My good friend, Ron Selset, brought back a 6c2300 B chassis from Etruria, a part of the area around Ethopia, where during the war he was a radio operator. But the car was originally a ministrale multi seat embassy limosine that the locals took totally apart to keep the Germans from commandeering when they retreated. He bought it and put it together piece by piece. However, when he came to the body he discovered it sitting out in a field being used as a chicken coop. He thought it was so ugly that it could just stay there. And so he left all but the chassis and runing gear, expecting someday to find an appropriate body after he shortened the frame and turned the torsion bars the opposite way to get an even shorter wheelbase. Then, after he brought it back to the US he hung it from the floor joists of the second story on his garage at his winter recreation area at Alpental on Snoqualmie Pass of I-90 east of Seattle until 1999 when he decided to sell it. He had also bought a fire twisted 6c2500 Aerlux coupe without running gear (engine was in the 8c2900A I found in the blackberry bushes in 1980) but never put the two together. When he got to be 70 he decided to sell them both as projects he realized he would never finish. The 6c2500 ad barely got into Hemmings for two whole days before Jan Steutel (see
www.steutel.com) from Holland called about it, but heard about the 6c2300 and came to Seattle immediately so he could buy it. Ron was in Ethopia during the Mille race and that is what got him interested in Alfa Romeo. He even had once a Pescara and I wondered why he got rid of that. However, I gained from him the impression that most of the cars had been brought in by Italians after Mussolini decided to invade Ethiopia although there might have been some there before since there had always been an Italian connection there. (By the way, Digikissed, he had an extra couple sets of wire wheels and knock offs, so that is perhaps why those in the Bronz were missing some). Anyway, Jan has all of that 2300 stuff now. San Giorgi in Belgium got the 6c2500 stuff. I visited Jan in Holland in 2003 and saw his 6c2300 car (he actually has two of them) with an aluminum body he made for it in the style of the 6c2500 corsa. He is a fantastic bodybuilder. But he only works on his own cars in the winter. The rest of the time he travels through Europe buying spyders and restoring them for sale. Nice guy. Check out his own 6c2500 coupe that he restored -- his project A. He is going to rebuild a wrecked 164 LS of mine by combining it with two wrecked GT's in Holland and ship it back as a two door with the same 6c 24 valve engine with a shortened chassis so I can get it inspected and licensed here in Washington. Might be the closest I will ever get to having a GT like they can get in Europe.
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