The 8C designation covers a broad church of machinery, because all it really means is eight-cylinder, referring to Vittorio Jano’s superb straight-eight design. Road cars, sports cars, two-seater racers and the world’s first genuine single-seater Grand Prix race car are all covered.

Of all the 8Cs, the unique 2900B Le Mans is king. This 1938 car was built by the Alfa Corse racing department, and bucked the Le Mans car trend by featuring streamlined coupé bodywork rather than an open cockpit design. In its only factory-entered race, the 1938 Le Mans 24 Hours, it established a 160km lead but retired with a broken valve.

After World War Two the 8C was raced privately, and during the 1960s was displayed in the Donington Grand Prix Collection. In 1987 it moved to the Alfa Romeo museum, where it is still on show.

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