, auction results, subsequent restorations, concours appearances or historic racing results.
You will need to read this Addendum volume in conjunction with the original books (The Legendary 2.3 and The Immortal 2.9) now 22 and 14-years old respectively, because they are referred to frequently. It is not a comprehensive book in its own right – it is a reference book to be read with the other books. Apart from the great story of the Nardi here, there are also wonderful stories of finding other cars including a completely original “lost” Figoni-bodied spider in one ownership for over 70 years, a car that was raced with a Cadillac V8 fitted back in California in the 1950s subsequently found in a shed in Arizona and substantial original parts for several other cars.
Simon has also found information relating to cars where he had no information available when the original books came out and discovered a wealth of photographs of these great cars from Monza racecars through sporting two-seaters to stunning coachbuilt cabriolets.
He has identified the chassis number of several “Remaining Mysteries” but has added more! Publication is expected in the first part of 2022 but pricing is not yet fixed. If any reader has not already contacted Simon to express an interest in obtaining a copy, please E mail him at [email protected].
