TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Engine: 6 cylinders in line.
Distribution: double tree in the head - double valve per cylinder.
Cooling: by forced circulation of water.
Feeding: 6 horizontal body carburetors.
Crankshaft: 7 banks.
Diameter x Stroke: 87 x 98 mm.
Displacement: 3496 cc.
Compression ratio: 8.2: 1
Maximum power: 245 - 280 hp at 6500 RPM
Gearbox: 5 gears and recoil.
Clutch: dry to multiple discs
Self-locking differential
Front suspension: quadrilateral - helical spring - stabilizer bar
Rear suspension: rigid De Dion system that converges on a point and parallelogram of Watt - stabilizer bar
Brakes: a drums - central rear wheels - scroll wheels
Body type: double seat coupe, double seat spider
Chassis: tubular
Distance between axes: 2.25 m.
Front and rear path: 1.31 m.
Weight without liquids: 930 - 960 Kg.
Fuel tank: 110 or 200 lts.

The Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM was built to achieve victory in the traditional Mille Miglia of 1953 against Ferrari and Lancia. He has not achieved his goal.

Juan Manuel Fangio competed in four competitions with the Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM, in which the configurations of this car are found. In the first three tests (Mille Miglia, 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps) in the Berlinetta version, with the Colli bodywork. The engine became a more recent version of Spyder by Colli and reformed by Zagato. This last version, but with another chassis, gave the triumph to Fangio in the unofficial Supercortemaggiore Grand Prix.

The design of the 6C 3000 CM (whose abbreviation is Competizione Magiorata) was inspired by a 1949 project as a replacement for the 6C 2500 CM that Fangio ran in the 1950 Mille Miglia, but which was finally postponed due to high costs. It was not until 1952 that the construction of this machine was resumed to create a competitive automobile for the Mille Miglia in 1953 compared to the Ferrari 4100 and the Lancia D20. For better performance, the Alfa Romeo engine was taken from 3000 to 3495cc, with the words of Giannino Marzotto.

In his first three races, right on his debut, he got an encouraging result, even with the car about to leave the broken chassis. In others, their participation showed an evident lack of reliability. The fourth participation, already in spyder version and with the application of a disco, obeyed an urgency of results. The last one would be in which Alfa Romeo would fulfill the objective, and also the last race that Fangio would do with this Italian team.

ANSIADO RETURN TO

The presentation of Fangio in the Mille Miglia of 1953 meant the return of the Argentine to the European competitions after his serious accident in Monza, in a race without points of June 1952.

On that occasion, he had reached the Italian circuit visibly tired, after having traveled tirelessly after competing in a competition in Ireland. Shower through and after taking some aspirin, he prepared to start with a Maserati. Two laps later he got confused, causing a concussion and injuries to the cervical vertebrae.

About the incident, Fangio recalled: "... When I had the accident in Monza, in '52, I did not have time to feel afraid for how fast everything happened and I realized how easy it is to die ... Actually, I always led to death as a companion. "

Juan Manuel Fangio debuted with the Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM in one of his favorite races, the Mille Miglia (One Thousand Italian Miles), played on April 26, 1953. Although it was a competition he came to lead, he had to settle for the second place due to mechanical problems that afflicted him almost at the end of the test.

This edition exceeded 1500 kilometers between Brescia-Rome-Brescia through local roads or roads. And in its automotive park had the presence of foreign factories, such as Jaguar, Aston Martin or Gordini, although far from the tip or in smaller classes, so the fight for victory was a constant between local Ferrari, Lancia, and Alfa Romeo. In this last one, the German Karl Kling and the local Consalvo Sanesi would be the companions of Fangio.

In the path opposite, both Ferrari and Lancia were a sample of Italian talent, with illustrious names that also excelled in Formula 1. The Cavallino enlisted for the race five models 340 of 4100cc for Luigi Villoresi, Nino Farina, Eugenio Castellotti, Giannino Marzotto and for the American Tom Cole; and Lancia, on the other hand, put on track four D20 V6 of 2962cc for Piero Taruffi, Felice Bonetto, Umberto Maglioli, and Clemente Biondetti, this last maximum winner of the Mille Miglia with four conquests.

On the day of the start, which was done individually and at intervals of one minute, Fangio had to leave at 6:02 with his companion Giulio Sala, and after the first checkpoints were placed in sixth place. His teammate Sanesi tipped, followed by Lancia de Taruffi and Ferrari de Farina with an average of 174 km / h. Arriving in Ravenna, after completing the first 250 kilometers of the race, Farina would become second to two minutes from Sanesi. Taruffi, meanwhile, would be one of those who would leave during that first part with Villoresi and Stirling Moss, who ran with a Jaguar.

Between Pescara and L'Aquila, about a hundred kilometers on the Adriatic Sea, the race took another course. The incessant rhythm of Sanesi ended up taking its toll on his car, while Farina suffered an oversight without consequences. The leadership passed into the hands of Kling, who came pointer to Rome at 155 km / h average and Fangio as an escort to two minutes to complete the first half of the test.

For the return to Brescia, by a route near the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea, Fangio would meet the tip due to the abandonment of his partner Karl Kling. When arriving at Siena, the Chueco would pass like the leader to 145 km / h of average and with Marzotto two minutes later. The pace seemed unchanged until the end of the competition, but in the middle of the return, between Florence and Bologna, the Alfa Romeo of the Argentine began to waver.

The trigger for the loss of performance of his Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM was a crack in the chassis, which caused severe problems to Fangio when he had to turn left. With the passing of minutes the situation worsened, until arriving in Bologna was overtaken by Marzotto. During refueling, the Argentine tried to solve the problem, but the only possible solution was to weld it and it was not within his means.

