Alfa Romeo 1900 Super: tackling the Mille Miglia on a budget

By Martin Buckley

| 12 Jan 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Alfa Romeo 1900: tackling the Mille Miglia on a budget

What follows is the story of a true ‘real world’ adventure, on perhaps the most glamorous old-car event of all.

It just goes to prove that, with the right classic car – and the right support – it is possible to do the Mille Miglia on something resembling a budget and still come back smiling.

Sheridan Bowie is best described as a ‘gentleman farmer’, who just happens to have Mark Devaney, the Dino specialist, as one of his tenants.

That’s handy given Sheridan’s weakness for Italian cars: as well as a modern Ferrari, he owns a Lancia Appia convertible, a pair of genuine Fiat 500 Abarths – “my true passion” – and the Fiat Gamine in which he learned to drive, aged 12.

To take part in the Mille Miglia, you’ll need an eligible car, a handy co-driver and, usually, a sizeable budget

The plot to do the Mille Miglia was hatched a couple of years ago, following Sheridan’s chance encounter in Florence with a man from long-time event sponsor Chopard.

This resulted in an invitation to attend the retrospective as a guest spectator, where it was quietly suggested that, with the right car, the Tunbridge Wells-based Englishman would probably get an entry to run in the prestigious rally – reinvented as a tribute to the original in 1989 – for 2023.

Back home in Kent, Mark did not need much persuading to come along as a co-driver, but the question remained as to which car to take.

The Alfa Romeo 1900 Super has history with the original Mille Miglia

“They have a list of eligible models,” explains Mark, “and most of them are huge money, very exotic and exceedingly rare.

“But even less rare choices such as Aces and XK120s are big money because they are eligible. We thought about a Healey, but they were oversubscribed.”

Then a 1955 Alfa Romeo 1900 berlina popped up.

Not a car to set the heather alight visually – even by period Alfa Romeo standards the 1900 was a pedestrian-looking saloon – yet a very worthy machine, and a very eligible one given the model’s history on the Mille Miglia in period.

Mille Miglia scrutineering or the world’s most exotic traffic jam? © Joe Devanny www.devanny.co.uk

Better still, the example in question could almost have found its own way from Brescia to Rome.

“Not only had it done the first-ever rerun in 1989,” says Mark, “but it was also reckoned to have competed 18 times, which is a record.

“One previous owner even hired it out. I thought it was a good, solid car, perfect for a first-timer.”

Sheridan agreed, and bought the left-hand-drive 1900 Super in the summer of 2022 from the Old Racing Car Company.

The Alfa Romeo 1900 Super’s twin-cam engine is spicy yet sturdy in equal measure

A shakedown drive to the Goodwood Revival highlighted issues with Alfa’s charging system that would come back to haunt them on the Mille.

“At that point I still didn’t really believe it was going happen,” recalls Mark, “but then suddenly it became clear we were ‘in’, and things started to get a bit real.”

Suitably galvanised, the respected Fiat and Ferrari guru (and keen YouTuber) diagnosed a leaky diff casing, which meant dropping the rear axle and removing the halfshafts to repair the crack.

The Alfa Romeo 1900 Super has a column gearchange, resulting in a very spacious cabin

Then, with just a week to go – the car having received new tyres and seatbelts, and rebuilt gearchange and throttle – Mark decided that the heavy clutch might make the Alfa Romeo a chore to drive. A new release bearing was the cure.

“It was easier to take the engine out than to pull the gearbox through the floor of the car,” says Mark, who documented the preparation of the 1900 on his engaging Mark’s Italian Garage channel.

Next he rebuilt the distributor, but problems with the crank pulley soon highlighted the fact that parts for the 1900 are not in plentiful supply, at least in the UK, although a specialist for the model was eventually discovered in Milan.

The Alfa Romeo joins its fellow 449 competitors in receiving a blessing from a local priest in Brescia © Joe Devanny www.devanny.co.uk

Mark went out to Italy ahead of Sheridan to stock up on spares for the event (and take in an Abarth track day).

“We ended up having to machine a new crank pulley,” continues Mark. “I couldn’t even buy a rotor arm, and ended up pinching the one from Sheridan’s Appia.

“We got lucky with the water pump because there was a new one in the boot, which we took with us as a spare, along with tools and anything else we might need.”

Thus equipped, Bowie and Devaney were probably the only competitors taking part in the 1000 Miglia to do their own servicing.

Excellent preparation meant that the Alfa Romeo’s Mille Miglia run was largely trouble-free © Joe Devanny www.devanny.co.uk

Once finally out in Italy for the event proper, the first day (Sunday) started with lunch at the highly recommended Museo Mille Miglia in Brescia, along with three and a half hours of scrutineering.

Then on Monday, it was time to have all 450 entries blessed by a priest.

Sure enough, Austin-Healeys were popular – one of the runners was NOJ 393, the ex-Lance Macklin 1955 Le Mans disaster 100S – but oddities such as a 1950s Goliath added plenty of colour and variety.

