THE 8C 2300

Many fine automobiles have been compared over the years to Swiss watches in the jewel-like precision and complication of their mechanical works. The comparison is seldom more apt than when made to Alfa Romeo’s 8C 2300 of 1931.

Victorious in Grands Prix, at Le Mans four years in succession, and in no less than seven editions of the Mille Miglia, its competition credentials are beyond reproach. Yet its racing exploits only tell part of the 8C story. The chassis, available in both long chassis (Lungo) and short chassis (Corto) form, underpinned some of the finest and most elegant touring cars of its day, featuring timeless coachwork from contemporary carrozzerie including Zagato, Touring, Castagna, and Brianza.

Under the car’s long snout was tucked an engine comprised of two four-cylinder blocks, end to end, with twin overhead camshafts and hemispherical combustion chambers. The 10-main-bearing crankshaft was split in the middle, with a pair of gears at its heart that drove the camshafts, a supercharger, oil and water pumps, and the generator!

Considered by some as Vittorio Jano’s magnum opus, it was a miraculous piece of engineering, beautiful to behold and, properly set-up, seamless in its operation. The 8C 2300 was an especially marvelous, swift machine to drive in-period, as witnessed by its impressive roster of victories in the great races of the world during the early 1930s.

BY PUR SANG

Today, a short-chassis 8C 2300 with its original coachwork can trade hands for prices upward of several million dollars, making this recreation executed by Argentina’s Pur Sang a particularly accessible facsimile of Alfa Romeo’s famous 2.3.

Pur Sang builds truly extraordinary recreations of vintage Bugattis and Alfa Romeos, faithfully copying every detail of these cars with exacting handcraftsmanship and engineering equal to the originals. Each is carefully factory-built, with all components produced in Pur Sang’s own facility, and is designed as not merely a recreation but a literal “new” car that is true to the original in every important sense. The firm is most famous for their Bugatti Type 35, which is visually near-identical to, and has the same performance, exhaust note, and thrilling driving characteristics as, the original Molsheim-built cars.

THE PONDER 8C 2.3 SPIDER

This 8C 2300 Corto Spider by Pur Sang is an exacting recreation of one of the Touring-bodied cars. Its sporting design is executed in aluminum and features integrated front and rear fenders, small doors, a steeply raked windshield, and a long bonnet replete with an extraordinary number of louvers. One of the most distinctive elements of the Touring Spider design is the finned, aerodynamic shroud affixed to the rear deck. Shaping airflow over the twin spares kit, the shroud sports a short dorsal fin and divides the top deck into two stowage compartments, each secured by leather straps. Of course, Pur Sang has faithfully reproduced all these important details upon this example offered here.

This aluminum coachwork has been finished in Rosso Monza, a dark red shade which harkens back to the competition colors worn by many original 8C 2300s in period. Nicely textured brown leather upholstery furnishes the car’s sports-derived cabin, while the dashboard is fitted with a period-style set of Jaeger gauges.

Power is derived from an equally impressive 2.3-liter facsimile of the original Jano-designed engine, complete with a finned and polished Roots-type supercharger and dual-overhead-camshaft configuration. Documentation on file shows that this fantastic Pur Sang was acquired directly from the manufacturer; it is said to have been the personal car of one of Pur Sang’s proprietors, a testament to the accuracy and desirability of the recreation.

This Pur Sang-built 8C 2300 Corto Spider recreation offers the best of all possible worlds: the experience of using a great vintage Alfa Romeo, but with improved durability and ease of maintenance. With a price point just a fraction of the genuine article (without sacrificing any of the important mechanical details from the original), this 8C 2300 recreation presents a tremendous bargain for those who seek to take his or her car out and use it as its designers intended, on road or circuit.