This 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B is estimated at over 5 million euros, and yet it's not very expensive!

This is one of Alfa Romeo the most legendary cars in history. An 8C 2900B, produced in just 38 examples in the late 1930s, with an engine derived directly from the Grand Prix cars of the era. And yet, the one to be auctioned in London on November 1, 2025 has a "reasonable" estimate: between £3.5 and £5 million, or around €4 to €5.8 million. An amount that might seem dizzying... except when you consider that other 8C 2900Bs have already sold for close to $20 million. So why is this one "cheaper"?

The rare Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B

The Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 is without doubt the brand's absolute pre-war technical masterpiece.
Under the hood is a 2,905 cm³ in-line 8-cylinder engine with twin camshafts and twin compressors, directly derived from the Tipo B P3 Grand Prix. An avant-garde architecture for its time, combined with a lightweight chassis with independent suspension and large drum brakes - technologies straight from the racetrack.

Between 1937 and 1939, Alfa Romeo produced just 38 examples of this marvel, divided between short (Corto) and long (Lungo) chassis, dressed by the greatest coachbuilders: Touring, Pininfarina, and sometimes Alfa Romeo itself.

The unusual history of this 2900B, bodied in Germany

The car featured here, chassis no. 412011, immediately stands out for its singular history.
Delivered new in 1937 to Ernst Carstens, a German industrialist, it received a two-seater Cabriolet body signed Karosseriewerk Aug. Nowack, a workshop in Hamburg.

A patriotic choice: at the time, driving a foreign car was frowned upon in Germany. Ernst Carstens therefore had his Alfa Romeo chassis dressed in Germany, in a style close to that of the luxurious Horch and Mercedes. The result was a unique 8C 2900B, the only one to have been bodied outside Italy. Weighing in at 1,462 kg, this "Lungo" version was even photographed at Alfa Romeo's Portello factory in 1938 before its final delivery.

An eventful life across the continents

After the war, traces of the car were lost, before reappearing in 1951 at the Nürburgring, with British zone German license plates.

The following year, it was owned by a film studio in Darmstadt, then passed into the hands of an American in the US Air Force, David Holtorf, who shipped it to the USA.

But by this time, the 8C had lost its original heart: the 8-cylinder engine had been replaced by a 6C 2500. The car then circulated in the Chicago area, before being bought up by passionate collectors, some of whom tried unsuccessfully to restore it to its original mechanical condition.

Restoration in the 1980s

In the early 1980s, it entered the collection of David Black, a British Alfa Romeo specialist. Thinking that the car had been modified after leaving the factory, he set about transforming it into a Spider version, sportier, lighter and, above all, closer to the mythical image of the 8C 2900 seen in competition.

A "Zagato"-style body was then fitted to chassis 412011, in a style blending the lines of Carrozzeria Alfa Romeo and Zagato. Today's experts know that the original German bodywork was not added as an afterthought, but installed from the outset... However, this transformation has remained, and the car has been meticulously maintained ever since.

Atypical, but still with an impressive pedigree

Today, this 8C retains :

• A genuine factory 8C 2900 B chassis,
• An original 8C engine (although it comes from another chassis, no. 412027),
• And rare components like its Electron alloy transaxle, reserved for Alfa Romeo racing models.

It received a complete overhaul at Jim Stokes Workshops, one of the world's leading specialists for the brand, including a full engine rebuild in 2025.

So why "only" 5 million?

Simply because this Alfa Romeo is not a 100 %:

• Its current bodywork is a reconstruction, inspired by the Zagato style, and not the German Nowack coachwork of 1937.
• Its engine is not the one fitted to this chassis from the factory.
• Its history has been fragmented across several continents and restorations.

By comparison, "matching numbers" examples, preserved in their original Touring or Pininfarina configuration, regularly fetch $15-20 million at prestige sales.

Nevertheless, this 8C 2900B remains an interesting acquisition. An authentic chassis, an engine from another 8C, an excellent restoration documented by Simon Moore, Alfa Romeo's reference historian.

It offers its future owner a ticket into the exclusive world of international Concours d'Elegance, and the unique opportunity to drive a machine born of Alfa Romeo's genius in the days when the brand ruled the racetracks. So yes, at over 5 million euros, it seems out of reach. But for an Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B, it's almost a bargain.