The 8C is the undoubted star of the Bonhams Quail sale, to be held both live and online at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on 14th August. In every respect the 1934 car is a stunner. It’s one of five 8Cs with cabriolet bodywork by Figoni of Paris, a fittingly top of the range option for Alfa’s first eight-cylinder car.
Do not be lulled by the elegant lines and striking two-tone red paintwork. Underneath is a racer: a 100mph machine, designed by Vittorio Jano, which in competition form with drivers like Nuvolari behind the wheel proved a world beater, especially at Le Mans, in the early ‘30s.
The 8C was the supercar of its day. To afford one – especially one like this with its eye-wateringly expensive bodywork – it would have been useful to own a gold mine. Which was not a problem for this car’s first owner, Roaul Calvayrac. He was heir to a mine in Mexico that was the world’s leading producer of gold in the early 20th century.
So precious was the car that Calvayrac buried it in hay in a barn on his estate in France so the German occupying forces in the Second World War didn’t find it.