H&H Classic Auctions has announced that Benito Mussolini's 1935 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder is up for auction and has an estimated price of 600,000-800,000 pounds. Benito Mussolini's 1935 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder competed in the Mille Miglia and will be auctioned by at The Centaur, Cheltenham Racecourse on February 27, 2008.
Chassis 700635 clothed in striking coachwork by Carozzeria Touring, this 1935 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder was built by special order of Italian World War II dictator Benito Mussolini. The engine of this 1935 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder was specially tuned to deliver 95 hp rather than the 68 hp of the standard model.
Benito Mussolini's 1935 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder competed in the 1936 Mille Miglia with Ercole Boratto behind the wheel. Ercole Boratto was an ex-Alfa Romeo test driver who was Mussolini’s chauffeur at the time. The car finished 13th overall and 3rd in class.
The car was in Mussolini's possession until 1939, since when it has only had three owners, the latest of which had it restored by Dino Cognolato to a standard good enough to achieve second in class in the 2005 Pebble Beach Concours and victory in the New York Concours meeting of the same year.
This ‘matching numbers’ car of enormous historical interest even retains traces of the partial alcohol fuelling system it is believed to have operated during the Mille Miglia, when the fascist regime was promoting the use of alternative fuels in the face of stringent petrol sanctions!
