Alba AR6
The Alba AR6 was a Group C2 sports car developed by Alba Engineering in 1985 and used in sports car races until 1990.
Development history and technology
In the history of Alba’s development, the typology of racing cars is confusing. In the short period from 1983 to 1985 - starting with the AR2 - five vehicle types were created. The fifth in this series was the AR6, which was built in the spring of 1985 according to the technical regulations of Group C2. The contract for the construction came from Martino Finotto , who wanted to replace his two AR2s with another new design. The 4-cylinder turbo engine developed in Finotto's and Carlo Facetti's joint venture, CARMA, was again used as the engine , the displacement of which was increased to 1.9 liters.
In the AR6, which was driven in the North American IMSA GTP series from 1986 , there was an interesting engine variant. 1981 drove Facetti and Finotto in the sports car world championship a Group 5 - Ferrari 308GTB . The power unit, a 3-liter V8 engine , was revised and taken over by Alba designer Giorgio Stirano in the IMSA car, which also had a longer wheelbase.
Racing history
1985
The Finotto / Facetti-AR6 was first used in racing at the 1000 km race in Monza . Their long-time partner Guido Daccò joined Finotto and Facetti in the team. In practice, the trio achieved 13th time with 1: 42.220 minutes and thus the fastest of all C2 vehicles. On the pole position -time of Patrese in Lancia LC2 / 85 lacking twelve seconds. The race ended prematurely due to a defective turbocharger . The first finish came in May 1985 at the 1000 km race at Silverstone with 17th place overall. At the wheel was the trio Finotto / Facetti / Daccò again. That was only seventh place in the C2 class, 29 laps behind class winners Ray Mallock and Mike Wilds in the Ecosse C285 . Finotto was extremely dissatisfied with the new car, but teammates Loris Kessel , Almo Coppelli and Jean-Pierre Frey in the three-year-old AR2 did not finish better than 18th, so one had to hope for the further development of the car.
At the fifth race of the season there were signs of improvement after extensive test drives. The 1000 km race at Hockenheim ended in tenth place overall and third place in the class.
The team achieved the best result of the season at the 1000 km race at Brands Hatch with eighth place overall and second place in the class standings.
1986 to 1990
In 1986, in addition to the World Sports Car Championship, an AR6, used by Gaston Andrey Racing, was also used in the IMSA GTP series. From 1987 the AR6 with the chassis number 005 was the only car of this type of race that competed in sports car races, and that exclusively in North America. The best placings that year were fifth place in the 1986 Road America 500 mile race (Finotto and Ruggero Melgrati ), sixth place in the 1987 Watkins Glen 500 km race (Finotto and Daccò) and seventh place in the 1986 West Palm Beach 3-hour race (Facetti and Melgarti).
literature
- Thomas Nehlert, Group C: The sports car races 1982–1992 , Verlag Petrolpics, Bonn 2011, ISBN 3-940306-14-2 .
