For the 1938 racing season, Alfa Romeo created what many consider the finest pre-World War II sports car and one of the most monumental automobiles ever conceived. Designed specifically for the fearsome Mille Miglia and grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans, Alfa Romeo’s new race car employed a highly tuned example of the marque’s inline eight-cylinder engine with double overhead valves, double overhead cams, twin superchargers, independent four-wheel suspension, a transaxle, and suspension dampers controllable from the cabin.

Alfa Romeo built four racing spiders for the 1938 Mille Miglia, all of which survive and are among the most hallowed of all vintage automobiles. British classic-car enthusiast Stephen Muir had long been obsessed with the vaunted 2900B and, lacking the opportunity to buy one, set out to build an exact recreation under the auspices of the Appenine Car Company.

He commissioned Spydersport of Peterborough, UK, to build a chassis featuring four-wheel disc brakes, inboard at the rear, as well as proper 19-inch wire wheels with drum brake “covers” for proper appearance. The body was constructed by hand over the course of 18 months from aluminum pieces carefully fabricated and welded in place.

As with the original 2900B’s engine, the engine here is itself a mechanical marvel worthy of note. Not unlike the configuration of the vintage powerplant, which used two four-cylinder blocks sharing a common crankcase, Weslake Engineering designed and built a proper straight eight-cylinder engine using two four-cylinder Alfa Romeo Alfetta engines mated together. These were fitted with four-cylinder crankshafts containing a different throw pattern to allow for an eight-cylinder firing pattern.

Displacing 3.9 liters, this feat of engineering was then fitted with a quartet of Weber 40DCOE carburetors. The completed car is, as with the 1938 original, a sight to behold and a true testament to the passion of its creator. It rightfully captured the attention of the enthusiast press, including a sizeable feature in the June 1995 issue of Classic and Sports Car magazine.

Unfortunately, although a limited run of these magnificent machines was envisioned, the Appenine Car Company never secured the funding to go into full production; this car is the sole result of the noble effort.

The Ron Sturgeon Collection