The elegant bonnet mascot on this Alfa Romeo 1900 Super

Mark was spellbound: “At times it was like being at the world’s biggest car show, so much so that it was difficult to concentrate.

“I mean, where else are you going to see an Ermini with a Kimono-wearing Japanese driver?”

Luckily, there was still time in hand to sort a recurring fault with the charging system of the 1900.

“I had brought a spare dynamo, but I couldn’t get it to charge properly,” says Mark. “Luckily, I found a proper, old-fashioned auto electrician – established pre-1914! – in Brescia and he sorted it: the brushes were not seated properly.”

Stickers help to identify the Alfa’s dashboard switches

Later, an overheating regulator showed signs of giving more problems, but Mark worked out that if he cable-tied a bottle of mineral water to it – to work as a heat-sink – the charging issues were averted. Clever.

At the Tuesday podium start, each team had its mugshots flashed up on a massive screen, which tended to make all concerned look as if they had just been arrested by the vice squad rather than participants in the world’s most prestigious classic-car event.

“Our start time was 3pm,” says Mark, who navigated throughout, “and the section ended at 7pm… but then there was another four-hour stint after that!”

The Alfa Romeo is from 1955, so got under way around 8am most days on the rally

“As a 1950s car,” he continues, “we were starting at around 8am most days – the slower, 1930s cars start earlier – and not getting back to our hotel until midnight.”

Having crossed Lake Garda and passed through Verona, Ferrara and Imola, day one finished at Cervina-Milano.

“We were warned we wouldn’t get much sleep,” Mark continues, “and while I wouldn’t say it’s gruelling, it does involve a lot of concentration and a lot of hard driving.

“Also, in reality it’s 1500 miles across five days rather than 1000 miles over three days. Our longest day was 16 hours of driving.”

Mark Devaney (on left) and Sheridan Bowie in the Alfa Romeo, ready to tackle Italy’s legendary regularity rally © Joe Devanny www.devanny.co.uk

There was at least one other 1900 saloon entered, plus variants such as the impossibly exotic Sportiva from the Alfa Romeo museum, driven by an all-female crew: “We often found ourselves in convoy with that, or a white Maserati A6GCS.

“We had a wonderful blast in the mountains following a ‘Birdcage’. It was at times like that I thought: ‘Is this real?’”

The atmosphere throughout was fantastic and the Alfa Romeo attracted plenty of positive vibes – as an antidote, perhaps, to all of the ‘money’ cars, particularly the Porsche 356s and Mercedes-Benz 300SLs.

“Some of the 356s were running on racing fuel,” says Mark. “You’d see the service crew decanting it, and if you drove behind one it stung your eyes.”

“I didn’t really believe it was going to happen, but suddenly we were ‘in’ and things started to get a bit real”

Because Mercedes partly sponsors the event, a lot of the Gullwing entries were corporate-hospitality cars with ‘VIP’ drivers.

“They would only drive for one four-hour stint, then hand over to another VIP,” says Mark.

Jochen Mass was spotted behind the wheel of one of the big Mercs. A certain amount of weight was thrown around by this contingent, who tended to drive hard, arrive early at controls, and then hang back to get the appropriate time stamp.

“On one of the time trials, it was sweltering hot in the queue,” recalls Mark. “We had slight worries about vapour lock and so we decided to hang back a bit, in the shade of a tree, rather than repeatedly stopping and starting the engine.”

The Alfa Romeo 1900 Super got a good reception from the locals – here at a time control © Joe Devanny www.devanny.co.uk

“Suddenly, there was a honk from the 300SL behind, with a guy gesturing for us to move forward,” he remembers. “So we moved, but it turned out he just wanted to get in our bit of shade!”

Most entrants, however, were good sorts: “We got chatting to a lot of people. One bloke in an Alfa Giulia said he had a 1900 Zagato back home that was going to be his new Mille Miglia car, and that Ferraris were ‘no good’ for the event.

“It turned out he was a major American Ferrari collector, so he knew first-hand.”

The Mille Miglia is now an annual rally open to classic cars built between 1927 and 1957, as a tribute to the original event

Day two started at 7am, with a stop at San Marino for coffee then Senigallia for lunch.

Cooled by a desk fan wired into the Alfa’s electrics, Mark was starting to get to grips with the roadbook and the tripmeters: “The time trials were for low average speeds.

“Some people had 10 eggtimers on the dashboard for different sections; had we got the hang of that, we would have finished a lot higher.”

The Alfa Romeo 1900 Super’s well-stocked and stylish dashboard

Via Fermo and Ascoli Piceno, competitors emerged into Rome’s Via Veneto in the evening.

“I was so tired by that stage,” says Sheridan, “I don’t even remember seeing the Colosseum and, once we lost the police escort in traffic, we decided to head for our hotel.”

The Alfa was proving to be an excellent choice of car: “It was extremely comfortable; the roof was blessed shade and the airflow with the windows open was good. The cloth seats worked well from a heat point of view, too.”

