The Bimotore and the mid-engined V6 Alfasud

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

Ian Preece is certainly correct that the Bimotore was built by Ferrari at the
Modena site, but I'm not sure he is correct that "This was the first Ferrari 
car to carry the 'Little Prancing Horse' (Cavalino Rampante?) shield on the
radiator cowl". It depends on what you mean by "Ferrari car". The Tipo B cars 
all wore the Ferrari shield a year earlier in 1934, and Nuvolari's 8C 2300 
wore it in the Mille Miglia the year before that. The 1935 Tipo Bs had major 
changes from the earlier Bs, including the Dubonnet front suspension and 
hydraulic brakes which were carried over to the Bimotore. All of the projects 
evolved with extensive cooperation between Alfa and the Scuderia Ferrari in 
design, engineering, fabrication, and financing.
 
I won't get in the crossfire with Ferrari partisans (if I can help it)- 
certainly there were monumental egos galore, and plenty of personal 
frictions. Nor do I have the chronology at hand of the turnover of the Tipo B 
to the Scuderia Ferrari, the transformation of the Scuderia Ferrari into Alfa 
Corse, the reabsorbtion of Alfa Corse back into Alfa, or the separation of 
Ferrari. Never the less I believe it would be a Ferrariphile stretch to call 
the Bimotore "an Alfa engined Ferrari." It was badged as an Alfa and run as 
an Alfa, and was as much Alfa (and as much Ferrari) as the 158 Alfetta which 
was also developed at Scuderia Ferrari in Modena with the same level of 
participation by Alfa's technical staffs and manufacturing facilities as the 
308, 312, and 316 GP cars.

He also mentions "Finally, there is this curiosity. Seen at the AR Museum in 
Arese, in the basement next to the Pope's Alfetta! In the 'hatch' at the rear 
rests a V6, probably a 2.5 litre. There were no details about it, and I've 
never seen it mentioned in any literature. Does anyone out there know it's 
history? "

The car was described briefly and illustrated in Alfa Owner, I'm not sure 
which date, but it is also shown and briefly described in Alfa Romeo Notizie 
#35, April 1982. It is indeed a 2.5 liter V6 nestled in the back seat of an 
Alfasud Sprint Veloce with some very handsome body modifications. Don't know 
more than that, but Alfa had previously done a related transplant- a Scarabeo 
power-train with a transverse two liter four in the rear of a Junior Z hull, 
as a possible rally special, and the mid-engined Alfasud might have had 
similar origins.

John H. 
Raleigh, N.C.

------------------------------