Official Historical Transcript by Autodelta Golden Years.com of
Autodelta Chassis AR115.12.005
Owned by the Bottinelli Family of Switzerland
by Vladimir Pajevic
The history of AR115.12.005 is a story full of blind spots, misty dark corners and non-confirmed sources.
The only certainty is that AR115.12.005 truly exists and its mysterious appearances from time to time can be traced back to its fabrication during the late 1973 - early 1974 period.
Let us explain the known facts...
From the first constructed examples built by Autodelta S.p.A. of Settimo Milanese in 1973, the lineage of 33TT12... the 115.12.xxx series type... was poorly memorialized and documented. And during the production years of that model type only a few of those magnificent cars were historically followed and correctly described.
That is a pity, because this new chassis series was the first true Alfa Romeo to win a World Manufacturers Championship in 1975. Alfa Romeo last captured a World Championship in 1950 and 1951 with their 'Alfetta' series of Formula One cars.
The racing life of AR115.12.005 coincided with a difficult period of Alfa Romeo corporate life.
From the resignation of Alfa Romeo CEO Giuseppe Luraghi - a great supporter of the Alfa Romeo Autodelta factory racing department - to the arrival of a new breed of managers displaying outright hostility and a combative nature to any form of Autodelta involvement with the brand...the new group deeply intended to severely limit financial support to Autodelta.
The recorded histories of Autodelta competition cars had been notoriously sketchy and insufficiently documented in the 1970's even before the transfer of some of the assets of the Autodelta racing division from Settimo Milanese to a new group of individuals in Senago, Italy calling itself “Euroracing”.
That group in the early 1980's took over the physical assets of Autodelta in a hostile manner, trashing or selling off marvelous treasured assets and throwing away paper files with reckless abandon. The only relevant core Autodelta archive materials, perhaps the most significant paper database, went mysteriously missing during the move when almost all documentation was left carelessly in absolute disarray in the old factory.
Ing. Chiti was furious, desperate but impotent to act in any direction. His only true interest was racing as he tried to comply with the awful rules and limitations imposed upon him by Massacesi and others.
A particularly egregious example of the dissolution of Autodelta history by the new custodians of the Alfa Romeo racing brand was the plight of the Alfa Romeo "Fleron", the first prototype constructed by Autodelta in 1966. Its remains were discovered by an enthusiast / historian who discovered the disassembled remains of the car hidden underneath a huge pile of rusting scrap metal and debris found in the courtyard of the old factory.
Some papers, however, were saved by Autodelta engineer and driver Roberto Bussinello...however that portion of the archive is incomplete and without the possibility of being seriously cross-examined. As a result, we know almost nothing of the cars and their period exploits from an internal ‘factory standpoint’.
And finally, some official Autodelta documents were of dubious reliability... generated at times to satisfy factory management and the IRI. It is fairly well understood that Ing. Chiti was a driven man...having maintained no interest in what ever happened 'in the past'. He maintained absolutely no interest in yesterday’s facts and old data. And as a direct result, the archives of Autodelta were never described as evidence of being well-organized. With treachery and the mysterious role of Euroracing … with help and ‘understanding’ from the new president of Alfa Romeo S.p.A. Ettore Massacesi and Mario Felici, the suicide sale of Autodelta treasure occurred.
Thus, the history of the first group of realized 33TT12 cars is based on occasional annotations and third-party sources such as photographs taken by general circulation magazines and individual enthusiasts.
In any event, the most plausible history of the 33TT12, AR115.12xxx series is this one:
As the development of the original 'TT" V-8 tubular space frame chassis introduced late in 1971 evolved, a slightly larger chassis to accommodate the larger twelve cylinder engine was created and was ready for competition in early 1973.
This new chassis was rigidly reinforced by using the lower half of the tubular body as a stressed section...providing exceptional stiffness to the construction.
Suspension was independent all-round and ventilated brakes were mounted in-board at the rear.
Two additional new solutions applied to the twelve cylinder chassis design was the fabrication of a transverse, five-speed gearbox and the modification of the fiberglass / tubular body to feature two types of integrated rear wing patterns.
