Marv’s Garage: Cheese saved the first F1 Grand Prix championship cars
In 1938 the world of Grand Prix racing was alight with the might of the Silver Arrows from Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union steamrolling every race, but Alfa Romeo weren’t quite licked out of the game just yet.
They set up a new team, called Alfa Corse, and set about designing a new car for the Voiturette class which was one tier below the full fat top dawg Grand Prix machines. It ran a 1.5L straight-8 engine featuring exotic stuff like double-overhead camshafts and a Roots supercharger making 17.5psi of squeeze, and an impressive 200hp (150kW). It was designed by Giacchino Colombo, who later found fame designing the first Ferrari V12.
After some early success the onset of World War II saw all racing stopped across Europe, and so Alfa Romeo wisely decided that in the interests of protecting their investment they’d hide a stash of their 158s in a cheese factory in Northern Italy. They didn’t stop messing with the engine, though, and they managed to spice up the sauce to 253hp (189kW) and, by the time they dug the 158s out in 1946 the little blown 8s made 300hp (220kW) and it dominated everything it entered until the early 1950s.
Giuseppe Farina took out the newly created Grand Prix World Championship in 1950, what would become known as Formula One, in the nicknamed Alfetta (little Alfa). In fact, Alfettas won every race that year, dominating so hard they had time to be called into the pits at the Italian GP to be cleaned so they looked their best for photos. With a new De-Dion rear-end and 430hp (313kW) at over 9500rpm the 158 became the 159 for 1951. It allowed a 38-year-old former bus driver from Argentina to take the first of his five WDC titles, building the legend of Juan Manuel Fangio.
Interestingly, the manager of Alfa’s race team prior to Alfa Corse didn’t like the decision to move the factory racing team from his control and so he quit in 1939. After that I’m not sure what happened to that little known fellow… who happened to go by the name of Enzo Ferrari.
