Rare prewar Automobile Racing Club of America cars and Alfas among Rev Institute Collection

 

It’s one thing to read about historic sports cars and races from the past.

 

It’s another to actually experience these cars up close and in person – and in many cases actually seeing them on the track – during this past weekend’s Historic Festival 44 at Lime Rock Park.

 

Sports car racing in North America owes much to brothers Sam and C. Miles Collier. The sons of advertising magnate Barron Collier, they joined brother Barron Jr. staging their own “races” driving their MG’s on the driveways and roads of their family estate in Pocantico Hills, N.Y. A few of their friends also enjoyed fast cars. They got together and formed the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), which enjoyed modest success in the 1930s, culminating with an event held in conjunction with the 1940 World’s Fair in Flushing, N.Y.

 

World War II then took precedence, putting an end to ARCA and sports car racing in America. Cameron Argetsinger, a young lawyer from Youngstown, Ohio, put together his own course near his summer cottage in Watkins Glen, N.Y., based on the European-style competition he learned about while serving overseas.

 

Argetsinger’s dream became a reality Oct. 2, 1948, with plenty of help from the Colliers and their ARCA counterparts. To learn more about that day, visit the paddock at Lime Rock Park, where many of the prominent cars from the ARCA and the Watkins Glen street races from 1948-52 are on display.

 

The winning car from the first Glen event was a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Berlinetta, driven by Frank Griswold – winner of the final ARCA race. The sister car of the winning car is on display as part of an amazing Alfa Romeo collection in the Lime Rock Park paddock.

 

The significance of the Alfa Romeo gathering hasn’t been lost on Lorenzo Ardizio, chief curator of the Museo Storico Alfa Romeo in Milan, who traveled from Italy to experience Lime Rock Park and Historic Festival for the first time.

 

“Some of the best examples, some of the best cars, are no longer in Italy, and many of them are in the U.S.,” Ardizio said. “I’m really surprised because not only are many of them in the U.S., but they are here today.”

 

The 26-car Alfa Romeo display in A Paddock brings together one of the most significant collections of Alfas ever assembled, spanning the marque’s history with prewar and postwar automobiles, competition cars, concepts and one-offs from the collections of Lawrence Auriana, father-and-son collectors Ven and Nick Fonte and Paul Gould.

 

“Alfa has some prewar and postwar cars that are very difficult to see in person, and it is very impressive to see them here together, side by side,” Ardizio said. “I think it’s a very nice portrait of what Alfa Romeo has done in 116 years of history.”

 

Second in the inaugural race at The Glen was the BuMerc driven by famed American sportsman Briggs Cunningham. Part of the Revs Institute collection display at LRP, this was the first successful American-European hot rod, pairing Mercedes bodywork with the frame and engine from a Buick.

 

George Weaver led the opening lap in the 1948 event driving “Lil Poison,” a Maserati VSRI built for Formula One. Weaver retired with brake issues on the second lap. He led several of the subsequent Glen races only to experience problems – although he won the 1949 Seneca Cup. His car – now owned by his daughter – is on display at LRP, sans engine or brakes. Unfortunately, it’s going to take years to get that car back in running condition due to its unique engine configuration.

 

C. Miles Collier won the 1949 Glen event in the Ardent Alligator, a highly modified Ford-Riley that ran in the ARCA. Collier experienced problems in the Seneca Cup and missed the start of the Grand Prix – joining the race a full minute after the green flag. He worked his way up to third after six laps, trailing Roberts in the BuMerc and Cunningham in a Ferrari 166. Roberts made his mandatory stop at the end of the penultimate lap, falling to second. Collier made a banzai last-lap charge, passing Roberts and then overtaking Cunningham just before the final turn entering downtown. Collier ran a record 75.3 mph on the final lap, running better than 100 mph on the straights. The immaculately restored Alligator is in the LRP paddock – not far from Cunningham’s Ferrari.

 

That Ferrari 166 played a tragic role in Collier family history the following year. Sam Collier took the lead in Cunningham’s Ferrari early in the second lap, but spun in loose gravel and had a fatal crash moments later. Miles Collier finished third in the earlier Seneca Cup in the Ardent Alligator. He retired from racing when he learned of his brother’s death. He died of polio in 1954 at age 40.

 

Miles C. Collier continues his father and uncle’s legacy. He acquired the Cunningham Museum Collection in the mid-1980s. He later founded the Revs Institute in Naples, Florida. In addition to displaying 110 historically significant, fully operational automobiles, Revs is a center for scholarly study, one of the world’s most useful resources for automobile archives and research. The collection brought to Historic Festival 44 is the largest Collier has ever displayed outside the Revs Institute.

 

The full collection from the Revs Institute was featured through Labor Day Weekend at Lime Rock Park for Historic Festival 44.