The two 3165-cc Alfa Romeo V8 engines in the one car had to be a handful, but that did not prevent Tazio Nuvolari from setting a new Class B (5001-8000-cc) international speed record for the flying kilometer in this Alfa Bimotore. He covered the measured distance in 17.93 seconds at an average speed of 200.82 mph on the new Florence-Adriatic Coast motorway to set the mark. A beaming Enzo Ferrari is obviously pleased. Photo: Alfa Romeo
It wasn’t Alfa Romeo’s first twin-engined car; in fact it wasn’t really an Alfa Romeo at all. It was, arguably, the first Ferrari. Because the 1935 Bimotore was designed and built at Enzo Ferrari’s behest in Modena by the great Luigi Bazzi a few months after the Scuderia assumed Alfa Romeo’s motor racing responsibility.
The Vittorio Jano-designed 1931 Alfa Tipo A had two 1750-cc engines side-by-side. Luigi Arcangeli crashed one of them and killed himself while practicing at Monza for the 1931 Italian Grand Prix, after which the remaining three Tipo As were withdrawn. The Bimotore of four years later had its two engines fore and aft and carried Ferrari’s Prancing Horse badges, rather than the Alfa Romeo crest.
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