Start with what the Alfa Romeo Tipo A is: a single-seater with 2 × 1752 , built from 1931, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Vittorio Jano.
The background
Alfa Romeo Tipo A or Alfa Romeo Tipo A Monoposto was the first monoposto (single-seater) racing car, designed by Alfa Romeo. The car had two 6C 1750 straight-6 engines and gearboxes assembled side by side. Producing 230 bhp (172 kW), the car had top speed of 149 mph (240 km/h).
The car's best racing achievement was in the Coppa Acerbo of 1931; Tazio Nuvolari was third with Giuseppe Campari winning. Luigi Arcangeli was killed at Monza in 1931 while practising with this car for the Italian GP. The car's complex design ultimately led to it being very unreliable; Jano started to design a new car, the Tipo B (P3), to fix this problem. The Tipo A was made in only four examples and only one replica exists today in Alfa Romeo Historical Museum in Arese.
The engineering
The engine is 2 × 1752 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 930 kg. Drive goes through a 3-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 110 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Alfa Romeo line-up the Alfa Romeo Tipo A has a clear place: it replaced the Alfa Romeo P2; it handed the line to the Alfa Romeo P3. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Bugatti Type 57, the Chevrolet Suburban, the Fiat 515. Its Alfa Romeo stablemates include the A.L.F.A 12 HP and the A.L.F.A 15 HP.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Alfa Romeo Tipo A — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.