1932 Grand Prix season
The other title contenders, Bugatti and Maserati continued to develop their models from the year before but they were rarely a match for the Alfa Romeo with its combination of high speed and light weight giving excellent balance for cornering.
There was still room for the talented privateers to succeed, with Manfred von Brauchitsch causing a sensation winning the Avusrennen in a Mercedes-Benz with a bare metal, aerodynamic bodyshell that gave him the world’s fastest victory yet achieved, at an average pace of 194.5 km/h.
At the end of the season French rising star, and this year's Le Mans winner, Raymond Sommer took a surprise win at the Miramas oval near Marseille.
[51][52][53][54][55] The Alfa Corse works team was also managed by the talented Aldo Giovannini, who placated the strong egos of his drivers and kept his pit crews well-drilled and organised.
The eldest, Bindo, returned from Isotta Fraschini to become president; Ettore stayed on in operations, while the youngest, Ernesto retired from racing to take on the technical side.
A hard year ended badly when works driver Amedeo Ruggieri crashed fatally while driving a V5 trying to make a one-hour speed record attempt at Montlhéry.
After a couple of years of leniency from the board, Mercedes-Benz now fully withdrew from motor-racing, releasing top driver Rudolf Caracciola to be picked up by Alfa Romeo much to the dismay of German fans.
[63] Meanwhile, many small and medium size car-companies were going bankrupt, unable to compete against the American mass-production lines of Ford and Opel (sold to General Motors).
[65] In the end, it was the lead drivers, Stuck and von Brauchitsch (nephew of the commander of the army) making personal appeals (on behalf of Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz respectively) to minority party leader Adolf Hitler that got success.
His brother Henken, studying in England, bought over an Aston Martin as well as convincing his American friend Whitney Straight to enter with his Maserati 26M.
Keinänen stopped to change tyres and by halfway, on the fourth lap, locals Erik Bake (Buick) and Olle Bennström (Ford) were in front.
Despite the smaller cars rapidly moving back up the field, the amateur Bennström held on to win the race with Keinänen getting second from Bake and P-V Widengren's Mercedes in fourth.
While the others had assorted engine and tyre issues, the new Maserati ran flawlessly for the ninety-minute race and Fagioli led from start to finish, almost 30 seconds ahead of Taruffi with von Morgen two minutes back in third.
[86] After the disruption and problems from the heavy rains in Sicily of the previous year, Vincenzo Florio, race organiser of the Targa, obtained a private audience with Benito Mussolini.
In the prelude, Earl Howe totally dominated the voiturette race, with his 1927-vintage Delage 15S8, lapping the entire field twice still showing the class of that championship winning model.
A lap later, Bouriat's supercharger broke and Divo now led the Germans Caracciola, von Brauchitsch, Stuck and Stuber, with Williams going very fast in sixth making up time after stopping to change sparkplugs.
[97][98][99][100][101] In his exuberance, radio commentator Paul Laven likened von Brauchitsch's car to a “silver arrow”, coining a famous epithet of German racers.
Von Brauchitsch had his silver painted Mercedes-Benz SSKL, this time minus the streamlined body, joined by Stuck and Broschek while Caracciola ran his white-painted Alfa Romeo.
Caracciola and Dreyfus were soon out in front with the powerful, lumbering sports cars of Stuck and von Brauchitsch unable to keep up on the twisty circuit, and Chiron and Broschek having engine problems.
A great day for Alfa Romeo was cemented by Borzacchini (assisted by Marinoni and Caracciola) and Campari taking third and fourth with the privateer Bugatti of Dreyfus in an excellent fifth, all on the same lap.
The Swiss driver Täuber saw off the challenge of Howe's Delage (who had fuel pump issues) and won the Class II by a lap from the Hungarian László Hartmann and Maserati in third.
Rather than building in a small “overage” in case, an embarrassing miscalculation on the lap times of the cars meant that all three Alfa Romeo’s easily completed that distance within the 5-hour margin, thereby technically rendering the race null and void.
Although Caracciola was putting in faster laps, Nuvolari held on to take the victory, fourteen seconds ahead of the German, with Chiron, Brivio and the big Maserati the only other drivers to reach the finish before the crowd overflowed onto the track.
Top privateers included Lehoux (Bugatti) and Broschek (Mercedes-Benz), while the smallest cars were the 1.5-litre Delage of Earl Howe, Mario Moradei's Talbot 700 and a surprise entry from American “Leon Duray” with a Miller 91.
The Alfa Romeo and Maserati had an exciting slipstreaming duel, constantly changing places, until Nuvolari attempted a bold pass at the Vialone corner on the street-circuit.
Chiron also damaged a wheel going off course but managed to pit and finished fourth, a lap behind Taruffi.The third heat was a more sedate affair with team-mates Campari and Borzacchini easily heading home Ruggeri and Biondetti in his home-built special.
The crowd voiced their disapproval in no uncertain terms and finally only the intervention of a party official to the Alfa Romeo managing director, to withdraw the protest, brought the cars out onto the track.
As a postscript, a full twelve days later, the Italian Sporting Commission finally reported that they had denied the Alfa Romeo protest treating it, in modern parlance, as a ‘racing incident’.
Gradually the leaders were afflicted with issues: Varzi retired with damaged suspension, Lehoux with a broken oil-pipe and Dreyfus skidded off the track into a ditch.
Their 8C-2300 MM was all-conquering – taking the top-7 places in the Mille Miglia in April, won by Nuvolari,[54] Le Mans in June (Sommer & Luigi Chinetti) and July's Spa 24 hours (Brivio & Siena).
