[carlo]

Recently I could purchase an old program for a European speedboat GP on the "Lago di Lugano" in 1954. I hope some of you like the scans....






The boat type on the first two photos seems to have the grille of a tipo 158/9 Alfetta. Is it indeed equipped with an Alfa engine?
I heared of such a boat, but couldn't find photos.

The other two photos look like "Laura 1", but I am missing the Quadrifoglio sticker on the hood that I noticed on all photos of the Laura boats....

Best regards
Ciao Carlo

 

[carlo]

Oops, sorry for the double post! Obviously I hit the button too early...
This here is edited better

 

[charley]

Alfa Speedboat

A friend from New Zealand,on a recent visit told me of a Alfa speed boat that he had seen ,although he had no details . After a little digging around I found the speedboat that he referred to, it is in fact a hydroplane called "Little Cracker" and she certainly is a little cracker she's powered by an Alfa Romeo 3 litre v6 24valve engine producing 290hp @8000rpm.The hydroplane holds a number of Australasian and New Zealand hydroplane records at between 202.776kph to 204.326 kph .
There is a web site for the team. http://www.littlecracker.com/ach.html
I post a few photos below to whet the appetite.
Charley

 

[charley]

Idroscivolante T108

At this years Venice Boat Show , an interesting craft made its appearance after a seven month reconstruction by the Dalla Pieta boatyard of Venice – Malcontenta. The boat is Idroscrivolante T108 powered by an Alfa Romeo 9 cylinder radial aircraft engine.
The T108 Idro participated in the famous Pavia –Venezia race between the years 1933 and 1938 , piloted by Colonel Prospero Freri. These were the years that the race was dominated by Theo Rossi ( 1933, 1934,1935) of vermouth fame and Col.Renato Donati (1936,1937) who also held the world altitude record at that time in the Alfa powered Caproni Ca.113.AQ.
The attached photos show the original condition of the boat ,as it was delivered to the yard and the beautiful finished item, the reconstruction of which was sponsored by the yard itself.
The T108 actually belongs to the Civic Museum of Naval Education Milan and will be displayed and stored at the Leonardo da Vinci museum in Milan.
This of course not the only boat powered by an Alfa Romeo aircraft engine probably the most famous being the Sant’ Ambrogio 11 of Achille Castoldi which featured an Alfa Romeo AR RA 1000 rated at 1.800hp and was capable of at least 124MPH.
Details of Idroscivolante T108
Weight 1.5t
Depth 7.95m
Width 2.80m
Skate Width 0.80m
Speed 130 km/h
Engine 9cyl Alfa romeo.

For more details see….
Dalla Pietà Yachts — architettura nautica
http://www.altomareblu.com/?p=4229

 

[Subtle]

On another thread there was a pic showing a partial view of the engine and struts, but not the floats.

Couldn't figure it out.------

 

[gt601]

Man! that has "Hey y'all watch this!!" written all over it. You would have to be out of your mind (or Italian/Latino/Hillbilly) to get into something with whirling blades at that speed.
Paul

 

[carlo]

At this years Venice Boat Show , an interesting craft made its appearance after a seven month reconstruction by the Dalla Pieta boatyard of Venice – Malcontenta. The boat is Idroscrivolante T108 powered by an Alfa Romeo 9 cylinder radial aircraft engine.
The T108 Idro participated in the famous Pavia –Venezia race between the years 1933 and 1938 , piloted by Colonel Prospero Freri. These were the years that the race was dominated by Theo Rossi ( 1933, 1934,1935) of vermouth fame and Col.Renato Donati (1936,1937) who also held the world altitude record at that time in the Alfa powered Caproni Ca.113.AQ.
The attached photos show the original condition of the boat ,as it was delivered to the yard and the beautiful finished item, the reconstruction of which was sponsored by the yard itself.
The T108 actually belongs to the Civic Museum of Naval Education Milan and will be displayed and stored at the Leonardo da Vinci museum in Milan.
This of course not the only boat powered by an Alfa Romeo aircraft engine probably the most famous being the Sant’ Ambrogio 11 of Achille Castoldi which featured an Alfa Romeo AR RA 1000 rated at 1.800hp and was capable of at least 124MPH.
Details of Idroscivolante T108
Weight 1.5t
Depth 7.95m
Width 2.80m
Skate Width 0.80m
Speed 130 km/h
Engine 9cyl Alfa romeo.

Many thanks for these very interesting infos!
Now I know some more concerning this photo that I once purchased.

My first thought was that they built this machine to get rid of the pigeons and rats in Venice, lol



Best regards
Ciao Carlo

 

[gtv2000]

Assuming there was only one built (seems probable), it used at least three very different kinds of engine cowling, according to the pictures here. Probably a hint at dating the various pictures.

Carlo, you may know that the pic you bought is in the Alfa Romeo Immagini book.

 

[gtv2000]

This of course not the only boat powered by an Alfa Romeo aircraft engine probably the most famous being the Sant’ Ambrogio 11 of Achille Castoldi which featured an Alfa Romeo AR RA 1000 rated at 1.800hp and was capable of at least 124MPH.

