1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Lungo Spider

When introduced in 1931, the 8C 2300 established a new benchmark for high-performance sports cars. Conceived by the brilliant engineer Vittorio Jano, whose designs had already delivered Alfa Romeo numerous victories in sports car and Grand Prix racing, the 8C combined a supercharged twin-cam, straight-eight engine with a sophisticated chassis derived directly from the company’s competition program. Sold as a bare chassis to an exclusive clientele, it was clothed by Italy’s foremost coachbuilders, including Touring and Zagato, whose elegant bodies helped define the visual language of the great prewar sporting automobile.

This exceptional long-wheelbase example, chassis 2211086, is among the most individual and historically fascinating 8C 2300s. Delivered in late 1932 to Naples, Italy, it was fitted from new with striking one-off open coachwork by Zagato – an unusually sporting and distinctive design that immediately set the car apart, even within the rarefied world of custom-bodied Alfa Romeos. While Italian registration records describe the car simply as a two-seat Spider, period photographs and contemporary documentation reveal a far more elaborate and imaginative configuration, incorporating unusual details that suggest a bespoke commission executed for a particularly discerning customer.

The Zagato body combined flowing, purposeful lines with an unusual degree of functional sophistication, including flared cycle-style fenders, louvered valances, a fold-flat windscreen, dual rear-mounted spares, and streamlined tool and battery boxes. Most unusual of all were the rear-access doors and folding occasional seating arrangement, concealed beneath a removable metal cover when not in use. The result was a uniquely adaptable Zagato Spider – the only example of its kind known to have been built on an 8C 2300 chassis.

The car was first registered in Naples in December 1932 to Vincenzo Russo, a figure whose connection to racing in southern Italy adds an intriguing dimension to its earliest history. Russo is believed to have moved within a broader circle of Neapolitan drivers and intermediaries associated with Giovanni Rocco, and period research suggests that he may have acted as a prestanome – a nominal registered owner – on behalf of Rocco or related interests. While such arrangements were not uncommon in Italy, particularly among owners of valuable automobiles, they reflect the often complex and opaque circumstances surrounding some of the era’s most desirable machines.

Unlike many of its contemporaries, this 8C does not appear to have been actively raced, serving instead as a fast and stylish road car. Nevertheless, one of the earliest known photographs of 2211086 places it at the 1933 Sorrento-Sant’Agata Hillclimb, where it was pictured among the competition machinery gathered for the event. Whether present as a participant, support vehicle, or simply the personal transportation of one of the event’s protagonists remains unknown, but the image provides a fascinating glimpse into the car’s earliest years and confirms its association with the vibrant Italian sporting scene of the period. Sometime after May 1934, following the resolution of Russo’s financial obligations associated with the car, 2211086 left Italy and migrated to the UK, where it was acquired by the Wilkins brothers – G.T. “Pat” and Dick Wilkins of Surrey. Enthusiastic early Alfisti, the brothers had already owned several significant examples, including a 6C 1750 Grand Sport Spider by Zagato. Their acquisition of 2211086 marked a natural progression to the more powerful and prestigious 8C.

Registered in the UK in July 1934 as “BGO 883,” the Alfa Romeo was likely kept at the Wilkins family residence at Sendhurst Grange in Surrey. During this period, the car was actively enjoyed on the road, reflecting the brothers’ enthusiastic approach to motoring. One such excursion took the Alfa Romeo to the Isle of Man for the Mannin Moar, where Dick Wilkins competed aboard his 8C Monza alongside friend Jock Leith in a Bugatti Type 35B. Chassis 2211086 made the journey as the brothers’ personal transport, a fitting role for such a fast and sporting road car.

In late 1935, a significant transformation altered the car’s appearance and identity. For reasons that remain partly speculative – though likely related to a desire for improved weather protection and year-round usability – the original Zagato body was removed and replaced with a second-hand Castagna Drophead Coupe body. The conversion was carried out in Surrey by Newns Coach Builders and Engineers, and the car was subsequently refinished in black with contrasting white pinstriping.

In this Castagna configuration, 2211086 remained in the UK throughout the remainder of the prewar era and into the early postwar period. During these years it passed through a succession of British owners, including G.V. Burton and later George Ryley, and at some point received further modifications, most notably the installation of a Monza-style radiator cowl.

By the early 1960s, the 8C had been exported to the US and entered the collection of pioneering Chicago-based enthusiast Vojta Mashek, whose stable included some of the era’s most important Alfa Romeos, Bugattis, and European sports cars. During Mashek’s ownership, chassis 2211086 became a familiar and admired presence within the Midwest collector community. Finished in gray with red wheels and still carrying its British registration, the 8C was illustrated in several landmark automotive publications, including Ralph Stein’s The Great Cars and Automobile Quarterly.

Following Mashek’s death, the Alfa Romeo remained within his family for several decades, passing to his widow and later their daughter, who preserved the car with minimal intervention.

The next significant chapter began when the car returned to the UK under the ownership of respected collector Hugh Taylor, himself a custodian of important Alfa Romeo machinery, including an exceptionally original 8C 2300 Touring Spider and the ex-Don Lee P3. Taylor maintained the 8C until 2005, when it was acquired by Brian Brunkhorst, whose estate offers the car today.

At the time of Brunkhorst’s acquisition, chassis 2211086 still wore the Castagna Drophead Coupe body fitted in 1935. Over time, and with a deep appreciation for the car’s earliest and most evocative configuration, Brunkhorst made the decision to return the Alfa Romeo to its original appearance. This was not undertaken as a corrective erasure of history, but rather as a carefully considered restoration informed by surviving period photographs and material preserved within the Wilkins family archives.

Following a mechanical rebuild by master technician Rick Bunkfeldt, the rolling chassis was shipped to acclaimed restorer Dino Cognolato, whose work on significant Italian automobiles is widely respected. The result is a masterful recreation of the car’s original Zagato Spider body, executed with exceptional fidelity to proportion, detail, and finish. Handsomely finished in black and accented by finely polished trim, the car captures the purposeful sporting presence that defined it when new. It is a particularly striking interpretation of the long-wheelbase 8C 2300: sinister, elegant, and unmistakably Italian in character.

Following completion of the restoration, 2211086 was shown and enjoyed at prominent events, including the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance® and the exclusive Alfa Romeo 8C Tour of the Rockies.

Offered today from the esteemed Brian Brunkhorst Collection, this extraordinary Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 combines many of the qualities most prized by discerning Alfisti: a matching-numbers chassis and engine, exceptional provenance, and a distinctive coachbuilt design unlike any other. From its intriguing early history in Naples and association with the circle of Giovanni Rocco, to its ownership by the Wilkins brothers during the golden age of British motoring, this Alfa Romeo has led a fascinating and unusually well-documented existence. Since the early 1960s, it has passed through the hands of just three highly respected enthusiasts – pioneering collector Vojta Mashek, noted collector Hugh Taylor, and Brian Brunkhorst – each of whom recognized its singular importance. Beautifully restored by master craftsman Dino Cognolato to its original one-off configuration, the car today presents as a stunning evocation of its appearance when new.

Unique among surviving long-chassis 8C 2300s, richly documented in the definitive works of Simon Moore, and eligible for the most prestigious concours and touring events worldwide, 2211086 represents a rare opportunity to acquire one of the most individual, charismatic, and compelling Alfa Romeos ever built.