Yes, the name is indeed De Mola, from Brussels.

That's the only Alfa they bodied AFAIK.

It's far from comparing to a Touring 2.9, however. You posted it under a favourable angle, it's much more fussy at the front.

I have further details, but should dig deep to find the article I think of...

 

the one I refer to C2900A is this one, I have other pictures of the black one I you are interested.
If you have the possibility to dig up further info I will be appraisable

 

I guess that some people around would appreciate further pics of the De Mola Alfa. I happenend to see it in the metal at least once, and took my own pics then.

About the red/black car: this looks pretty much like a 8C2900A replica, one I don't remember I've seen it before. Are you sure it's by De Mola and not something much more modern?

 

The 8C2900 look a like, is one I found on the net, I have it in 3 diff collars with the referring to De Malo. It should have been in America, and has also been on some action

 

This is a car whose origins are shrouded in tall, misty tales. The story most often told is that the car is a rebodied 6C 1750, the original chassis being produced in 1937. Two Italian brothers from Trieste working in Brussels rebodied the car during the 1940-41 period. Somehow the car next surfaced in Tunisia in the early '50s and was purchased by a serviceman and sent to the United States.

At that time, it got converted to a Ford engine, transmission and back axle. In the late '60s this hybrid motorcar was sold to Jackson Brooks in Colorado. He mounted the attention-getting body on a 6C 2500SS chassis and the car ended pu in California by the mid-'70s.

In the late '70s, a noted Norther California Bugatti enthusiast owned the car, but he remains a little vague about the guy who bought it from him for about $30,000 at that time. (Sounds like a lot of money for a "special" car at that time.)

Christie's sold the car at their Los Angeles auction in 1980 and it went to the U.K. It then sold at the Monaco '89 auction to a german (I believe) who says he sacrificed a 1750 Gran Sport chassis to restore the car, but I believe it is 2500-powered.

All in all, it's just a cool body that has been on a series of chassis that were probably all better off with their original coachwork.



This is the story I have about the 8C2900A look alike.
I don't know have it is connected, by I have for some time tried to find out with any result

 

The De Mola bodied car started out as nothing more than a 6c1750 with a more modern body on it, made in Belgium. Later, the body was removed and was on a 6c2500 chassis.

The car was two-tone red (actually red and maroon) and was in the west Los Angeles showroom and repair facility at the Porsche dealer, Vasek Polak for some time. This was in the mid 1970s. At that time I am certain it had a 6c2500 motor, but I am not sure what chassis it had. It might have still been the 6c1750 chassis, but more likely, was a 6c2500 chassis.

I have no idea exactly when the original body was removed from the 6c1750 chassis, or what happened to it, nor what coachbuilder made it. I am also not sure when the body was placed on a 6c2500 chassis.

This car has NO relationship to the 8c2900.

I am not sure where the car is today, or exactly what condition it is in. The photos of the car that appears to be all black IS the De Mola car, but I have no idea when those photos were taken. I saw the car a handful of times in the mid 1970s, and it was always two-tone red..

 

I don't men it has anything to do with a 8C2900 except for the look alike.
http://www.classicdriver.com/upload/classicinside/archive/CIFR2004-32.htm
http://www.spideralfaromeo.it/schede/1942.htm
this is 2 address that refers to the look alike.
But I have been unable to find any connection to the black one, ells it is a De Mola design and build car

 

I believe BOTH those pages are mistaken. The ONLY De Mola bodied Alfa I am aware of is the car that is all black, shown in an earlier posting on this thread. It IS the same I car I saw in Los Angeles, only every time I saw it, it was painted two-tone red, that was originally on a 6c1750 chassis.

As far as I am aware, there is no De Mola bodied 8c2900 look alike, and the articles are wrong.

I am not sure what the yellow and black or the red and black cars actually are, but they appear to me to be REAL Touring bodied 8c2900As. I don't have Simon Moore's 8c2900 book handy, so I can't check out what chassis numbers they might be.

 

At least one source was not so deep that I couldn’t put my hand on it within an hour…

So, here’s what I’ve found.

