1932 Alfa Romeo Monza

Really amazing: thank you for sharing

 

That car is actually comparably fast in a modern way. Leno doesn't have any problems
keeping up with traffic. You'd expect that thing to be ping-ponging all over the road, but
Leno remarks how smooth it is.

Here's the kicker, imagine Nuvolari driving that thing full out, never raising his foot off of the floor, even in the turns, around a race course. If you really think of that, it's incredible what a fearless racer Nuvolari was.

Enzo Ferrari rode with him in a P3 (the grandson of the Monza) on the pre-run of the Three Province's course, and wrote the following...

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"At the first bend, I had the clear sensation that Tazio had taken it badly and that we would end up in a ditch; I felt myself stiffen as I waited for the crunch. Instead, we found ourselves on the next straight in perfect position. I looked at him: his rugged face was calm, just as it always was, and certainly not a face of someone who had just escaped a hair raising spin." Ferrari continued to note that he experienced the same sensation through the next several bends. "By the forth or fifth bend I began to understand; in the meantime I noticed that through the entire bend Tazio did not lift his foot from the accelerator, and that, in fact, it was flat on the floor.

As bend followed bend I discovered his secret. Nuvolari entered the bend somewhat earlier than my driver's instincts would have told me to. But he went into the bend in an unusual way: with one movement he aimed the nose of the car at the inside edge, just where the curve itself started. His foot was flat down, and he obviously changed down to the right gear before going through this fearsome rigmarole. In this way he put the car into a four wheel drift, making the most of the thrust of the centrifugal force and keeping it on the road with the traction of the driving wheels. Throughout the bend the car shaved the inside edge, and when the bend turned into the straight the car was in the normal position for accelerating down it, with no need for any corrections."