On August 11-16, a small band of vintage racers left the Chicago area on a mission – to break several class speed records at Bonneville and, in the process, lay claim to the title “World’s Fastest Alfa Romeo” (see this month’s First Turn). The two cars brought for the task were “Bonnie,” a yellow Spyder sporting a 400 hp, turbocharged engine and “Bonetta,” a red Alfetta GT using a normally aspirated engine. While Bonetta showed great promise, a catastrophic driveshaft failure early in the week cut the pretty red car’s attempt off before her potential was fully realized. In the case of Bonnie, driver Mike Besic put in a number of steadily improving performances culminating in a best speed of 194 mph. While it wasn’t enough to break the record, it did establish Bonnie as the World’s Fastest 4-cylinder Alfa Romeo. The team hopes to return to the salt next year to break the 211 mph record and make Bonnie the fastest Alfa of all time.