Umberto and Bruno De Mola were two brothers from Trieste who emigrated to Belgium around 1933. In 1940, their body shop in Brussels was quite well known. Mid 1940, while Belgium was under German occupation, the owner of a circa 1931 supercharged 6C1750 wanted them to rebody the car, without providing drawings or precise request other than to make it the most beautiful car in the world (!).
It seems that panel beating took around one year to be completed. Result was a spectacular car with such features as wheel spats front and rear and covered headlamps (I know I have also period pictures, but those I haven’t found back yet). It was originally dark blue with red detailing. Seats were of dark green leather. The car spent the remaining war years in Belgium, then came into Dutch Prince Bernhard ownership. In 1947, it went back to De Mola’s body shop to be repainted in two shades of red. It won prizes at a concours in Ostende in 1948.

Later it ended in the USA where a Paul Hatmont swapped the 1750 mechanicals for a Ford six and related gearbox and rear end. Details like bumpers and spats were also lost. It was then sold to Jackson Brooks in Colorado who bought a 6C1750 chassis to rebuild it, but eventually had a replica Zagato body crafted for that chassis. Then Brooks found a 1948 6C2500 chassis (915695) which was adapted to fit the De Mola body. The entire car was restaured with crème leather. In 1973 the car was sold to Jim Southard (see Simon Moore’s car history for that name), then re-sold several times until it came in a Christie auction and shipped to UK in the late 80s.


This indeed has nothing to do with the 8C2.9 lookalike. I say so because I fail to remember any 2.9 with an original A-type body other than Simon's one, and certainly not a black/red one, so at least the body has to be a replica.

 

You certainly lives up to the Velose name.
C:\Dokumenter\Billeder\Biler\DeMola\Sports Car Market Profiles 6C 2500SS by De Mola.htm
This confirms you history.
You mentioned that it eventually had a Zagato replica design. Could it be so it was not a Zagato but a Touring Replica. If there is only one 8C2900A as you mention, and I don't think anybody would be able to hide one, if they had one, what is then the pictures of the Look Alike. There is several sites that refers to it , but nobody that gives any story to the black one, but the pictures are there both the blue one and the read one. But without any story.

 

I remember a bunch of discussion a few years ago about a car (don't know what chassis offhand) that looked a lot like Simon's 8c2900 A, but had a 6c2500SS 3-carb motor. I can't find my old issues of the 6c2500 register at the moment, but that is where a lot of the discussion took place. Maybe Jay Nuxoll or Mal Harris remembers the full story...but it has NOTHING to do with the De Mola car...

 

You certainly lives up to the Velose name.
C:\Dokumenter\Billeder\Biler\DeMola\Sports Car Market Profiles 6C 2500SS by De Mola.htm
This confirms you history.
You mentioned that it eventually had a Zagato replica design. Could it be so it was not a Zagato but a Touring Replica. If there is only one 8C2900A as you mention, and I don't think anybody would be able to hide one, if they had one, what is then the pictures of the Look Alike. There is several sites that refers to it , but nobody that gives any story to the black one, but the pictures are there both the blue one and the read one. But without any story.

Yes, that is the De Mola car for certain, but when I saw it in the 1970s, it was red with dark red (maroon). I did not know the car was ever blue.

 

The De Malo brothers has pucceled me for some years now, without coming further to a history ,than that is present in this tread. <I have been inconstant with The Belgian Alfa Romeo Club and other Belgian "authorities" about this questing , without coming further.
I am personally of the same opinion as you, the blact,blue,red, one is the De Malo car.
But what is the other??

 

C:\Dokumenter\Billeder\Biler\DeMola\Sports Car Market Profiles 6C 2500SS by De Mola.htm
This confirms you history.

FYI: The link you posted points to local file on your computer. I'm guessing that you are referring to this article:
http://www.sportscarmarket.com/profiles/1994/October/Alfa Romeo/

 

sorry, you are correct. Thanks

 

I found the information on the red and black 6c2500SS that looks a lot like Simon Moore's 8c2900 and the two photos (red and black) and (yellow and black) of SUPPOSELY De Mola cars.

The car I'm talking about won best in show at Concorso Italiano in 1998: 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C2500 Super Sport, Larry Frye, Atherton, California

Here is a link to the only photo I can find of the car

http://www.paconcours.com/Archive/2002/Winners/2002ClassA1.jpg

 

Thank you, the surroundings seems similar to the first picture of the black/read taken at a Concorso.
But what is it. In the 6C2500 book there is no picture of similar car.
If we take this Larry Frye car , it must certainly be a sort of rebuild, and the story could fit this one as easily as it fits the black one, the Paul Hatmont car.
It is strange with the De Mola Brothers. we have these 2 cars that is referred to De Mola, with a production gab at around 10 years, it cant be the only thing that they did produce over 10 years.
And with the design of the Paul Hatmont car, supposedly the end of the 40, it is a very sophisticated design compared with what the Italian could come up with in that period.
Despite that there is a sort of quality in both cars. Nobody seems to know anything about these brothers, not even in Belgium.

