A note on the 1500 TF, and a driver from Venus

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

A note on the 1500 TF, and a driver from Venus

In AD7-463 Richard G. Ballantine adds to the 6C 1500 Testa Fissa thread with
its history from 1963 to its present owner after passing from Luigi Chinetti
in New York to Coloradan Danny Collins and thence through the hands of a St.
Louis collector, I believe the one who lost a 2900 and several other choice
cars in a barn fire, then to "a dentist/collector in Des Moines" who would
have to have been our own Infamous Grinch, then a Ferrari historian, and
finally to H.W.III.

I first saw the car in Baltimore at the AROC convention, and in writing about
it noticed a number of puzzling apparent anachronisms. The 1500 SS TF was
built in 1928-29, but this car appeared to be a later 1750 of around 1932. Mr
Wessells responded to my questions with a very interesting letter mentioning,
among other things, that its serial number 10814406 was the last of the 5th
series 1750's and appears to have been applied to the engine and chassis when
it was sold by the Scuderia Ferrari in 1933. It was still puzzling and
interesting; the 1750 TFs were shorter and appreciably lighter than the
earlier 1500 TFs.

Eventually I looked where I should have earlier, in Luigi Fusi's "Le Alfa
Romeo Di Vittorio Jano" and found this on page 92:

"Il prolungamento "artificiale" della vita della 6C 1500 SS, dovuto all'
esistenza della ripartizione di classe in una cilindrata in cui non aveva
rivali, produce un curioso fenomeno di mimetismo.

"Tra il 1930 e il 1931 vengono allestiti alcuni esemplari di 6C 1500 SS come
questo di Caniato, con carrozzeria Zagato assolutamente indistinguibile da
quella delle piu classiche 1750 SS, tanto da far supporre che si trattasse, in
realta, di autotelai tipo 1750 (piu corti del 1500) sui quali (in fabbrica o a
Modena?) venivano montati motori tipo 1500 con numerazione "off records".

"In effetti, nelle statistiche di Fusi, la produzione ufficiale delle 1500 SS
cessa nel 1929.

"Meno probabile, ma non da escludere, l'altra ipotesi e cioe che si trattasse,
in qualche caso, de esemplari ricarrozzati."

I found it charming to read Fusi referring to his own statistics in the third
person. As a recorder, he gives the documentary evidence; as an observer, he
reports the logic of what he sees. A delightful man, to whom we owe a great
deal.

A Swedish meatball translation of the Italian,(corrections welcome!) has it
that:

"The artificial extension of the life of the 6C 1500 SS, due to the divisions
of displacement classes in which it had no rival, produced a curious
phenomenon of mimicry. 

"In 1930 and 1931 there came prepared a few examples of the 6C 1500 SS such as
that of Caniato, with Zagato bodywork absolutely indistinguishable from that
of the most classic 1750 SS, so much so that we must suppose that it is in
reality a treatment of a chassis of the type 1750 (shorter than the 1500) in
which was mounted (at the factory or at Modena [i.e, at Ferrari's]?) a motor
of the 1500 type with serial number "off the records".

"In reality, according to the data of Fusi, the official production of the
1500 ended in 1929.

"Less believable, but not to be excluded, is the other hypothesis which has
been suggested that in some cases these are rebodied examples" [of the earlier
chassis]."

The person who bought the car from the Scuderia Ferrari, to race with
Ferrari's support, was Anna Maria Peduzzi. She is mentioned several times in
Angela Cherrett's great book on the 6 Cs: a first in the June 1932 Coppa
Bellagio, taking the Touring Class in a 1750 under her pseudonym of "La
Marocchina"- ("the Moroccan", on account of her dark complexion); then in
September 1933 taking the 1500 class in a 1500 GS in Monteceneri (Switzerland)
hillclimb, still as "La Marocchina"; and lastly under her proper name with co-
driver Comotti taking first in the 1500 cc class, and thirteenth overall, in
the 1934 Mille Miglia in a 1500 SS which was a Scuderia Ferrari entry- and
which would have been the Wessells car. Cherrett does not attempt to list all
the respectable seconds and thirds, but Peduzzi comes up often enough in the
text- an eighth in her 1750 in the Parma-Poggio di Bercetto hillclimb in 1933,
a third at the Varese-Campo di Fiori hillclimb, a thirteenth in her 1500 in
the Targa Abruzzo behind one other Alfa 1500, one 1750, the Scuderia Ferrari's
Maserati and several 8C 2300's. Fusi's "Le Alfa Romeo di Vittorio Jano"  also
credits her with a ninth overall and second in the 1500 cc class (after a
Maserati) in the Coppa Principessa di Piemonte, the "Mille Miglia del Sud" in
October '33 in what appears to be the Wessells car with abbreviated fenders.
Quite a respectable driver, one of a healthy sprinkling of sportswomen who did
well at the wheel in England and on the continent in the twenties and
thirties. Incidentally, she was still racing successfully twenty years later
in an Alfa 1900.

Nice car, with a nice history.

John H.
Raleigh

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