The first completed chassis used mainly for evaluating the new solutions was AR115.12.001 and survives to this very day in the collection of a New York enthusiast.
AR115.12.002 was finally made ready to make its debut at the 1973 Spa Francorchamps round of the World Manufacturers Championship series in early May but the car was completely destroyed in a pre-race crash after a tire failed at high speed.
During that same 1973 season, AR115.12.003 and AR115.12.004 started at the Targa Florio event but both examples crashed in the race ...although the car driven by Rolf Stommelen set the fastest lap of the race.
The already produced AR115.12.005 and AR115.12.007 continued to make occasional appearances at a few races conducted by a variety of different organizers until the end of the season, although their record of achievements demonstrated a combination of accidents and poor reliability.
In only one race did the cars manage to finish well.
At the Le Castellet circuit in February of 1974, Autodelta had been testing new Firestone tires and possible new body configurations for the renewed and highly promising 33TT12 and it's 12 cylinder flat powerplant.
At Le Castellet during pre-season testing there were two cars, most probably the AR115.12.005 and AR115.12.007, both with different solutions of body design, short and mid-length tail bonnets and different aspiration variants. The day chosen was not a good one for testing because of wet, cold and very windy atmospheric conditions.
During practice, Rolf Stommelen... using the short tail body configuration... experienced tire failure at high speed with the car departing into the air… hitting the enclosure of the track and then hitting the ground from more than meter and half height.
Fortunately, the driver was unharmed but the car was seriously damaged with a badly bent chassis and a completely destroyed suspension.
A new chassis was sent from Settimo Milanese and all necessary proven components, including the engine were transplanted from the damaged AR115.12.005, to the newly arrived chassis, presumably AR115.12.006. Testing was finished with that car in a mid-length tail version.
Alfa Romeo entered the 1974 season with four race-ready cars and another four cars in final. Among the alterations made were taller air intake 'snorkels' behind the driver and the use of various rear tail configurations for different tracks. Autodelta twelve cylinder cars finished the first race of the season at the Monza 1000 Kilometer race in 1-2-3 order. Chassis AR115.12.008 won the race followed by AR115.12.007 and finishing third was AR115.12.006. Data was recovered in this case from an old recovered microfiche.
Described details, in general, have been based on annotations and period photos and also Autosprint magazine articles published in February and first part of March 1974.
The damaged chassis of AR115.12.005 was sent to Settimo Milanese to be repaired and AR115.12.006 ...now residing in the Alfa Romeo Museo Storico in Arese continued its racing life with an inherited engine from 005. The original motor that had been installed in chassis 005 February 1974 was AR115.12A061... possibly the same engine now in 006.
In that difficult period and struggling with a limited budget and a newly-installed factory management team hostile to the racing activity of Autodelta, Director General Ing. Carlo Chiti tried to ‘invent’ a way to earn more money to apply to further Autodelta activity.
With that general concept in mind, Ing. Chiti organized shows all around the world, displaying Alfa Romeo racing cars among its production cars...aiming to aggregate new sponsors and earn new money.
The AR115.12.005 chassis was eventually repaired and completed with dubiously assembled engine components... just enough to achieve its exact outward appearance and well-known look. The car was used in numerous occasions among auto show displays that gained public interest for Alfa Romeo production cars and Autodelta and its racing activity.
This chassis AR115.12.005 was then exposed for the first time in Switzerland, and then, after several European exhibitions ...was sent in the USA again as an exposition car.
For at least one year it was shown at Alfa Romeo Inc. National Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Some vital internal engine and electrical components were found to have been omitted in the reconstruction of the car.
Its further history is unknown or cannot be verified by Autodelta Golden Years.com.
In our Autodelta Golden Years data archive, the 005 portfolio has only attributed not perfectly documented photos, and generally this overall history cannot be based on proven facts, but it has a plausible story with relatively good standards of proofs.
Copyright 2020
First date of publication: March 16, 2020
All Rights Reserved
Robert B. Little
Team Manager
Autodelta Golden Years.com
New York
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