 

I remember a bunch of discussion a few years ago about a car (don't know what chassis offhand) that looked a lot like Simon's 8c2900 A, but had a 6c2500SS 3-carb motor. I can't find my old issues of the 6c2500 register at the moment, but that is where a lot of the discussion took place. Maybe Jay Nuxoll or Mal Harris remembers the full story...but it has NOTHING to do with the De Mola car...

Yes, you're right. Now I see which car it is, but in the article I have it featured, it was black/yellow about 10 years ago. Strange I didn't think immediately to that one. I'll check, but I'm afraid there's no chassis number given.

I'm afraid I've been misuderstood about the Zagato replica. I meant that the 6C1750 chassis, instead of being used to power the Di Mola car, had its own life with a replica Zagato body, i.e. the typical 6C1750 Gran Sport type. Again not related to the red/black Touring 6C2500.

As for De Mola (please keep the name correctly spelled). This should be the only Alfa they happened to cloth. No surprise, Alfa chassis were not common in Belgium late 30s early 40s! And their owner, for the cost of such car, more probably has them bodied/rebodied by well known signatures. De Mola's Alfa design is dated 1940-41, which is even more astonishing than if it were post-war.

 

Here it is in Black Yellow version. To me it is strange that it is connected to De Mola. usually the is no smoke without a fire.

 

Found the other article with pictures of the car in original, 1941 conditions with pop-up headlamps. Can’t scan now, and picture is poor. I’ll see what I can do in the next days.
Extra info is that De Mola has his shop in Rue Jacques de Lalaing, 6, in Brussels. The original owner who commissioned the coachwork was a Mr. Joseph Nothomb from Brussels. Date of “order” might be 1939 instead of under occupation, but the car, entirely hand-beaten wasn’t ready before fall 1941. Tunisian episode also confirmed after Ostende prize winning 1948. Car won prize at Peeble Beach 1972 – someone to check this track? –

Umberto De Mola provided the early history of the car to the following owners, as a plate with his name and address on the car allowed them to contact him. He saw his creation first time from 1948 when invited at Beaulieu, where the car was on loan, in 1983. Umberto De Mola died next year, but his wife and daughter conserved the archives. He also bodied a Lancia of which I know nothing.

As for the Touring 6C2500 Spider, nothing to do with De Mola. I post the whereabouts of that car in the new thread opened by Dr. in the proper section, so we keep good order in the topics/thread titles

 

I have no idea what the yellow and black car actually is, as the 6c2500SS (Tipo 256) with 8c2900A style coachwork, owned by Larry Frye, was red and black when I saw it and it won best in show at Concorso Italiano in 1998. It appears to have been still red and black at the Paolo Alto (California) concours in 2002 (photo link above)

 

De Mola's relative

I am the grandson of Umberto De Mola, son of his only daugther Myriam De Mola. I have many pictures of my grandfather's cars, and I still own a car he built which is in a museum in Belgium.
I would like to know more about his achievements and I have unique archives, papers, pictures etc that I can scan...

Fabze@hotmail.com

 

someone have photos of this car? i have been researching for this car and i need some (a lot, realy) of this car. on the web dont have many photos
Thank you!

 

Hmmm, this thread got resurrected!

All the links and images are dead.

Here is something on the web: Cars I Could've, Should've, Kept: Memoir of a Life Restoring Classic Sports Cars - Jackson Brooks - Google Books

Go to page 30.

 

Hmmm, this thread got resurrected!

All the links and images are dead.

Yes, this thread is from before "the great 2005 AlfaBB server crash" where the vBulletin database got corrupted. Simon was able to recover the posted text but all references to images in the file system were lost.

Some links to other sites are not working because those sites have changed over time. Sometimes, you can find these pages using the Wayback Machine at Archive.org.

 

Here are some of the lost pictures.
HereIndeed it a very special design.
Way ahead of its time

 

Originally the car had retractable headlights?