Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Berlinetta

The Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Berlinetta chassis 412.039 was apparently commissioned in 1942 by the Royal Household; according to the book “The Immortal 2.9”, written by Simon Moore, it belonged to King Michael. The coupe body was made by the Italian coachbuilder Touring. The war passed and the communists came to power, but the car stayed in the country. In 1966 a mechanic from Bucharest, Ion Croitoru, bought the car and together with his son restored it (quite rudimentary). For several years the car, registered with the number 1-B-9176, circulated on the streets of the capital. Unfortunately the original engine was lost, but instead of putting in something from an ARO, Volga or tractor, as was the custom at the time, an Alfa 2300 engine from a 6C was found a fact for which Mr. Croitoru is to be congratulated. In 1987, a Swedish journalist, Peter Haventon, arrived in Bucharest looking for two cars: The Duesenberg from the Technical Museum and this Alfa Romeo. With the help of a taxi driver, he eventually found Ion Croitoru and his car. The car wasn’t in very good condition, but it was still quite solid and at least it had some original parts. You could see Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Berlinetta 412.039 had led a hard life. It was no longer used and it had become a sleeping place for the neighborhood cats. Still, the beautiful lines could still be seen. This is where the story gets complicated. In the late 1980s, the collector Terry Cohn arrived in Romania. He, too, was looking for two cars: Alfa, and a rare Mercedes-Benz W154 racing car (of which there were two in the country, the first being exported in the 1970s). As far as is known he managed to get them out of the country, but there was a problem: the middlemen sold the cars to someone else at the same time, so in Switzerland Cohn had to sue for the rights to the cars (it’s possible that the other buyer was Gavin Ruotolo). All that is known of the Alfa is that it arrived in Germany and was rebuilt with spider bodywork.