| From Italian car expert Stu Schaller:
"The chassis number is 2311229, which
is a long chassis drophead coupe road car, not a Monza, with original body
possibly by Castagna.
Simon Moore (who wrote the Alfa 8c2300
book) concludes from his research that ths was a car featured in Road and
Track May 1951, with a story of it being driven from Kansas City to the
West Coast in January 1938 by Harry Steele. 2 photos were used, one showing
a UK reg no BYE 284, the other California plate 57-94-14.
The identity of the pre-War owner is
not known, but it seems the car passed through the hands of Tommy Lee,
ending up with Gil Schick in Southern California. He (or maybe Max Balchowsky)
took the engine out and replaced it with with a Mercury V8. There is a
picture of him racing at Palm Springs, reproduced
from 'Speed Age' October 1950. At the end of that season, he
replaced
the body with a new special built by Adolf Deutsch, shown in the book
'Speed and Sport'. Moore says that the car passed in this form to Tom
Bamford and Keenan Wynn. It's
possible Max installed the Cadillac engine, as he did work for Keenan Wynn.
The original Alfa engine (after repair/restoration)
was fitted to Alfa 8c2300 no. 2211092, another long chassis car, originally
with a Touring cabriolet body. This car now has a Zagato-style Le Mans
body, and was sold to Australia in 1996." |
