Alfa 3.8 or Alfa Romeo Tipo 308 C

["Jorge Mazlumian" <jmazl@domain.elided>]

This car, the Alfa Tipo 308 C of 1938 vintage, chasis number 50017, resid=
es
in Balcarce, Buenos Aires, at the Museo Hist=F3rico Juan Manual Fangio.  =
The 5
times World Champion *never* drove this car in a race, but it has plenty =
of
victories under it's belt.  The car is now (was?) being sold to two
Englishmen and one German for a mere 2.5 million american dollars.  Due t=
o
strong opposition by certain people, namely Cesar M. Sorkin, president of
the Club Alfa Romeo de la Argentina, the car may never leave the Argentin=
e
territory, do to it's historical value, and being now considered part of =
the
Argentine patrimony.
The story goes something like this, extracted from very recent newspaper
publications:  (John H. take note)
The car was brought to Argentina by argentine lawyer Italo De Luca.  The =
car
was driven by several local drivers of fame, including Carlos Menditeguy =
and
Oscar Alfredo G=E1lvez, who won, in 1949, the Carrera Costanera in Buenos
Aires, under heavy rain, defeating many top european drivers of the time.
In 1951, Fangio acquired the car from the G=E1lvez brothers and later don=
ated
it to his museum.  The museum authorities attempted in 1985, to exchange =
the
308 for a factory's Alfetta tipo 59, with which Fangio won so many races,
but that trade never came to fruition.  So there it rests.

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