Bonhams has announced that it will sell the ex-Tazio Nuvolari 1935 Alfa Romeo Tip 8C-35 as part of its auction at the Goodwood Revival Meeting on September 14.
 This is the same car that Tazio Nuvolari drove to come from seven laps behind at the 1936 Coppa Ciano and secure a win for the home team |
The car is described by Bonhams as "one of the most charismatic of all great pre-war grand prix racing cars" and was driven by the legendary Italian Tazio Nuvolari, who is considered one of the greatest racing drivers of all time.
It is expected to sell for £5.5m-6.5m ($8.3m-9.8m).
Alfa Romeo dominated much of major-league racing for almost a decade, but in 1933-1934 Adolf Hitler provided state funding to help Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union end the Italian period of success.
The German companies looked formidable, developing new technology that the Alfa Romeo and Scuderia Ferrari teams could not afford.
Then, just in time for the 1935 Italian Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo released the Tipo 8C-35, a supercharged straight-8 engined design that truly rivalled the German cars.
The example at auction is chassis number 50013, which is the same that took part in the Italian GPs at Monza and Modena, the Czech GP at Brno, and Monaco and Nurburgring GPs among many others.
Its most outstanding success came at the 1936 Coppa Ciano, when Nuvolari's car had broken its transmission on the second lap of the race.
Nuvolari sprinted to the pits and team driver Carlo Pintacuda was called in to give up his car. Nuvolari took the wheel and, despite being seven laps behind, managed to secure an unbelievable home team win.
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