26 replies to this topic

[Mike Argetsinger]

Does anyone have the date of Alfred Momo's death? Thanks in advance.

[Mike Argetsinger]

No replies - but thanks to Bill Green at the Research Center at Watkins Glen - with a kind assist from Lawrence Berman - I have the date. Just for the record, Alfred Momo died on November 29, 1982. He was born September 12, 1896 in Turin.

[Don Capps]

How did I miss this?

[ReWind]

May I ask who Alfred Momo was?

[SEdward]

He prepared cars for, amongst others, Briggs Cunningham in the 1950s. Any relation to the famous make of steering wheels?

Edward.

[karlcars]

No relation. Momo wheels were created by Giampiero Moretti, who adopted Momo as his trademark name. He also did a fair bit of racing in Prototypes.

Alfred Momo is also remembered by the name of a proposed production car funded by real-estate developer Peter Kalikow. I well remember Peter telling me, "I've spent a quarter-million dollars on this car and it's almost as good as a Camaro."

[Mike Argetsinger]

Alfred Momo was so much more than that, as Karl well knows.

My manuscript for the Walt Hansgen bio devotes an entire chapter to Alfred and his wife Mary. I will just touch on a few highlights here.

At the age of 14 he was the riding mechanic for Ernesto Ceirano in his victorious drive in the 1910 Targa Florio.

In September 1919 Gabriele D'Annunzio hand picked Alfred to be flight engineer on one of the Caproni tri-planes that made the Rome to Tokyo flight as a prestige building event for the Italian Air Force. Over the Adriatic he spotted a fuel leak in the aircraft's rear pusher engine, one of three engines - but all three were needed to keep the aircraft aloft! Alfred crawled out of the cockpit - with pliers, wire, and tape stuffed in his pockets - lowered himself to the bottom wing and worked his way back along the fuselage to a spot where he could make the repair. He received great praise in the Italian press and D'Annunzio attested to his bravery and skill.

In 1920 he came to New York as a field representative for Fiat. By 1923 he left Fiat and returned to America where he became a citizen. He was hired by Rolls Royce of America as superintendent of the assembly business. He remained with Rolls Royce for 28 years and became executive vice-president for the distributor, J.S. Inskip. He left Rolls Royce and Inskip in 1951 and founded the Momo Corporation.

He had already developed a relationship with Briggs Cunningham and was with Briggs at Watkins Glen in 1948 with the BuMerc. He had also prepared other cars Cunningham ran in that race. The relationship between Momo and Cunningham was very close and became more so when Briggs became a major distributor for Jaguar on the east coast - and the de facto 'works' racing team for America in 1955. Momo became a Senior Vice President of the new operation.

Through all this, Momo managed and engineered the Cunningham race team. He was an inseparable and colorful part of American road racing in the 1950's and in to the 1960's.

This is just a brief overview of the career of this great man. I offer it in response to the question posed above of who was Alfred Momo.

[ReWind]

Originally posted by Mike Argetsinger
I offer it in response to the question posed above of who was Alfred Momo.

Where is the smiley showing "I'm speechless"?

[Frank S]

Originally posted by Mike Argetsinger

I offer it in response to the question posed above of who was Alfred Momo.

Here is Tom Cardin's photo of Alfred Momo and ("Big") Bill Spear at
one of the March AFB races, November 1952 or 1953: (35K each)

Full shot

Crop

[cabianca]

The two March Field races were in 53 and 54. The pic is from 7 Nov 54.

I had not heard of Momo's involvement with the Cunningham team WHEN the team ran Cunninghams. I look forward to hearing more about this.

[Frank S]

Originally posted by cabianca
The two March Field races were in 53 and 54. The pic is from 7 Nov 54.

Aha! Thank you.

[Don Capps]

I finally remembered the issue of R&T which had a very good article on Momo in it from early 1961. As I read it last night, I really found myself thinking just how amazing it is that few outside an ever-narrowing circle recall Momo, Hansgen, and the tenor of those times.

Another thought that struck me was just how different things seem, with the advantage of retrospect, after Momo, Cunningham, and Hansgen left the scene in the mid-1960's. It is simply different, rather like when the furniture gets moved just a bit and you really can't put your finger on it, but something is just a tad different here....

Once again, I have to say I am amazed that I missed this on the first time through. I regret that very much, especially since I just happened to have the information being requested.