“The Alfa stomped along – one guy in a Ferrari even commented on how quick it was”

Neither was the single-carburettor 1900 Super a slow car. “It stomped along – one guy in a Ferrari even commented on how quick it was,” says Sheridan, “and the brakes are good, although it did develop a pull to the right.”

Day three (Thursday) ended in Parma, but the highlight was lunch in Siena.

There was some quick motoring through open countryside and, as on the previous days, plenty of examples of risky overtaking manoeuvres by the quicker machinery.

Some 100 cars dropped out either through accidents or mechanical failure.

Sheridan (left) and Mark are rightly proud of the faithful Alfa Romeo 1900 Super’s performance on the Mille Miglia

Friday in Milan hosted the final evening of the event, after running through Stradalla, Pavia and into the Piedmont region for lunch at Alessandria.

Then Saturday and the finish line in Brescia beckoned, with the team coming a creditable 314th, ahead of 40 other cars.

“Just finishing was an achievement, given that I had never even read a tulip map,” smiles Mark.

Sheridan had fleeting thoughts of entering again, this time in a Healey, but has since thought better of it: “Having done it, and thoroughly enjoyed it, it would be impossible to improve on the experience, so why try?”

Mille Miglia medals are awarded upon crossing the finish line in Brescia, Italy

Given that it costs at least £16,000 just to enter the 1000 Miglia (and that is the basic package), it feels a bit of a stretch to say that Sheridan and Mark’s assault on the 2023 retrospective was a shoestring affair.

But all things are relative: when most – if not all – of your fellow entrants are flying in their seven-figure exotica by air freight (and jumping aboard private jets to get to Brescia), the team that takes two days to trailer its entry from England could be forgiven for feeling a bit of a poor relation.

Even if the tow car is a Maserati Levante.

Images: John Bradshaw/Joe Devanny www.devanny.co.uk

Alfa Romeo 1900: ‘The family car that wins races’

Largely unknown in the UK, the 1950-’59 1900 skilfully combined modern features with Alfa tradition in a contemporary-looking 80bhp, 90mph five-seater family saloon.

It was designed to be built at the rate of 500 a month, and the concept was vindicated in the sales figures: 7600 cars in the first three years (more than the firm had produced in the entirety of the previous two decades) and a total of 17,390 units by the end of production.

Left-hand drive was new to Alfa and there hadn’t been a four-cylinder model for decades, although the 1900’s short-stroke twin-cam was very much in the mould of what Alfa had built in the ’30s, only more efficient and higher revving.

The 1884cc Normale was joined by the TI (Turismo Internationale) in 1951, with a twin-choke Weber that boosted output to 90bhp and took the top speed over 100mph.

Two years later came the 1975cc Super and twin-Solex TI Super, the latter a 115bhp/112mph car that was among the fastest four-door production saloons available; around the same time all types got a triangulated mounting bracket for the rear axle.

The 1900 Berlina earned a formidable reputation in the 2-litre production saloon class in the mid-’50s.

Having retired from Grand Prix racing, and despite the shift in focus to mass-market, volume-production models, Portello was keen to show it had not lost its taste for competition.

If the acknowledged excellence of the 1900 put a positive spin on this populist move, its conspicuous success in classic events such as the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and Carrera Panamericana only burnished its reputation.

Outside Italy they were found at closed-circuit events such as the Nürburgring 1000km (fourth in 1953), the Tour de France and the Alpine Rally.

The 1900’s potential for success in the hands of privateers was further boosted by the introduction of more powerful variants.

A TI Super won the Touring category in the 1954 Giro d’Italia, but the car’s potential had been proven a year earlier when no fewer than 40 1900s entered the 1953 Mille Miglia, resulting in podium-filling class wins.

On the 1954 Mille, 21 1900s finished – mostly saloons – resulting in another class victory and eighth overall.

A 1900 won the Giro di Sicilia outright in 1954, while a six-car assault on the ’54 Carrera resulted in a 15th overall and first in the 2-litre class.

With the arrival of the lighter, nimbler Giulietta, the 1900’s star began to fade, but it has always been a popular choice on the latter-day incarnation of the 1000 Miglia, with drivers and spectators alike.

Factfile

Alfa Romeo 1900 Super

Sold/number built 1950-’59/17,390
Construction steel monocoque
Engine iron-block, alloy-head, dohc 1975cc ‘four’, Solex carburettor
Max power 93bhp @ 5400rpm
Max torque 96lb ft @ 3000rpm
Transmission four-speed manual, RWD
Suspension: front wishbones, upper link rear live axle, radius arms, triangulated link; coil springs, telescopic dampers f/r
Steering worm and roller
Brakes finned alloy drums
Length 14ft 6in (4419mm)
Width 5ft 3in (1600mm)
Height 4ft 10in (1473mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 7½in (2628mm)
Weight 2578Ib (1169kg)
Mpg 18-25
0-60mph 17.1 secs
Top speed 102mph
Price new £1300
Price now £100,000-plus (if Mille Miglia-eligible)*