In the final section, the Chueco ran very carefully to have an unmanageable car, while it was increasing the difference with the leader. Already entering to Brescia, it underwent a forgetfulness by the difficulties to bend and it was embedded in some bales of pasture, although it managed to retake the march. Thus, with much drama and with the last breath, the Chueco managed to finish second in the Mille Miglia, eleven minutes from Marzotto. Two years later, he would again cherish the victory when he debuted on the track with the Mercedes 300 SLR.

"It came very well with the Alfa Romeo, but near Bologna, the chassis was cracked, right next to the fixing of the steering box. The problem arose on one of the wheels and became a calvary. In moments of braking, we were afraid that a wheel would come out. But we arrived. " Juan Manuel Fangio.

"The Alfa had a perfect ride, and like all the machines of greater displacement, we were running with high numbers from far behind. We pass cars on dangerous routes permanently. " Juan Manuel Fangio

ALMOST PARTNER

Giulio Sala, Alfa Romeo mechanic, and friend of Fangio was also about to accompany him in the edition of the Mille Miglia of 1955, but at the last moment, the Chueco decided to run alone.

Product of a serious accident in the 1957 edition, when an overshadowing of the Spanish Alfonso de Portago ended with his death and that often spectators, the Mille Miglia was definitively suspended

The remaining three competitions of the Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM resulted in two retirements and a victory by Fangio in an unofficial race. It was also the farewell of the Chueco of the factory that gave him his first title in Formula 1.

A premature abandonment - 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1953

Juan Manuel Fangio faced his third participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans forming a duo clearly Argentine, with Onofre Marimón. This test, disputed on June 13, 1953, was also the second of the four races in which El Chueco participated with the Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM, and it would result in his first abandonment with this machine.

As in the Mille Miglia, Consalvo Sanesi and Karl Kling were the teammates of Fangio, although this time in pairs with Piero Carini and Fritz Riess respectively. On the track, the Green Quadrifoglio team was one step behind Ferrari and Jaguar, who started leading the competition and would split the first four places. After the first twelve laps, with Stirling Moss as a leader aboard a Jaguar C-Type, the first Alfa Romeo would appear in fifth place, and with Fangio in sixth place.

In turn 22, Fangio broke a piston and had to leave, even with Marimón without being able to get into the car. Before half of the race, they would also leave Kling (failure in the gearbox) and Sanesi (broken rear bridge), concluding participation for oblivion. With a spectacular performance, Jaguar would be awarded the race with a double, with the victory of Tony Rolt-Duncan Hamilton and Moss-Peter Walker as escorts.

Rain and complications - 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, 1953

Alfa Romeo's adventure for the first season of the Resistance World Championship would take Juan Manuel Fangio to the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, on July 24, 1953. This competition would also end in abandonment by the Chueco, although provoked by the dismissal of his partner Consalvo Sanesi.

This race would be the only one that would play the Resistance World Championship in Spa Francorchamps under the format of 24 hours, and the category would only return in 1963 under the format of 1000 kilometers. In those years, this Belgian circuit had 14 kilometers and several sectors that are now a memory, such as the straight and chicana of Masta, and only in 1978 would be renovated with the current configuration of seven kilometers.

For this race, the team would only compete in the main class with Fangio's car, although it would also play the junior class with an Alfa Romeo 1900 with the duo consisting of the Belgian Max Thirion and the Italian Mario Damonte. These pilots would leave because of electrical problems.

The procedure for the race for Fangio was positive, and he gave his car to Sanesi in fourth place behind the Ferrari. While the Italian was in the driving, an insistent rain was unleashed that caused him an oversight and his subsequent abandonment. Farina-Hawthorn, with Ferrari, took the victory.

A farewell with nostalgia - Grand Prix Supercortemaggiore, 1953

The only victory of Juan Manuel Fangio with the Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM was in the Grand Prix Supercortemaggiore, an unofficial race played in a semi-permanent circuit of the city of Merano, located in northern Italy in the vicinity of the border with Austria.

This test was sponsored by the Italian oil company Agip and Supercortemaggiore was the commercial name of one of its fuels. Without the official presence of Ferrari, Alfa Romeo had to fight for the victory against Lancia, Maserati, and Osca, the latter property of the former owners of Maserati.

The competition was a permanent duel between Fangio and the official Lancia, piloted by Felice Bonetto, Piero Taruffi, Eugenio Castellotti, and Roberto Marzon. The Argentine managed to beat them in qualifying tests and stung in the race. The short duration of the race, of 15 laps in a route of 18 kilometers, which was completed in just over two hours, was a point in favor for Alfa Romeo de Fangio, which despite being fast, had little reliability in long-term racing

With the victory, aided by the successive abandonment of the Lancia, Fangio put an end to a fruitful relationship with Alfa Romeo, whose highest point was his first Formula 1 title.

6C 3000 CM vs Disco Volante

The Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM that Juan Manuel Fangio ran is generally confused with the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante, for having been launched at the same time and for a certain aesthetic similarity.

Unlike the 6C 3000 CM, which had as its origin a powerful saloon, the Disco Volante was developed with the base of the Alfa Romeo 1900 with a two-liter four-cylinder engine. Although it also had a version of three liters and four cylinders like the 6C 3000 CM, the Disco Volante never participated in major competitions.

In addition to these differences, both cars marked different epochs. On the one hand, 6C is a denomination that was in force from 1927 to 1954, while a new generation of Disco Volante was sold on demand in 2016.

 

Career

• RaceDatePos
• N ° 113 Italian Mille Miglia 26-04-1953 2º
• N ° 119 24 Hours of Le Mans - France 13-06-1953 Abandono
• N ° 125 24 hours of Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium 24-07-1953 Abandono
• N ° 129 Supercortemaggiore II Grand Prix - Merano - Italy 06-09-1953 1º