That boat is as well hosted in the Leonardo da Vinci Science museum, albeit in the basement.

 

[carlo]

Carlo, you may know that the pic you bought is in the Alfa Romeo Immagini book.

Of course you're right, but I purchased the photo before I found an affordable copy of the Immagini book
Btw, when I visited Jack recently, we missed each other just for a few minutes
Next time we'll make do better!

Best regards
Ciao Carlo

 

[charley]

Idro

Hi Carlo,
Can I draw your attention to the photo that you posted of the idro and point out a few differences to the IDRO that I originally posted. The Idro in your photo has a platform stretched between the floats ,however this may be merely cosmetic. The idro in my posting has at various times a spinner and a Townsend ring ,it is also fitted with a 2 bladed prop. Probably the most important difference is what is written on the back of your photo , it states that the Idro is fitted with an AR Lynx engine which when you check the photo it clearly is ,as the Lynx is a 7 cylinder engine, however the engine on my orignal posting ,is, as I stated in the posting a 9 cylinder engine . This leaves us with a number of possibilities , either this is the same Idro upgraded from a 7 to a 9 cylinder Alfa motor , or it is a completely differrent boat .
There were in fact more than one of these boats that took part in the Pavia -Venezia race , That would explain the lettering on the side of your boat, so could this be another boat.? They were banned from the race post WW11.
Charley

 

[smestas]

There are some good photos on this previous Alfa Romeo boat thread. Perhaps we should combine these threads together?

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/alfa-romeo-history/2694-alfa-romeo-boats.html

 

[marco rigoni]

Lynx powered hidro

This hidro was another boat than the 108. It participated to the Pavia Venezia Raid in 1931.
In the attachment you can see the 1/43 scale model of it.
ciao.

 

[GTV-GR]

lol

on the top photo on the page the paper on the boat reads:'gay n proud" hahahahhahahah
Also WHAT if the prop on the speedboat accidently hit the water if that thing turned over?

 

[velocedoc]

on the top photo on the page the paper on the boat reads:'gay n proud" hahahahhahahah
Also WHAT if the prop on the speedboat accidently hit the water if that thing turned over?

This is fascinating reading!
I was wondering the same thing, how did they control the plane of the boat? (oxymoron - plane, boat?)
If one was the pilot of the boat, what was the other seat for? Balance? Mechanic?

I want one of those Abbate boats! that might be wickedly fast on the water. Abbate Boats I am wondering if this was Tullio's first boat? Abbate builds some fast boats and awesome boats, but a price tag to match!

I want to know how they get that horsepower out of that 24v engine on the "Firecracker".

 

[storm_rider_]

New Zealand boats

There must be quite a few hydro planes here that run alfa v6's. I have come across three so far. Theres a guy in taupo that works on/helps out a guy with a 24valve 3 ltr boat. May even be the one in the pic above. Thats the class they run, limited Engine size etc. Apparently had alot of trouble with belts skipping and stuff and bending valves. He ended up modifying how the belt goes around the inlet cams. I think its got a knife edged crank and few other special bits to.

I seen one boat in person a few years back and when i used to live in the south island i was up nelson way and was talking to another guy that had a real modified hydoplane to with a 24 valve in it to. He was going to give me double what i payed for my 24 valve for just another crank if i got it to him. lol

 

[velocedoc]

I would love to know what the mod he did for the belt!

 

[MotorCityDuetto]

There was a 3.0L Alfa powered hydroplane out of Detroit running in a national series for a decade. Name of 'Double Dragon.' Lost track of it and the owner over the past three years.

 

[velocedoc]

I wrote to the company that ran the Abbate Racing Team boat. They have a great website, that I can't recall right off, but it gave a great racing history and what they are currently building for boats. Awesome looking boats. I asked if they would share with me what they ran in the boat pictured for an engine and what support AR or Autodelta might have played in their role of being one of the fastest boats on the lake. So far no response. Might have to ask nicely again.

 

[velocedoc]

I was searching for some information on a hydroplane driver and stumbled upon this. Might be fun to see where this leads the discussion.
CHARLES STRANG’S SPECIAL REPORT:
“I thought you might be interested in the enclosed drawings of Paul Sawyer’s 266, the Alter Ego, which I came across in the July, 1952 issue of ‘Speed and Spray’ magazine.”
“I was with Paul in Italy and Switzerland in the summer of 1951 and well recall the excitement that his boat created. The Europeans had never even seen a 3-point hydro before and Paul just ran away from their single step boats. Even through they had far more horsepower than he did.
Amusingly, I visited the racing department of Alfa-Romeo to learn about the Alfa Grand Prix car engine that dominated car racing at the time -- 440 hp out of 1.5 Liter, two-stage supercharged engine. The Alfa chief engineer kept asking me where the overhead valves were hidden in Paul’s Ford -- because ‘no side valve engine could ever go that fast!’
Paul very generously offered to let the Italians measure his boat and the drawings in this article were the result. The measurements were taken by Mario Speluzzi, a professor of engineering and later a good friend of mine. Now you can build a replica Alter Ego in your spare time!”