Bimotore

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

Ian Preece adds to the discussion of the Bimotore.

I have no special knowledge of the cars, nothing beyond that in Fusi. The 
cars are not mentioned at all in "Le Alfa Romeo di Vittorio Jano", where the 
side-by-side twin engined Tipo A and the later cars through the 316 get full 
treatment.
 
The badging is indeed interesting. Two photos in Fusi (p.266) which show the 
car in its earliest state, with a headrest which was removed before the car 
was run in competition, and a third on p.270 of the car's initial 
presentation to the press in April 1935, all show the car  with no badging. 
The photos of the car at the G.P. of Tripoli in 1935,  and on a solo record 
run also in 1935, all show the car with the shield-shaped radiator badge 
which is not clear but presumably has the Ferrari horse, but with no Alfa 
Romeo badging. The photos of the car in 1937, after the sale to Austin 
Dobson, all show the Alfa Romeo script on the grill, the shield at the top of 
the grill, and with a revised front suspension like that of the 12C 1936 
rather than the Dubonnet of the 1935 Tipo B.

The car's racing history is not too great. It is mentioned only once in 
Pomeroy's "Grand Prix Car", in the 1935 Tripoli G.P.  Chiron was driving the 
car with two 2.9 engines, developing about 510 hp, and Nuvolari the one with 
two 3.2 engines, developing about 540 hp. The main opposition came from 
Mercedes and Auto Union, both with about 100 fewer horses. The Mercedes 
driven by Caracciola finished first, an Auto Union driven by Varzi was 
second, another Mercedes driven by Fagioli was third, and Nuvolari's Bimotore 
came in fourth after thirteen tire changes. The great power undoubtedly 
contributed to the tire wear, but I also assume that the car was considerably 
heavier and less well-balanced than the Tipo B. It evidently was not run in 
1936, when Alfa had a four liter Tipo C.

This was a rather inglorious period for Alfa Romeo. Italy needed aircraft 
engines and trucks for its military adventures; and the company built 91 cars 
in 1935, ten in 1936, 270 cars in 1937, 540 in 1938, 373 in 1939, roughly 
1300 cars in five years, about 260 of them more or less sporting cars and the 
rest ministerial saloons. The purpose of the Bimotore, the Tipo C, the 308, 
the 312 and the 316 was to prove Italy as a technological power equal to 
Hitler's Germany, and they failed, for which we may be thankful. The 
comparatively mediocre performance of the GP cars led to the ouster of Jano 
as a has-been, after which he designed some of Lancia's finest cars.  

There is the question of whether the Bimotore was the first Ferrari. Ferrari 
was contractually prohibited from building a car under his own name after he 
left Alfa Romeo, so the first car he built entirely on his own without Alfa 
parts was the called Auto Avio 815. There is another "first Ferrari" with a 
somewhat murky history, a car built prewar with new Alfa Romeo parts which 
does not appear in Alfa's records; the hypothesis is that it was built by 
Ferrari with the connivance of some Alfa insiders after Ferrari's factory 
connection had been severed. Anyone who wants that curious history should 
find the book "Alfa Romeo Ferrari" by Murray Rainey.

John H.
Raleigh, N.C.

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