Devoted Alfa Romeo connoisseurs, count up your pennies and get ready to spend, spend, spend: your perfect nine-car Alfa garage beckons, courtesy of Bonhams. The selection spans eight decades and kicks off with a 1967 Duetto Spider for around £40,000 and culminates in spectacular style with a super-rare 8C 2300 – yours for around £5 million.
The 8C is the undoubted star of the Bonhams Quail sale, to be held both live and online at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on 14th August. In every respect the 1934 car is a stunner. It’s one of five 8Cs with cabriolet bodywork by Figoni of Paris, a fittingly top of the range option for Alfa’s first eight-cylinder car.
Do not be lulled by the elegant lines and striking two-tone red paintwork. Underneath is a racer: a 100mph machine, designed by Vittorio Jano, which in competition form with drivers like Nuvolari behind the wheel proved a world beater, especially at Le Mans, in the early ‘30s.
The 8C was the supercar of its day. To afford one – especially one like this with its eye-wateringly expensive bodywork – it would have been useful to own a gold mine. Which was not a problem for this car’s first owner, Roaul Calvayrac. He was heir to a mine in Mexico that was the world’s leading producer of gold in the early 20th century.
So precious was the car that Calvayrac buried it in hay in a barn on his estate in France so the German occupying forces in the Second World War didn’t find it.
The 8C has had only four owners in the US since then and today Bonhams says it is regarded as the most authentic and arguably most handsome of the five cabriolets penned by the French carrosserie. It certainly wowed the judges at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2018 where it won best in class.
At the Bonhams Quail auction, the 8C comes with a presale estate of US$6.5-7.5m (£4.9-5.7m).
If that’s too rich for you there’s no shortage of other Alfa jewels in the sale, from eight decades of Italian sporting flair.
Estimate: US$525-575,000
A class winner at the Louis Vuitton Classic in Paris after a restoration in the 1990s, this is one of few surviving Touring 6Cs with original coachwork and matching numbers. The six-cylinder Alfa was a successful Mille Miglia model in period and Bonhams says this example would be perfect for both the concours lawn and period road rallying.
Estimate: US$450-600,000
From the ‘30s to the ‘50s and the more modern cabriolet lines of Pininfarina distinguish this six-cylinder Alfa, the last of its type to get this bodywork from the master Italian carrozzeria. It’s been a regular in both Mille Miglia reruns and concours events at Pebble Beach, Villa d’Este and Chantilly.
Estimate: US$275-350,000
Another Pininfarina-bodied classic Alfa from the ‘50s, the coupe is one of only 100 produced. Prepared for road rallies, it is eligible for the modern Mille Miglia.
Estimate: US$300-400,000
This striking Zagato coupe is one of just 18 Sprint Veloces bodied by the Italian coachbuilder and the only one originally fitted with the signature twin roof bubbles. The 1.3-litre, 95PS car has an extensive period race history including the 1960 Targa Florio and today comes with its FIA passport so is ready for historic events like the Mille Miglia.
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Estimate: US$120-140,000
Few cars sum up La Dolce Vita like an Alfa Spider and this one comes with all the requirements of a very sweet 1950s-style life: twin-Weber 2.0-litre, five-speed manual ‘box, and a lovely (restored) Touring-designed body that’s spent most of its life in sunny California.
Estimate: US$50-75,000
A Californian car since new, this Spider’s claim to fame is its originality. It’s an award winner with a twin-cam, twin-Weber 1.6-litre with 109PS.
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Estimate: US$55-85,000
Bonhams says this is an unmolested, blue-plate California car with some subtle aesthetic upgrades that was refurbished by a US Alfa specialist. Pretty coupe looks go with 132PS, a five-speed ‘box and all-round independent suspension and disc brakes.
Estimate: US$270-320,000
The most modern Alfa in the sale, this latterday 8C is thought to be one of just 35 Spiders produced for the US market, and rarer still for its striking pearl white bodywork. Its 4.7-litre V8 produces 444PS and this has covered only 3,600 miles from new.
Images courtesy of Bonhams.
Alfa Romeo
8C
Giulietta
Zagato
Touring
Pininfarina
6C