1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spyder

After producing six Spyder bodies on the shorter Corto chassis, Touring produced another set of spyders on the longer Lungo chassis.

On the track, the 2900 competition cars benefited from a decade of Alfa Romeo progress and became the most successful of their time. A trio of 2900As placed first-second-third at the 1936 Mille Miglia, while three specially built 2900MMs accomplished the same feat at the 1938 edition. The decision to make a road-going variant of these winning designs must have been easy.

Touring of Milan was responsible for almost the entire production of 2900B bodies. The Spyder was particularly elegant in profile, having much more length and elegance than the shorter Corto versions. A soft top was provided, but didn’t offer any side-window protection except for 412023 which had full-size side windows.

In May of 1938 Touring delivered the first Lungo Spyder which featured cut-out front fenders which were unqiue to the series. This car, chassis 412012, was almost completely lost in a garage fire. It was the first of seven Lungo Spyders built by Touring.

The 2900 chassis was outfitted very similar to the competition cars with twin trailing arms up front and a swing-arm suspension in the rear with both friction and hydraulic dampers.

The engine was similar to the Tipo B unit but was made from new castings in aluminum instead of magnesium. They retained a 10-main bearing crankshafts that sat in white metal babbits. The cylinder head was cast integral to the block with hemispherical combustion chambers and domed pistons. The valvetrain and axillary devices were all gear driven