The Bugatti Type 35 may well hold the most wins of any race car in history, but it had to overcome one major obstacle along the way: the Alfa Romeo P2.
Vittorio Jano, recently poached from Fiat, was personally tasked by Nicola Romeo with its design. “Listen,” Romeo said. “I am not expecting you to make a car which will beat all others, but I’d like one which will make us look good, so that we can make an identity card for this factory, then later, when it has a name, we’ll make the car.”
It’s fair to say that Jano exceeded expectations. He began by assembling a two-litre straight-eight engine with a double crankcase design, fixed steel heads, and gear-driven twin camshafts. At Fiat, Jano had been an early adopter of the supercharger so he added a Roots-type blower, complete with a pioneering intercooler. At 5500rpm Jano’s engine produced 140bhp.
The P2’s chassis didn’t break any new ground with its traditional ladder frame, but the elongated tail aided aerodynamics and the staggered two-seater layout gave the driver a little more elbow room to twirl the big steering wheel.
The first P2 was completed on 2 June 1924 and driven immediately by Giuseppe Campari and Alberto Ascari, even before it was painted in Alfa’s trademark racing red. A week later it lined up at the Circuito di Cremona for its first true test over five laps of the 40-mile road course. Ascari took the chequered flag almost a minute ahead of his nearest rival, Alete Marconcini in the Chiribiri 12/16, with Roberto Malinervi’s Bugatti T22 in third.
At Lyons, just a few weeks later, Bugatti brought five of its new Type 35s to attempt to steal Alfa’s thunder. It was not to be. Campari stormed to victory after five hours of hard racing, with the first of the Bugattis driven by Jean Chassagne a distant seventh place.
A third win at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza confirmed the P2’s pace, and in the 1925 season, it won two of the four rounds of the first-ever World Championship for Grand Prix Cars, securing the title for Alfa Romeo.
The dominance was short-lived, however, as a rules change for 1926 saw engine displacement reduced to 1.5 litres, which favoured Bugatti. The P2 battled on in other categories and, in 1930, secured its most memorable success at the Targa Florio.
Achille Varzi somehow managed to complete the gruelling 335-mile event around Sicily in 6 hours 55 minutes, despite suffering from a fuel problem that could not only have ended his race but also his life. A broken bracket holding the spare wheel caused the fuel tank to leak. On the last lap of the 67-mile road layout his mechanic attempted to add more gas to the tank while the Alfa sped on. It spilt onto the hot exhaust and immediately ignited. The mechanic tore out his seat cushion and frantically beat at the flames as they crossed the line. Louis Chiron’s Bugatti Type 35 B was almost two minutes behind. Another one-in-the-eye for Alfa’s rival, just before the P2 was retired from service.
