The 6C 1500 Testa Fissa, raced in Colorado in 1953

["Richard G. Ballantine" <rgb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In Digest V7-455 Bob Brady remarks on the presence of a 6C 1500 Testa
Fissa at a recent DVAROC auto picnic. In the following Digest number,
John H. of Raleigh confirms its fixed head, one of six cars made for the
Mille Miglia, and says that's Henry Wessell's car.
	Here's Danny Collins, a Coloradan present at the beginning of sports
car racing in the state reflecting (in the current issue of Rocky
Mountain Vintage Racing's glossy publication) on the origins of his very
full racing career and that very same 6C 1500:
	"I never had any accidents, but I was getting more than my share of
speeding tickets (RGB: apparently first in a 1928 Chevy, then in '50 and
'51 Studebakers). So, when I read in Road & Track about the Denver
Sports Car Club getting organized....I quickly joined and planned for
getting a car to race.
	"It was another nineteen months before I started my first race at Estes
Park in June 1953 in another 1928 model car! It was a rare (one of six)
1500cc supercharged Alfa Romeo which I purchased in New York from Luigi
Chinetti three months earlier.
  	"Luigi had a interesting story to tell about winning the Tourist
Trophy production class in Ireland in the early '30s in an identical
Alfa. He built six of these engines with a solid block/cylinder head
casting. He painted a fake head gasket to make it look like a production
unit and fooled the scrutineers. He won his class in that race, much to
his everlasting amusement!
	"Since the car arrived just the day before the race, we only had time
to change the oil, fit a war surplus seat belt and attach a small fire
extinguisher before heading off to Estes Park with the dealer tag on the
back.
	"The right-hand drive car was easy to drive as it wandered down the
road side-to-side much like my old Chevy. The mechanical brakes featured
huge aluminum fins fitted inside the 18-inch wheels. The foot pedals
resembled those of an old Model A Ford with the round throttle button
situated on the floor half way between the clutch and the brake - thus
providing the ideal arrangement for "heel and toe" downshifting. The
four speed gearbox was, of course, non-synchromesh. Once underway, the
clutch was no longer needed, as shifting was only a matter of rhythmic
timing whether going up or down through the gears - aided by the
convenient throttle placement.
	"One feature I never understood, and which later caused me to withdraw
halfway through the race, was the oiling system. An additional oil sump
was installed inside the footwell on the passenger side. The driver
could reach over and drain a portion of the oil there into the wet sump
beneath the engine by opening a petcock. Originally this task was
probably managed by a riding mechanic. About eight laps into my race, my
confidence in the brakes reached the threshold level thus sending the
oil in the wet sump forward away from the oil pickup and dropping the
oil pressure gauge into zero mode!
	"Alarmed at this development, I leaned over, opened up the
aforementioned petcock only to see the excess oil spill onto the exhaust
system. Choke, choke! Once the brake pedal was released the oil pressure
indicator bounced back to normal! After two or three laps of this I
decided it would be wise to withdraw from further racing and a possible
blowup of an irreplaceable engine. After racing V-12 Ferraris with wet
sumps, I discovered these long engines lost oil pressure indication
under heavy braking. As much as I would have liked to keep the rare
Alfa, it simply didn't qualify as a competitive race car. So it was sold
to collector Dave Biggs in St. Louis. A dentist/collector in Des Moines
bought it from him shortly thereafter. The dentist disassembled it for
restoration, and in 1967 Dick Merritt, the Ferrari club historian,
bought it. Some years later Dick sold it to an Alfa collector, Henry
Wessells in Pennsylvania......"
	Thus a 6C 1500 Testa Fissa raced at the gateway to Rocky Mountain
National Park, at the foot of the Rockies.
	Richard G. Ballantine, Colorado

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