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VINTAGE: Alfa Romeo P2 Dominated Grands Prix
Engineer Vittorio Jano developed Italian automaker's GP cars into World Champions.
Wouter Melissen  | http://www.ultimatecarpage.com  |  Posted November 12, 2009   Goodwood (GB)
An all-original Alfa Romeo P2 was displayed at the 2005 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance where Alfa Romeo was the featured marque. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)
Alfa Romeo's first attempt at building a Grand Prix racer was nothing short of a disaster. An obvious copy of the highly successful six-cylinder Fiats, the Grand Prix Romeo or P1 was designed by the Milanse company's chief engineer Giuseppe Merosi.

At its debut during the 1923 European Grand Prix at Monza, the P1 was convincingly outpaced by the latest eight-cylinder Fiats, and one of the Alfa drivers suffered a fatal crash in practice. Out of respect, the remaining Alfa Romeos were withdrawn and not raced again.

Nicola Romeo did not give up and sent a young Enzo Ferrari to Turin for a chat with Fiat's chief engineer, Vittorio Jano. The two men came to an agreement and Jano joined Alfa Romeo with immediate effect.

The Grand Prix drivers were given the choice of a flat-tailed P2 or a pointed tail, like this one. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)
Predictably, Jano's first assignment was to develop a replacement for the under-performing P1. He carried on where he had left off at Fiat and drew up twin-cam straight-eight engine.

Jano employed the lessons learned during the 1923 season and made numerous detail changes compared to his original design. Instead of using two blocks of four cylinders, he created four blocks of two cast-iron blocks for ease of construction and better reliability. The integral heads featured two valves per cylinder, actuated by twin overhead camshafts.

Whereas the Fiat eight used shafts and bevels to drive the camshafts, the Alfa Romeo relied on spur-gears, just like the earlier Peugeots. An Alfa Romeo-developed Roots-type supercharger was used to boost the power to a commendable 134 horsepower at 5,500 rpm.

Mated to a four-speed gearbox, Jano's first Alfa Romeo engine was mounted in a pressed-steel ladder frame. With a solid axle, semi-elliptic leaf springs and Hartford friction dampers, the new Grand Prix car's front-end was wholly conventional.

At the rear, the frame tapered in and featured a big arch over the live axle, considerably lowering the car's ride height. Even more unusual were the rear springs, which were mounted within the chassis rails. The rolling chassis was covered with a straightforward body with bullnose radiator cover as its most striking feature.

The drivers had the choice of a pointed or cut-off tail. Some drivers believed the latter offered more stable cornering. As a finishing touch, the dark-red machines sported a quadrifoglio (four-leaf clover) badge on the engine covers, which is used for sporting/racing Alfa Romeos to this day.

Developed in complete secrecy, the new Alfa Romeo P2 made its surprise debut at a 200-mile race at Cremona in the spring of 1924. Lead driver Antonio Ascari immediately impressed and won the race with an average of nearly 100 mph. A burst tire in the Coppa Acerbo prevented Giuseppe Campari from taking back-to-back wins for the new Alfa Romeo.

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Wouter Melissen

UltimateCarPage.com

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