- Stock: In Stock
- Author: Peter M. Larsen and Ben Erickson
- ISBN: 9788797288207
- Publisher: Moteurs!
- Publication Year: 2021
- Edition: 1st Edition
- Language: English
- Pages: 436
- Illustrations: Black & White and Colour
- Format: Hardback published with dust jacket
- Slipcase: Yes
- Signed Author: Peter M. Larsen and Ben Erickson
- Limited Edition: 600 copies
- Condition Book: Fine
- Condition Dust Jacket: Fine
- Condition Slipcase: Fine
- Dimensions: 304.00mm x 219.00mm
In 1923, Joseph Figoni opened
his coachbuilding enterprise in Paris. That same year, Alfa-Romeo established a
showroom in a side street just off the Champs-Élysées. In 1925, Luigi Chinetti
was working as a mechanic for the Alfa-Romeo racing team at Montlhéry. When the
team went back to Italy, he stayed in France, not wanting to return to the home
country where fascism was on the rise. Not long after, he was working for the
French Alfa-Romeo company doing what he did best: wheeling, dealing and racing
the extraordinary cars the company built. Chinetti and Joseph Figoni became fast
friends. Within months, the friendship came to include the legendary drivers
Raymond Sommer and Tazio Nuvolari.
From 1932
to 1935, a number of Alfa-Romeo 8C 2300 raced at Le Mans with Figoni bodies.
Driven by Chinetti, Sommer and Nuvolari, they won three times, in 1932, 1933
and 1934, all in different cars. This book tells the fascinating story of how
these magnificent men in their magnificent mechanical machines came together. How the
Figoni shop became a beehive, buzzing with Alfa-Romeo activity, as a who’s who of racing drivers and wealthy patrons came
by on a daily basis to oversee progress on their cars, while Luigi Chinetti
placed orders with Figoni for bodies on Alfa chassis and had cars fixed,
refurbished and reworked. It is a story of fast cars, brave men and the great eight-cylinder
supercharged bolides that brought them fame. All described chassis by chassis
and lavishly illustrated with period racing photos.
It is
also the story of the beautiful six- and eight-cylinder road cars that the Carrosserie
Joseph Figoni bodied from 1932 to 1935. Once again, there are
chassis-by-chassis histories of each car and abundant period as well as modern
color illustrations. All is based on new knowledge discovered by close study of
the original Figoni archives. As a result, new light is shed on what happened
and how it happened, as well as the true identities of some of the cars.