Now here’s a delicious twosome: one of 500 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and a Mack FT pumper. If Santa brought me these two toys, I could be very happy indeed.
Old age is (in part) a mixture of cynicism and nostalgia, which means that most hot new fast phallus-mobiles are easily dismissed for lacking any genuine appeal. But the Alfa 8C slipped by those gate-keepers, right into my heart. Yes, it was still possible to get a bit excited about a new red car from Italy. Of course, I was ten years younger then when it was first shown as a concept. And admittedly, it looks best from the front. And it’s not perfect. But it did get my blood going then, and it still manages to ten years later. Now about that Mack;
Sadly, LeSabretoothTiger didn’t shoot more of the Mack. It’s not one of the still-common B Series; it’s an FT (I think), which was built between 1941 and 1950. I’m a lover of vintage Macks, and the FT has about as handsome a radiator as any. Here’s a row of them from an antique fire truck gathering elsewhere, showing off their handsome profiles. Red sports car,. red fire engine; what more could a guy ask for?
I didn’t think it was possible to be any more fire engine red than, well, a fire engine, but the Alfa manages to pull it off. Beautiful car. Paul, I’m not sure that you could actually fit inside it though! Beautiful trucks too, a good way to start a Sunday morning.
What a coincidence. While doing my weekly shopping, I stopped in the toy aisle and found this lovely little Hot Wheel.
Our annual Grand Rapids Car Show has a “Million Dollar Motor Mile”, where they feature a bunch of expensive and exotic cars in its own separate display. A couple of years ago they had an 8C. It’s even more stunning in person than it is in pictures. Definitely one for the MM Garage.
In the meantime, I will have to satisfy my wishes with this tiny representative…
To my eyes, the 8C isn’t good looking. It appeared to be lumpy and not graceful. I like the wheels in the pic though.
The fire engine? Meh! The Alfa on the other hand, very lovely!!! The noise it makes is even better. I’d have this over any post 355 Ferrari, despite the Alfa being shonky to drive compared to a Fezza.
Funny, I see the Alpha and say Meh, while the classic Mack draws my interest.
Wow, what a photo, but I thought the 8C was not imported into the states.
They were imported on a very limited basis and sold through Ferrari dealers I believe, Alfa is now sort of getting a dealer network together again for the mid engine 4C(which makes me think of breadcrumbs….but whatever). The 8C was imported in very limited numbers and very expensive, think Ferrari money.
BTW. whats even better than an 8C?
And 8C spider! Of course……
I prefer the coupe myself, I went to the Sydney motor show when it debuted. I can’t remember whether the roadster came out later, but there is one here now owned by Alfa Romeo I assume. Being LHD (and not 25yo) it can’t be registered and there are only a few people who spend that sort of money on cars they can’t drive on the road.
Admiring a similar car on an exhibition stand a few years back, and realising the car was unobtainable but the paint might not be, I enquired about the colour. (which looks far better in the “metal”). I was told it’s ” 8C Red”.
Gorgeous car, never seen one. I didn’t realize Alfa brought so few over – 90 8C Competiziones and 35 8C Spiders (at $260k and $299k a pop, respectively – wow!). At the time, I thought it was a sure sign that Alfa was going to make a triumphant return to the U.S. (I was even more excited about the possibility of seeing 159s and Breras than an 8C) but obviously that never happened. With the way things have played out between Fiat and Chrysler since, I don’t think there’s really much point anymore and I’m surprised they’re giving the 4C a shot over here. I saw that one at the NYIAS this year and it looked good, too.
I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for this 8C, it must live somewhere near me. The picture was taken in the parking lot of a college I once dropped out of – and the fire truck belongs to the East Farmingdale Fire Dept., which is the location of another college I dropped out of! There’s some other pictures of the truck buried on their Facebook page, says it’s a 1951. What kinda engine is lurking under there?
it’s probably an L Series. The two are very hard to tell apart. Engine?? Only Mack engines ever installed back then, and since it’s a fire truck, almost surely a gasoline version. Fire departments preferred gas engines for a long time, because they liked the higher power and didn’t care about fuel economy.
I’m not sure exactly when one could first get a Mack truck with a non-Mack engine, but I’m guessing in the 70s or 80s. Mack’s big thing was that they built their own engines, transmissions, axles; the whole thing. And they were reluctant to stop building them that way. It’s what really distinguished Mack and gave them their sterling rep.
I knew Mack built their own engines at one point, but I didn’t realize they only used their engines for such a long time, or that they built diesels (and pretty much everything else as well). Somehow I missed that fact in the Mack CCs, so I’ve got a newfound appreciation for the bulldog trucks.
Talking about fire trucks and big, gas engines gives me a good excuse to post this GMC “Twin-Six” video again:
Found one that looks quite the same, a 1953 L85.
Source: http://www.mackmonne.nl/nl/restauratie.htm
It says it has a 6 cylinder 276 hp gasoline engine and a 5 speed transmission.
Thanks, Johannes… 276HP seems like a LOT for the time, but I guess these were really heavy trucks after all. That yellow 6×4 tractor near the bottom of the page is so gnarly looking – like a Siberian logging truck. I’m guessing that has to be custom, or did Mack do their own 4WD hardware too?
Mack also built AWD trucks. Vertical integration: engines, transmissions, transfer cases and axles, a 100% Mack powertrain.
All high quality and very durable. That’s why Mack was doing quite well in Northwestern Europe, way into the seventies. Especially dump trucks, brick hauling and heavy haulage. It was the last American man standing in Europe when it came to big trucks. There’s still a substantial number of them being used daily as pure work horses. Other older big US trucks are mostly used as shiny show- / hobbytrucks only.
Here you go, a Mack 6×6 tractor. It’s a 1961 Mack B8136SX, only 85 of these were built. This tractor was bought as a new truck by a Dutch haulage company.
Martin Monné, the European Mr. Mack (see link I posted above), restored this monster in the late eighties and he is also the owner.
Mack gas engines in 1955 had 158 hp; 165 for the diesel. If that one had 276 hp, it must have been the legendary Hall Scoot 400, which had up to 310 hp (@2000 rpm).
I was wrong; Mack did offer the Hall Scott gas engine, in addition to its own engines, specifically for very high power requirements., like fire pumpers. The Hall Scott was very popular with fire pumpers for that reason, as its power out put was unparalleled, and its high fuel consumption irrelevant.
Pumping lots of water takes lots of sheer hp, and the Hall Scott delivered that unlike any other engine back then. OHC, alloy hemi head, big carb, and a sound unlike any other, a wonderful bellow.
I never had the pleasure to see and hear a Hall Scott at work. I only know the Hercules gas engines that DAF used in their first big trucks, a van and a pickup truck (both very rare) and the military trucks (like the ones with the H-drive train). These were all built in the late forties and in the fifties.
Nice truck but theres some car blocking the shot.
around the time the ‘financial crisis’ kicked in I saw a black 8C, with ‘RUINED’ as the license plate
Now that I can see the photo on a proper monitor I can see the gold-leaf scrollwork, which is an amazing detail. You know the people love their vehicle when they put that much effort into decorating it.