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Rebodied 8C 2300 Panoramica was alive in 1975
Remember that awesome picture sent in by Rob Mellaart and taken by his dad back in the 1970s in Jakarta? (if not – see it here) Well, the Delahaye wasn’t the only exotic car spotted by Mellaart senior in the Far East around that time. Rob recalls he also found an unusual Alfa Romeo and made some pictures of that car, too. He thought he could find them, although he didn’t know anything about it. Perhaps we did?
Well, we did! When the photographs arrived, we immediately recognized this car as the Zagato-bodied Alfa 2500 SS ‘Panoramica’. Actually, it turned out that the car wasn’t a 6C 2500 but an 8C 2300 of 1933 vintage that had been rebodied by the Milanese carrozzeria in 1943. Rumour has it that the actual 2300 engine was formerly used by Scuderia Ferrari, but we don't know. We’re happy to be educated here.
Anyway: history teaches us that the car was sold new to a mister Puricelli of Varese (pictures 4 and 5), but brought over to Malaysia at around 1949 by a mister Wise who entered it in the second Malaya Grand Prix of 1953, also known as the Johor GP. He contracted a young man named Carlo Vigano as his driver, but unfortunately it wasn’t a very lucky choice. Vigano crashed the car, wearing number 81 on its doors, in practice and ended on its roof in a ditch (picture 3).
What happened after this remains mostly shrouded in mystery. Until now perhaps, as the pictures of Rob Mellaart’s father may bring new information. They were taken once again at around 1975 in Singapore when the unique Alfa seemed to be languishing in a field with other cars. Apart from a crumbled front, which fits in with the crash, the car’s aluminium body seems to have been remarkably intact at the time. It’s another car that Mellaart senior regrettably had to let go in order to finance his other projects. Rob would love to find out what happened to it though. As do we!
Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures Rob Mellaart / Zagato Cars / Alfista Malaysia.
Published:
Tuesday May 5th, 2020
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Comments
Steutel Jan
05 May 2020, 21:09
In the end, around mid 90's the engine, and possibly the gearbox, was at Frans van den Heuvel, from Holland. A car build up by Paul Christ was the new home for the 8c 2300 engine.
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Walter Heale
05 May 2020, 09:56
Chassis number 2211114 originally a Monza .
The full history of this car and its subsequent demise in Kuala Lumpur can be found in a Simon Moore’s book The Legendary 2.3. The car passed to a Chinese owner in the mid 50s still in KL, then disappeared, Bob Feingold , an American working for the US oil company Unocal, followed the car and when next located in the 80s it was at a Bus depot in Johore Baru. Owned by the Bus company director Mr Loh, various offers were made, but none successful, eventually engine and box were removed, the remains of the car being pushed further back into the yard where they eventually were destroyed, a sad end for an ex Scuderia Ferrari Monza !
Read more
The full history of this car and its subsequent demise in Kuala Lumpur can be found in a Simon Moore’s book The Legendary 2.3. The car passed to a Chinese owner in the mid 50s still in KL, then disappeared, Bob Feingold , an American working for the US oil company Unocal, followed the car and when next located in the 80s it was at a Bus depot in Johore Baru. Owned by the Bus company director Mr Loh, various offers were made, but none successful, eventually engine and box were removed, the remains of the car being pushed further back into the yard where they eventually were destroyed, a sad end for an ex Scuderia Ferrari Monza !