Coveted Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider Recently Recovered from High-Profile Heist to Headline Gooding & Company’s 20th Annual Pebble Beach Auctions
Ultra-desirable, concours award-winning 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider recently recovered from dramatic, high-profile theft comes to public auction for the very first time.
Gooding & Company, the official auction house of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, has revealed a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider (Estimate: $16,000,000 – $20,000,000), chassis 412027, as the headlining lot for its upcoming Pebble Beach Auctions. As one of only five genuine long-chassis 8C 2900B Touring Spiders known to exist today, not only is this offering incredibly desirable and sought-after among the uppermost echelon of collectors, but it also has a compelling story, most recently involving a high-profile theft and subsequent recovery by the FBI. This exquisite offering, along with the remainder of Gooding & Company’s entire catalogue, will take center stage at Pebble Beach on August 16-17, with veteran auctioneer Charlie Ross at the rostrum.
“Most great automobiles have a story to tell, but the one lived and experienced by this incredibly rare, coveted Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo is truly unmatched, ” said Gooding & Company President and Co-Founder, David Gooding. “From its early years in Egypt and Switzerland to its tenure in numerous world-class collections; from its exacting restoration work to multiple concours awards, and finally, a riveting heist story involving the nation’s highest level of law enforcement – this 8C 2900B Lungo is as desirable as ever. We are incredibly honored to present this unrepeatable opportunity at Pebble Beach next month, and are excited to see how the rest of this Alfa’s fascinating story will unfold.”
Unequivocally the finest sports car produced prior to WWII, the incomparable 8C 2900 represents the culmination of a decade’s worth of development under the visionary leadership of Alfa Romeo’s chief engineer, Vittorio Jano, who placed Alfa Romeo on the path to motor sports glory. This included numerous Grand Prix victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Mille Miglia, and the Targa Florio.
The successor to the legendary 8C 2300 and a technological tour de force, the 8C 2900 featured cutting-edge design powered by a magnificent 2.9-liter straight-eight engine, built to Alfa Romeo's well-established formula: light alloy construction, gear-driven twin overhead camshafts, hemispherical combustion chambers, and main bearings placed between each cylinder. Equipped with twin Roots-type superchargers, the 8C 2900 produced between 180 and 225 hp, depending on its state of tune.
The chassis featured a rear-mounted four-speed transaxle, massive hydraulic brakes with finned-aluminum drums, and a fully independent suspension. Anderloni’s Carrozzeria Touring of Milan was the choice coachbuilder for Alfa Romeo’s masterful 2.9, creating works of automotive art characterized by their technical innovation, aesthetic brilliance, and uncompromising build quality. Constructed using Touring’s patented Superleggera (superlight) method, these bodies were ideally proportioned, flawlessly detailed, and rendered in the most streamlined style. In a league entirely of its own, the 8C 2900 was the ultimate high-performance sports car of its day, a grand prix-derived Italian thoroughbred dressed in impeccably tailored custom coachwork.
Competition versions of the 8C 2900 proved victorious in many of the period’s most important races, including the Mille Miglia, 24 Hours of Spa, Watkins Glen Road Race, and Pebble Beach Road Races. Fewer than 50 examples of the 2.9 were produced in total between 1935 and 1939, including all road and racing variants. Of these, just five long-chassis 2900B Touring Spiders survive today in some semblance of their original form, including the remarkable car presented here, chassis 412027. Originally fitted Touring Spider coachwork, body no. 2023, this 8C 2900B Lungo is documented in marque authority Simon Moore’s definitive book, The Immortal 2.9.
As noted by Simon Moore, “Around forty 8C 2900 Alfa Romeos were built in the late 1930s and were the fastest road cars that money could buy. One works sports-racing version averaged 132 mph over a fifty mile section of Autostrada during the 1938 Mille Miglia. The majority of these fabulous cars were fitted with bespoke bodywork by Carrozzeria Touring, both in closed Berlinetta form and as open spiders. It appears that eight long chassis cars were built with Touring spider bodies, of which half survive in complete form – one of which is the car offered, chassis number 412027.”
