The Mille Miglia Winning Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B MM, 1913 Mercer Raceabout, Jaguar D-Type and Delahaye 135S are driven at the Simeone Automotive Museum in Philadelphia during the Great Drivers Demo Day. Links to museum cars: D-Type- http://www.simeonemuseum.org/the-collection/sebring/1956-jaguar-d-type Mercer- http://www.simeonemuseum.org/the-collection/pre-world-war-i-racing/1913-mercer-raceabout Alfa MM- http://www.simeonemuseum.org/the-collection/winners-circle/1938-alfa-romeo-8c-2900b-mm-spyder Delahaye- http://www.simeonemuseum.org/the-collection/le-mans/1936-48-delahaye-135s-175s Transcript: Welcome to the Great Drivers Demo Day at the SImeone Automotive Museum in Philadelphia! This demo day celebrated some of the brave men who drove racing cars during the time period of little to no regard for safety. The four museum cars featured were the Mercer Series 35J Raceabout, Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Miglia, Delahaye 135S and Jaguar D-Type. The Mercer Raceabout was one of the great race cars of the pre-World War I era. Its namesake and location of manufacture was Mercer County New Jersey, which is just 1 hour northeast of the Simeone museum. This Raceabout has a 4.9 liter inline 4 cylinder engine making 34 horsepower. With nearly twice the power of a contemporary Model T, 34 horsepower was quite a bit more than it seems today. Although he did not drive a Mercer at Indianapolis, the Mercer was representing driver Eddie Rickenbacker. Rickenbacker raced the Indy 500 4 times before World War I. In WWI he was the top US fighter ace of the war. Post war, he started his own car company, bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway and started Eastern Airlines. The Delahaye 135 was a successful French race car both before and after WWII. The 135S was powered by a 3.56 liter inline 6 cylinder engine making 150 horsepower. The car has a very interesting gearbox, and you will soon see why. The featured driver of the car was Pierre Louis Dreyfus, who owned this particular car. Pierre Louis Dreyfus was an heir to a large company founded in 1851. Before and after World War II, he drove in the 24 Hours of Le Mans 11 times. During the war, he was part of the French resistance. After the war, he went back to the family business and eventually became CEO. His granddaughter is the actress Julia Louis Dreyfus. The best result for the Delahaye 135 was a 1-2 finish overall at Le Mans in 1938. With these cars being built in the mid to late 1930’s, and World War II clearly being the focus of everyone from 1939-1945, drivers of the Delahayes basically picked up where they left off, driving pre-World War II race cars in the late 1940’s. The museum’s Delahaye retains its original paint, like many of the cars at the Simeone Museum, soon, car companies would again start building new race cars, such as Jaguar. The D-Type followed up on the successes of the C-Type. But unlike the C-Type, the D-Type was not based on a road car. It had a 3.4 liter inline 6 cylinder engine producing 250 horsepower. The chassis was a moncoque, Jaguar’s first, according to the museum website, and it had improved disc brakes. The D-Type was extremely successful, winning Le Mans overall in 1955, 56 and 1957. The featured driver was Mike Hawthorn, who along with Ivor Bueb won the tragedy stricken 1955 race. Hawthorn became Formula 1 world champion in 1958. Tragedy would strike Hawthorn as well, he had a terminal illness and the January after his championship, he was killed in a road accident. This D-Type, XKD 538 is original in every way except for its stunning silver paint job. While on the topic of stunning paint, this is the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Miglia Spyder. This exact car was the winner of the 1938 Mille Miglia, the 1000 mile race through central Italy. Just like the Delahaye was raced before and after WWII, so was the 8C 2900B. 8C 2900B’s won the last pre-war Mille Miglia in 1938 and the first post-war Mille Miglia in 1947. The car has a 2.9 liter inline 8 cylinder engine producing 180 horsepower. The featured driver of the 8C 2900B was Clemente Biondetti, who along with Stefai drove this particular car for 12 hours straight to win the 1938 Mille Miglia. This is Dr. Simeone’s favorite car in the collection, and it’s the only car on a rotating pedestal in the museum. It is easy to understand why. Just look at it! Besides that, it’s a race winner. Dr. Simeone took the car back to Italy for the 1986 Mille Miglia. This is definitely one of my favorite cars in the museum. Now, enjoy the sights and sounds of these great race cars as they are driven by Dr. Simeone and curator Kevin Kelly. Try to imagine being Eddie Rickenbacker, or Pierre Louis Dreyfus or Mike Hawthorn or Clemente Biondetti driving cars like these in their day.

• published: 11 Mar 2017
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