1932 Alfa Romeo P3 Tipo B Monoposto

Designed by the brilliant Vittorio Jano and ordered originally by Scuderia Ferrari when it was the official Alfa Romeo factory racing team.

The Alfa Romeo Tipo B or P3 Monoposto was the first genuine single-seat racing car in Grand Prix racing and it dominated the competition in the 1932 season, winning almost at will. Its first appearance came at the Italian GP at Monza on June 5. This chassis joined the Scuderia Ferrari-ran Alfa team in 1934 before being sold to Count De Villapadierni in Spain and later (1938) to Frank Griswold in San Francisco. After running in the 1939 and 1940 Indianapolis 500, it came in first at the New York World's Fair Grand Prix in 1940 on the 0.75 mile Flushing Meadows temporary circuit in the final event in ARCA's brief history.

Los Angeles businessman Don Lee (the most successful Cadillac dealer on the West Coast) acquired the P3 in 1945 and technicians from Don Lee Broadcasting fitted it with a car-to-pit radio for Indy where it raced as the Don Lee Special by driver Hal Cole in 1946 and then started 9th and placed 15th in the 1947 '500'.

In the 1950s this car spent time in Australia, and then it returned to the United States in the care of collector David Uihlein of Wisconsin. The car has never been restored and bears the scars of its many years of racing all over the world.

It ultimately returned to the UK where it won first prize in the 1998 Louis Vuitton Concours.