Nardi-Alfa photo

[Alex]

What's this?

Link

[iicarJohn]

The photo shows one of three 1948 series N-D Alfa Romeo cars that are known to remain today even if it is presumed that at least one more probably survives. Nardi-Danese production alternated between these Alfa Romeo powered cars in this "Marco" style, along with two additional Alfa Romeo powered coupe and other smaller cars that had BMW motorcycle engines. At least two additional cars were built 1948, derived from the "Marco" style, one using a Fiat 1100 engine and the other using a prewar Maserati 4CS-1500 engine.

The three known similar Alfa Romeo powered cars known today are:
948/1 spider siluro, presumably by Motto ... last known in UK
948-5 spider siluro Motto, currently in California
948-11 spider siluro motto ... last known in eastern USA

Only one has the "nostril" grille features and that is .....

somebody else's turn to continue?

[PSB]

Hello crew;
One lived Up in N. Calif and was Owned B Kin Shaff
Thanks for all your work John

[dretceterini]

There 2 are at least Nardi Alfa 6c2500 coupes. The model of silver car with race #646 from the 1949 Mille Miglia is chassis 9484. Disregard the other color variations on the model.

Somewhere I have a photo of the car in front of a Nash dealership. Supposedly, a Nash stright 6 was to replace the Alfa motor. I don't know if this ever happened, but a GMC or Chevy straight 6 was put in the car, and it did run that way in the US.

Supposedly this car was sitting in Kagel Canyon, north of Los Angeles, but I looked many times and could not find it. According to the records John sent me, the last known appearance of this car was on the east coast.

I'm not sure of the chassis number of the red car with race #647, also from the 1949 Mille Miglia. You can disregard the other color variations on this model too. I have no idea what happened to this car.

There may have been a third coupe car that looks virtually identical to the first, silver car. I'm saying "may have been" as various photos I have of the car show a number of detail differences. It might be the same car modified..

model of silver car race #646:
www.alfamodel43.com/Alfa Romeo 6c 2500 Nardi Danese 1° Serie


model of red car race #647
www.alfamodel43.com/Alfa Romeo 6c 2500 Nardi Danese 2° Serie

[iicarJohn]

Since nobody has chimed in ... The car in the opening photo is 948-11, a car that was built by Nardi Danese with a modified Alfa Romeo 6C2500 engine. We can only presume that the engine (923704) might have been original to the car (even if it might have been "used" in an Alfa Romeo earlier) as the car has not been run in any other configuration so far as I know. Other similarly numbered engines are known to have been installed in cars that date from the latter half of 1947 into early 1948. This chassis number, although nominally a "1948" number, might not have been issued until 1949? As an example, ND 948/9 and 948/10, both BMW 750 powered, were not given Certificato d'Origine until August of 1949 even if some earlier use was possible on trade (Prova) plates.

This car was said to have belonged to Conte Carlo Felice Trossi but it seems that Trossi owned more than one similar car so assumptions about which-car-did-what are risky without photo documentation. The car was supposedly sold 1954 from Gregorio Benedetti (spelling uncertain) to Gordon H. Cooper in Southern California. It seems almost certain that Pompeo or McAfee or Edgar or perhaps Rezzaghi was involved in the transaction. Cooper raced it several times in 1955 and 1956. He then advertised it several times beginning December, 1956. It was last seen advertised by him in Road & Track of December, 1961 (five years later!) where the text read, "Built in 1950 for Count Rossi at cost of $11,500. This 2800cc car just completely rebuilt at cost of $2500".

The next appearance of the car may be the subject of the photo that opened the thread. The person who offered this photo in recent months on eBay had the following to say when I questioned him about the period in which the photo was taken. "I purchased the photo from the photographer and he had quit photography in 1962". It's not much of a stretch to think that someone who "quit photography in 1962" might still have taken a few photos for a while longer. A car was displayed by one Herm Schlieske at the Vista del Mar Concours August 30, 1964. It was described as "1950 Alfa Romeo Nardi". I wonder if the photo was taken there or at some other venue relatively near in time?

By 1977, the car was with Luigi Chinetti who said the car was "ex Trossi" and had "raced 1948 at Monaco". I've found no indication of such a car racing at Monaco in either 1948 or 1949. It was sold to Joseph Feldman and then Homer Tsakis and then Ali Lugo. Circa 1994, Ali Lugo went into some kind of partnership with Ken Shaff to get some restoration work done and share use of the car at various events. It may be that Ken believed he would end up owning the car? In any case, the car went back to Lugo after a time and it was recently sold to a new owner in Washington state. We may get to see it again one of these days as I've heard that the engine was recently dyno tested.

[biz5300]

for you john.. You have all the answers.. I have spent at least 3 hours a day on these topics for 20 years... and you astound me.. Do you work?? ;-) Anyway I found a pic of the Nardi here .. post it in a minute.. Nik...

[Emmo]

Well one of the survivors lives in Seattle. I'd encourage any BB'ers in Seattle to come out to NWARC meetings. We try our best to get you access to this sort of thing.

[iicarJohn]

Yes. That is the same car that was featured in the opening photo of this thread. Thanks for the recent photos. By the way, for the sake of precision, I should have said that the dyno test mentioned earlier was a chassis dyno and the first tests revealed a bit of work needed to the driveshaft.