A superb and rare photo of the driver compartment of the famous Alfa Romeo P3 Tipo B, photographed in its year of introduction: 1932.

The revolutionary Alfa Romeo Tipo B P3 racing car, which was the first Grand Prix racing car that used a streamlined single seater body. The Alfa Romeo Tipo B P3, designed by Vittorio Jano, was one of the most successful Alfa Romeo racing cars ever build. It was one of the so-called Alfa Romeo 8C models. The P3 was first genuine single-seat Grand Prix racing car and Alfa Romeo's second monoposto after Tipo A monoposto (1931).It was based on the earlier successful Alfa Romeo P2. Taking lessons learned from that car, Jano went back to the drawing board to design a car that could last longer race distances. The P3 was the first genuine single seater racing car, and was powered by a supercharged eight cylinder engine. The whole car weight just over 1,500 lb (680 kg), very light for the period. Had it not been for the engine block being cast in iron the car would have been even lighter. The P3 was introduced in June 1932, halfway through the European season, winning its first race at the hands of Tazio Nuvolari during the Italian Grand Prix, held at Monza. It went on to win 6 races that year driven by both Nuvolari and Rudolf Caracciola, including all 3 major Grands Prix in Italy, France and Germany. 1933 brought financial difficulties to Alfa Corse so the cars were simply locked away and Alfa attempted to rest on their laurels. Enzo Ferrari had to run his breakaway 'works' Alfa team as Scuderia Ferrari, using the older, less effective Alfa Monzas. Alfa prevaricated until August and missed the first 25 events, and only after much wrangling was the P3 finally handed over to Scuderia Ferrari. P3s then won six of the final 11 events of the season including the final 2 major Grands Prix in Italy and Spain. The 1934 regulations brought larger bodywork requirements, so to counteract this the engine was bored out to 2.9 litres. Louis Chiron won the French Grand Prix at Montlhery, whilst the German Silver Arrows dominated the other four rounds of the European Championship. However the P3s won 18 of all the 35 Grands Prix held throughout Europe. By 1935 the P3 was hopelessly uncompetitive against the superior German cars in 6 rounds of the European Championship, but that didn't stop one final, legendary works victory. The P3 was bored out to 3.2 litres for Nuvolari for the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, in the heartland of the Mercedes and Auto-Union empire. In the race, Nuvolari punctured a tyre early on while leading, but after the pitstop he carved through the field until the last lap when Manfred von Brauchitsch, driving the far superior Mercedes Benz W25 suffered a puncture, leaving Nuvolari to win the race in front of 300,000 stunned Germans. The P3's agility and versatility enabled it to win 16 of the 39 Grands Prix in 1935. The P3 had earned it's place as a truly great racing car.

The Alfa Romeo 8C engine that was fitted in the Alfa Romeo P3 Tipo was also designed by Vittorio Jano. It was first entered at the 1931 Mille Miglia road race through Italy. The engine also featured a common crankcase, now with two alloy four cylinder blocks, which also incorporated the heads. There was no separate head, and no head gasket to fail, but this made valve maintenance more difficult. A central gear train drove the overhead camshafts, superchargers and ancillaries.

The Tipo B proved itself the winning car of its era, winning straight from its first outing at the 1932 Italian Grand Prix.

The company that became Alfa Romeo was founded as Società Anonima Italiana Darracq (SAID) in 1906 by Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan, in partnership with the French automobile firm of Alexandre Darracq. The firm initially produced Darracq cars in Naples, but after the partnership collapsed Stella and the other Italian co-investors moved production to an idle Darracq factory in the Milan suburb of Portello, and the company was renamed A.L.F.A. (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili). The first non-Darracq car produced by company was the 1910 24 HP, designed by Giuseppe Merosi. Merosi would go on to design a series of new ALFA cars with more powerful engines (40-60 HP). ALFA also ventured into motor racing, drivers Franchini and Ronzoni competing in the 1911 Targa Florio with two 24 HP models. However, the onset of World War I halted automobile production at ALFA for three years.

1916 saw the company come under the direction of Neapolitan entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who converted the factory to produce military hardware for the Italian and Allied war efforts. Munitions, aircraft engines and other components, compressors and generators based on the company's existing car engines, and heavy locomotives were produced in the factory during the war. When the war was over, Romeo took complete control of ALFA and car production resumed in 1919. In 1920, the name of the company was changed to Alfa Romeo with the Torpedo 20-30 HP becoming the first car to be badged as such. Their first success came in 1920 when Giuseppe Campari won at Mugello and continued with second place in the Targa Florio driven by Enzo Ferrari. Giuseppe Merosi continued as head designer, and the company continued to produce solid road cars as well as successful race cars (including the 40-60 HP and the RL Targa Florio).

In 1923 Vittorio Jano was lured away from Fiat, partly thanks to the persuasion of a young Alfa racing driver named Enzo Ferrari, to replace Merosi as chief designer at Alfa Romeo. The first Alfa Romeo under Jano was the P2 Grand Prix car, which won Alfa Romeo the inaugural world championship for Grand Prix cars in 1925. For Alfa road cars Jano developed a series of small-to-medium-displacement 4, 6, and 8 cylinder inline power plants based on the P2 unit that established the classic architecture of Alfa engines, with light alloy construction, hemispherical combustion chambers, centrally-located plugs, two rows of overhead valves per cylinder bank and dual overhead cams. Jano's designs proved to be both reliable and powerful.

This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful era of Alfa Romeo ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 10.4” (ca. 20 x 26.4 cm).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.