The Klausen Race, also known as the “Grand Mountain Prize of Switzerland”, is a true classic among mountain sprints. Between 1922 and 1934, the best racers took part in this event in the Alps of central Switzerland. The Klausen race was one of the ten races that made up the first European Mountain Championship in 1930. On the 21.5 km long gravel road leading from Linthal to the Klausen Pass, the racing cars had to overcome 156 serpentine curves and an altitude of 1,237 metres on the way up. Spectators from all over the world followed the spectacle directly from the roadside. Whoever conquered the brutal Klausen Pass as the winner was allowed to count himself among the greatest racers at the time.<\/p>\n
In August 1932, a fine troupe of pioneering racing cars and drivers competed here. Auto Union, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz and Alfa-Romeo named as factory teams. Privateers such as Burggaller, Steinweg, Zanelli, Rey, Chambost, Strazza, Tuffanelli, Maag, Stuber, R\u00fcschen, Sojka and Hans Kessler also entered. English drivers included H. C. Hamilton driving a Magnette for the Whitney Straight Syndicate, Cormack with his supercharged Alta and Miss Ellison with her Bugatti, and Penn Hughes.<\/p>\n
Like the adventurous racers, the Klausen spectators were very tough and spared nothing. The sound of water could be heard everywhere and all the streams were full to the brim. I wonder what would have happened if a river had burst its banks? And even in August, heavy snowfall was possible. Boulders thundered down from Kilchenstock mountain every now and then, even in fine weather. In winter, the Klausen Pass was closed due to avalanche danger, especially between Linthal and Urnerboden, where the bumpy road opened up into a 5 km long plateau on one side and a granite wall on the other.<\/p>\n
1932 was a spectacular year at the Klausen Race. The first sports cars raced up on 7 August. Tazio Nuvolari had a good drive with an Alfa-Romeo 8C in the 3,000 cc class, but first place went to Hans Stuck on a Mercedes-Benz SSKL. In the open race car class, Bugatti had its three-time winner Louis Chiron and Achille Varzi on the Bugatti T53 compete against Rudolf Caracciola in an Alfa-Romeo P3 Monoposto with starting number 95. The Bugatti drivers were always close on Caracciola’s heels, but remained winless. It was Caracciola’s day, he set a new record time for 15m50s. In 1934, two years later, he improved his record to 15:22 minutes when he drove Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Alfa-Romeo Tipo B was the most successful single-seater Grand Prix racing car of its time. Alfa-Romeo built and raced it between 1932 and 1936. Initially as an Alfa-Romeo works car, then later under the Scuderia Ferrari label after Alfa took over its racing activities. The car, designed by the legendary constructor Vittorio Jano, was based on the no less legendary Alfa-Romeo 8C models. The P3 was Alfa-Romeo’s second single-seater after the Tipo-A monoposto of 1931.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35025,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[648,65,290,62,605,609,613],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25710","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-available-models","7":"product_cat-alfa-romeo","8":"product_cat-all-products","9":"product_cat-models-118","10":"product_cat-limited-editions","11":"product_cat-racing-sports-cars","12":"product_cat-pre-war-vehicles","14":"first","15":"instock","16":"taxable","17":"shipping-taxable","18":"purchasable","19":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n