This Alfa Romeo Autodromo Di Monza poster celebrates the 1931 Italian Grand Prix, which was held at the ten kilometre Monza circuit and raced over a gruelling ten hour period, the winner being the car completing the greatest distance in that time.
Luigi Arcangeli was initially chosen to partner Giuseppe Campari in the red Alfa Romeo 8C 2300, but after the very popular and flamboyant Archangeli was tragically killed in practice the previous day, Attilio Marinoni was brought in as replacement second driver. However, when Tazio Nuvolari retired his brand new twelve-cylinder Type A monoposto Alfa after 32 laps, Vittorio Jano, who managed the Alfa pits, did not accept that their top driver, Nuvolari, should now be left without a drive. So, he decided to change the driver pairings again, which was permitted.
Achille Varzi and Louis Chiron in the Bugatti T51 led the race for most of the first 44 laps, but after they retired the lead fell to the Campari/Nuvolari pairing who hung on to the end.
This famous victory for the straight eight Alfa Romeo, having completed 155 laps (a total of over 1557 km), gave the name of ‘Monza’ to this mighty new car.
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