In its early life, 412027 was exported to Egypt, where it would end up in the care of Major Raymond Flower, proprietor of the Cairo Motor Company. In June 1948, the Alfa would pass on to Zürich-based Swissair pilot Hans Ernst, who entered the car in the Les Rangiers Hillclimb and retained it until 1953. Around 1955, the Alfa Romeo was exported to the US, moving on to a couple of American owners before being sold to the pioneering Chicago-based car collector Vojta Mashek. During his ownership, Mr. Mashek commissioned a complete engine rebuild, carried out by Wilhelm “Bill” Spoerle, the long-serving head of restorations at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Hall of Fame Museum. Mr. Mashek sold the partially restored 2.9 Spider to Walter Weimer of Minneapolis, who retained the car for about a decade, making limited progress on its restoration project. After a brief stint with noted dealer Ben Paul Moser of Santa Barbara, California, the 2.9 was acquired by famed Philadelphia-based collector and neurosurgeon Dr. Fred Simeone.
Dr. Simeone eventually parted with 412027 after quite some time, selling it to notable collector, dealer, and Alfa Romeo connoisseur Lukas Hüni of Zürich, Switzerland. Mr. Hüni then commissioned 8C specialist Tony Merrick of Berkshire, England to perform a complete restoration, responsible for the car’s outstanding appearance that it still proudly retains to this day. This restoration included a bare-metal repaint in an elegant, non-metallic shade of dark blue, upholstery trimmed by the acclaimed specialist Brian Frost, and a complete mechanical rebuild. Following this work, the 2.9 was inspected and certified by Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni on behalf of the Touring Register, and made its post-restoration debut at the 1996 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, where it was awarded Best of Show. In 1998, the 2.9 Spider joined Oscar Davis’s renowned New Jersey-based collection, and during his long-term ownership, was awarded First in Class at the 2000 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, in addition to being displayed at premier concours venues. The 2.9 Spider remained a treasured centerpiece of Mr. Davis’s world-class collection until his passing, whereupon his estate sold the Alfa Romeo to a prominent Florida-based collector.
In a dramatic turn of events, in July 2022, while in transit to a restoration facility in Maine, the 2.9 Spider, together with the truck and trailer it was being transported on, were stolen from a hotel parking lot in South Carolina. The theft was immediately reported to the Dillon County Sheriff’s office, and the insurer for the owner promptly paid out the claim, becoming the current, titled owner of 412027. In December 2023, after months of working in collaboration with the Dillon County Sheriff’s office, the insurance company received notice from the ATF and FBI that the 2.9 had been located. Upon its discovery, the 2.9 was transported by law enforcement to the FBI’s secure storage facility in North Carolina; in recent months, 412027 has made the journey to California, where acclaimed restorer Mike Regalia has painstakingly prepared it for its debut at public auction, tending to the superficial cosmetic damage sustained during the heist.
The star power of 412027 is second to none, with its advanced specification, exotic bloodline, peerless aesthetic qualities, and captivating life story, from the early 1940s to the present moment. An undisputed automotive masterpiece in all regards, this 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider comes to public auction for the very first time at Gooding & Company’s 20th annual Pebble Beach sale next month.
Pebble Beach Auctions
Dates: Friday, August 16, at 4 p.m. PDT, and Saturday, August 17, at 11 a.m. PDT
Location: Pebble Beach Parc du Concours
Public Preview: Wednesday, August 14 through Saturday, August 17
Auction Catalogues: $120, includes admission for two to the viewing and the auction
General Admission: $50, includes admission for one to the viewing and the auction
Bidder Registration: www.goodingco.com/register
Website: www.goodingco.com
Image: 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider
Photo copyright and courtesy of Gooding & Company. Image by Brian Henniker.
