Alfa Romeo 8C 2300

The eight-cylinder family at the heart of Alfa Romeo’s early-1930s competition era.

The 8C 2300 marks the move from Alfa Romeo’s six-cylinder sporting cars to a celebrated eight-cylinder family. It provides the essential parent profile for the specialised Le Mans and Monza entries. The general model name covers cars with different chassis lengths, bodies and competition purposes, so it cannot supply one universal set of dimensions or performance figures.

Engineering and historical context

Turin’s Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile dates the model’s production to 1931–1934 and lists a 2336 cc engine for its exhibited 1934 Touring-bodied spider. Its 155 HP and 180 km/h figures describe that museum example. This family-level profile records the displacement but leaves output and top-speed fields blank to avoid presenting one exhibit’s configuration as universal.

Production and rarity

The primary museum reference used here does not provide an exact whole-family production total. This batch therefore leaves that field open. Small production figures given for Le Mans or Monza configurations should remain with those configurations rather than being summed into a new, unsupported family total.

Coachwork and the illustrated car

The selected image shows a 1931 Touring spider at Goodwood. It illustrates a road-bodied expression of the 8C rather than a short-wheelbase Monza. Any claims that this particular chassis competed in, or won, a historic event would need independent documentation and are not inferred from its appearance.

Reading an individual car’s history

Begin with the chassis identification and trace its connection to dated records. Keep engine identity, coachwork and race history as separate lines of evidence. A replacement component may be documented and appropriate without being original to delivery; a restored body may be historically faithful without preserving every original panel.

For this Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 entry, retain copies of the records that support the precise version being described. Period photographs can establish a configuration at a particular date, while invoices and restoration photographs can explain subsequent changes. A concours award or modern rally appearance belongs in the ownership history, alongside those records, rather than replacing them.

Collector questions

Does the model name identify a particular chassis?

The name identifies the model or configuration. An individual chassis and its body history need their own supporting records.

What does the production figure count?

The exact variant field is left blank. The production discussion records the available evidence and the limits of its scope.

Related vehicle profiles

• Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Le Mans Touring
• Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza

Primary references

1. Turin automobile museum: 8C 2300

Photo and credit

1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Touring spider at Goodwood in 2010; an illustrative road-bodied example. Photo: Brian Snelson / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0. Resized and JPEG-compressed for web display; no content retouching. Website layouts may crop the image.