Whose Alfa Romeo?

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A Middlesex reader has acquired from UIster the 1929 1750 Alfa Romeo (Reg UU 9125) which was entered by the then Alfa concessionaire FW Stiles for such races as the Six-Hours and Double-Twelve-Hours at Brooklands. The car still has such racing items as its scuttle-cowl, aero-screens, radiator stoneguard and blind.

This historic Alfa Romeo was thought to have been the car driven by Headlam or by Dr Benjafield, and Stiles said it was used by Nuvolari as the practice car for the 1930 Ulster TT, borrowed from a private owner.

Contemporary advertisements claim it to be Headlam’s, but race photographs suggest that it was driven by Benjafield in the Brooklands’ races, and another advertisement refers to it as the Ivanowski car.

If anyone can shed any light on the confusion, the lucky owner would he very grateful. He has a theory that his car might have been used by Stiles as the “ringer” for scrutineering at the 1930 TT, so that he could get the faster and more reliable fixed-head team-cars (with which Nuvolari, Campari and Varzi finished 1-2-3) past the scrutineers. WB