1936 Alta 2 Litre Grand Prix

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After a long weekend in the countryside without internet (cool to be off but sometimes difficult :-) ), I'm back with this superb Alta 2 Litre Grand Prix sold by RM Sotheby's Private Sale with an asking price of $US 275,000.

It's be perfect to dive into the history of this British racing car manufacturer, Alta. Did you know this car manufacturer?

"In designing the Alta Sports Car, the knowledge and experience gained in driving and maintaining sports cars or all sizes, makes and nationalities, has been brought to bear on the design and manufacture of the Alta, with a view to meeting the demand for a small, genuine sports car with a performance far and away above average, whilst yet providing wonderful reliability and a total absence of petty troubles and complications."
Geoffrey Taylor (Source Robert Glover, English specialist in the sale of historic sports and competition motor cars)

History of Alta

The Alta Car and Engineering Company known as Alta was founded by Geoffrey Taylor near Kingston (Enlgand). Unlike other manufacturers of that time which assembled different parts, Geoffrey Taylor designed and produced every part of his car. The first car to leave the factory was the 1,100 cc model equipped with wet liners, shaft-driven twin overhead camshafts, hemispherical combustion chambers, and Nitralloy steel crankshafts... the best of technology at that time. You can have 2 options the basic with 49 hp or the supercharged producing 76 hp. 13 examples were sold.

Here some pics of this first Alta :

This 1932 Alta 1,100 cc Two Seater is on sale on Robert Glover for £ 125,000 (photos from this website).

In 1934, the first Alta designed only for competition was produced. Quickly, this light-weight single seat gained its reputation in short distance races, especially thanks to its price. But at the Grand Prix or endurance races, it was more difficult because of its lack of reliability.

But, as soon as World War II was was declared, Alta stopped its car production in order to participate to the war effort.

After the war, new cars were produced including Alta GP with the participation in the 1950 British Grand Prix without success. But without enough fund to develop a new car, Taylor decided to participate to the Formula 2 with the Alta F2. Taylor died in 1966 and the business gradually died out despite the efforts of his son.

Specification

The 2 Litre Grand Prix was the first Alta single seater equipped with 1,100 cc 4 cylinder engine producing 49 hp at 5,200 rpm.

This model was drived by Alastair J. Cormack (Scotland) in the 30's (1935 Brighton Speed Trials, 1935 Grossglockner Hill Climb, 1936 R.A.C. International Car Race, 1936 Monaco Prince Rainier Cup, 1936 Pescara Grand Prix).