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LOT 211

1936 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Twin Supercharged Special Registration no. LAS 554 Chassis no. 813017

Sold for £225,500 inc. premium
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Lot 211

1936 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Twin Supercharged Special

The Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale Collector's Motor Cars and Automobilia|30 June 2017, 14:00 BST|Chichester, Goodwood

1936 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Twin Supercharged Special
Registration no. LAS 554
Chassis no. 813017

*Restored by Murray Rainey in the 1970s
*Former Gurston Down class record holder
*Castrol Midland Hillclimb Championship Classic Class winner
*Little used in recent years
*VSCC Eligibility Document

Footnotes

Having completed the lengthy restoration of an Alfa Romeo 8C only 12 months previously, Joy Rainey's father, Murray, was not contemplating embarking on another such marathon project. And when he saw this 6C advertised in Motor Sport as a '1750 rolling chassis', it was with a friend in mind that he went to view it. The Alfa turned out to be a 6C 2300 - not what the friend wanted, and not what Murray wanted either - but nevertheless he was persuaded to make an offer. The Alfa was his for £100. 

Back home in Surrey, the engine was found to be in surprisingly good condition - the spark plugs had been removed and the well between the cam boxes was full of water when the Alfa had been collected – and after only a little fettling it was started up. Murray had a spare BMW 328 body in rough condition, and his first thought was to loosely attach it to the Alfa and sell the car on as quickly as possible. Other counsels prevailed however, and Murray soon found himself embarking on another major Alfa Romeo restoration project. One of those who felt that the car deserved a better fate was Joy, who offered to part-finance the project so that she could drive the Alfa in historic hill climb events. 

Murray's first move was to completely disassemble the engine in order to assess its condition; he found that it had seen little use since last rebuilt, and required little remedial work other than fresh big-end bearings. Opting to replace the original white metal bearings with the more modern shell type, he was fortunate to find just what he was looking for in the Vandervell Bearings catalogue. 

Bowing to outside pressure to fit a supercharger – 'an Alfa is not an Alfa unless it's supercharged' – Murray contacted Mark Ransome at George Godfrey's, and although they did not have one large enough, there were some smaller ones available. These turned out to be cabin blowers for the de Havilland Vampire jet fighter, and Murray was able to mount two of them nose to nose and make up a suitable drive shaft. He also made patterns for the many special castings required to mount the blowers on the Alfa engine. 

The next hurdle to be cleared was the carburettors, or rather the lack of them. Seeking a solution to the problem, Murray contacted his friend Leonard Reece of Reece-Fish carburettor fame. The advantage of the Fish carburettor - first developed in the USA in the 1930s - was that it could be mounted 'upside down', and Murray was able to get a pair cast in brass using the original patterns. His next task was to convert the engine to dry sump lubrication in order to mount it sufficiently low in the chassis, a process that involved cutting down and re-welding the sump, and fitting a scavenge pump to return oil to the remote tank. 
Coachbuilders Robert Peel suggested reusing the jigs and patterns they had made for the 8C Alfa body to create a new and more appropriate one for the 6C, so the plan to use the BMW 328 body was abandoned to much relief. 

The rebuilt 6C's first outing was to a Brooklands driving test day, during which the engine smoked badly, and at a subsequent visit to Prescott the cause was found to be the oil seals which, although new, turned out to be from a faulty batch. Their replacement cured the problem. 

In Joy's autobiography, 'Fast Lady', Murray recalled: 'By now the 6C seemed to be going really well and even though it was only 2.3-litres it seemed to have as much steam as the 8C and felt as though the power came in much earlier. Probably this was due to the two small blowers instead on one.'

This sufficiency of power brought with it another problem: clutch slip. On the start line at Shelsley Walsh the Alfa had sat there with the single-plate clutch slipping, and fitting stronger clutch springs failed to provide a solution. An AP twin-plate copper-sintered clutch proved to be the answer, though at the next meeting at Shelsley this more efficient means of power transmission succeeded in twisting the prop shaft through 180 degrees! A more heavy-duty shaft in T45 steel tubing had to be made. 

Murray again: 'My ego started to become dented because frequently Joy was beating me at Shelsley and Prescott and she was in the 6C and only 2.3-litres while I was driving the 8C 2.6-litres. Was this a sign of the onset of senility? But no, not quite, as we shared the 6C at Prescott and I just pipped her.'

At Gurston Down, Murray's great rival in the historic class was Brian Chant and his 4.3-litre Alvis. At the final meeting of the year in 1980 they were locked in a battle for class honours, but Murray pulled something special out of the bag and emerged as class winner, as well as breaking the class record by nearly 3 seconds with the Alfa. In Joy's hands the Alfa Romeo 6C would prove no less successful, and at the end of the 1983 season the pair secured victory in the Castrol Midland Hillclimb Championship's Classic Class. 

Seeking to move up to the premier category - the RAC Hillclimb Championship – Joy purchased the Chase Web Offset team's successful Pilbeam single-seater. Outings in the Alfa Romeo 6C became much less frequent, and the car was effectively 'mothballed', only emerging from retirement in 2006 for the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Joy continued to use the 6C for the next few years taking part in the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Prescott Marshals' Club; VSCC Prescott 2008 and 2011 and the last outing to Shelley Walsh in 2012. Recently recommissioned by George Derbyshire of Stratford-on-Avon the 6C is running and driving beautifully.  Joy's pedal modifications have been removed. This most competitive historic hill-climber is offered with a Swansea V5C and VSCC Eligibility Document.

Saleroom notices

Please note that the chassis number is incorrect in the printed catalogue and should read 81307.

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