1936 Alfa Romeo 2900A Mille Miglia

For those of you who insist on having your car stories simple and uncomplicated, you are about to be disappointed…again! The incredible machine you see on these pages had no less than four (and possibly five) incarnations and was yet another example of the casual Italian car mentality in the 1930s. This car was sold “new” to one Alfredo Brioschi on December 4, 1936; its luxurious sporting 2-seater body was painted in snappy 2-tone colors and bore the Milan registration number 55316. The car also bore a chassis plate with the number 412006, and it was indeed the car which had appeared on Alfa’s stand at the Paris Motor Show only a month before. If you look on page 306 of the “Alfa Romeo Bible,” Luigi Fusi’s masterwork on all Alfas ever produced, you will see this very car with that registration number.

And if you go back two pages, you will see it again, except you won’t know it’s the same car until I tell you this tale…and certainly Mr. Brioschi didn’t know it! Before Mr. Brioschi purchased it, this car had already had at least one and possibly two of its lives! Whether he thought he had purchased a 2900A or a 2900B is unknown, but for clarity’s sake, the designation 2900A refers to the first 10 chassis built and the engine specification which quoted 220 bhp at 5300 rpm.