Alfa Romeo 8C 35

The Alfa Romeo 8C 35 was a Grand Prix racing car produced by Alfa Romeo for the 1935 and 1936 seasons as the works team’s primary competition weapon during the opening years of the Silver Arrows era. It was a development of the earlier B-type (P3) chassis, fitted with a straight-eight twin-overhead-camshaft supercharged engine displacing approximately 3.8 litres and producing around 330 bhp — significant but insufficient against the Mercedes-Benz W25 and Auto Union Type B which were producing over 400 bhp with state funding.

The 8C 35 was raced by Scuderia Ferrari on behalf of the works team and by private entrants. Its best results came in events where the German cars were absent or withdrew; against full Silver Arrows opposition the Italian chassis was outpaced on the straights. The 8C 35 represents the final pre-war period in which an Italian car could seriously challenge for Grand Prix victories in open competition — by 1936 the gap had become insurmountable without comparable state sponsorship.

Connections

• Alfa Romeo — developed and fielded the 8C 35 for Grand Prix racing 1935–1936, source: wikipedia.org
• Scuderia Ferrari — operated 8C 35 cars as Alfa Romeo’s surrogate works team, source: wikipedia.org
• Auto Union — primary adversary during the 8C 35’s racing career, source: wikipedia.org
• Mercedes-Benz — primary adversary; outpaced the 8C 35 with superior funding and engineering, source: wikipedia.org