Alfa Romeo P3 Tipo B, Monza GP 1932 #6, weathered

Rudolf Caracciola only drove for Alfa Romeo because Mercedes-Benz had stopped racing. When the economic crisis took Mercedes off the grid at the start of 1932, he signed for the Milan team with a promise to go back to Mercedes if it ever resumed racing. In that single season with Alfa he won the Polish, German and Monza Grands Prix and the Eifelrennen, and took the European Hill Climb Championship for the third and final time. Monza, on 11 September, was run in heats and a final, and it fell to Caracciola after Nuvolari lost time in the pits.

This example is the same CMC car as the clean #6, but it has been given an applied race-worn finish, and it reads as a different object. The red fades to a dusty bloom along the tail, the white #6 on the cowl is scuffed and dulled, the Pirelli tyres are grey with road dust and the chassis rails and front axle carry a brown film of oil and grit. The louvred bonnet still opens on both sides to the supercharged eight, and the leather seat and wood-rimmed wheel are aged to suit. The base model is CMC's M-221, a limited edition of 1,000, built at 1:18 from 1,805 parts. This example has been weathered by hand to look race-worn, and was made in Germany.