[Mike Argetsinger]

Originally posted by cabianca
I had not heard of Momo's involvement with the Cunningham team WHEN the team ran Cunninghams. I look forward to hearing more about this.

Cabianca makes a good point.

In my brief overview on Momo (above), I said -
"Through all this, Momo managed and engineered the Cunningham race team."

One could understandably infer that I was suggesting that he was central to the 1950-54 years when the team ran the actual Cunningham race cars - most notably the C2R's, C4R's, etc. That effort was based in West Palm Beach and headed by Phil Walters. I did not mean to suggest that Momo was central to that - certainly not in the way he was to the Cunningham team from 1955 through 1963. However, he was not wholly removed from it either, as suggested in both anecdotes and photographs from the period.

Sorry, I did not mean to mislead. I was not in those few brief paragraphs trying to provide a definitive brief of Momo' career - rather to suggest the scope.

[Lotus23]

I certainly remember reading of Bill Spear's successes back when, but I had no idea of his power-to-weight ratio until now!

[Paul Parker]

Alfred Momo was also the person most credited with producing the original 3.8 litre Jaguar XK engine, used at Sebring in 1957 in XKD605 (from memory) and driven to 3rd place by Hawthorn/Bueb despite brake problems. Just to be pedantic however the first such engine was made for Oscar Moore c 1952 and used in his early HWM XMC 34.

[Ron Scoma]

Originally posted by Paul Parker

Just to be pedantic however the first such engine was made for Oscar Moore c 1952 and used in his early HWM XMC 34.

Who, I believe, is Peter Moore's father.
Peter runs Motor Book Postal Auctions (MBPA).

Cheers,

Ron

[Paul Medici]

Talk about a walk down memory lane, I grew up about ten miles from Momo’s shop in Woodside, Queens and visited there several times in the early sixties. On one occasion (1963) the doors to the racing department were open and we watched as mechanics worked on Walt’s Cooper-Buick. Another time there was a lightweight E-type on display in the showroom. It was one of the three Jags that Briggs had entered at Sebring in 1963.
I still have Momo’s ad from the New York Times (April, 1964) offering two of these Jags for sale. “Completely overhauled and ready to race, like new, complete with a set of 650-15 spare wheels for each car.” I know this is painful but would anyone care to guess how much he was asking for each car?
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[Ron Scoma]

Originally posted by Paul Medici
we watched as mechanics worked on Walt’s Cooper-Buick.

Paul:

Do you remember anything about this car?

I had a Monaco (chassis CM 6-59) that had it's FPF replaced with a BOP 215 sometime early in it's life. Silver in color with eight upswept exhaust pipes.
I bought it from Ed Long out of Bowie, Md. in 1976 or 7 using misdirected tuition money my parents had lent me in hopes that I, in spite of all odds, would get an education.

By the way, you have been selected as the Official TNF-Chicago photographer...
See you Tuesday.

Cheers,

Ron Scoma

[Richard Neale]

I'd be pleased to hear any info on the Monaco too.

[Paul Medici]

Sorry, but I know little about the car and must defer to Cooper-Monaco experts for additional history. I did see Walt Hansgen drive it to victory in an SCCA race at Bridgehampton in June of 1963. He also won the Double 500 later that year in the same car.

In the Cunningham book (Batchelor & Bochroch - 1993, p.153) there is a photo of two Momo-prepared Coopers at Riverside for the Los Angeles Times-Mirror GP. The other Cooper was Maserati powered. This car finished fifth at Sebring in 1962 with Bruce and Roger at the helm.

Unlike one of the three lightweight E-types, unfortunately Briggs did not add either Cooper to his collection. Oh, Momo's asking price for the two remaining lightweight E-types in the 1964 ad was $7500.00 each, .........like new!
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[WINO]

I am afraid that the page 153 caption in Dean Batchelor's Cunningham book is incorrect.

In a letter dated December 20, 1993, Dean agreed with me and ever the gentleman, he took the blame, since "Co-author Al Bochroch died before the book was published", "John Lamm was always shooting photos somewhere else in the world" and ".... having John Fitch and Phil Walters read the text did not eliminate errors. Apparently their memories weren't up to the job either".

The trouble is, by October 1962 neither Fitch or Walters were involved with the Cunningham stable anymore, so you can't really blame them for not recognizing the latest cars.

The photo was shot at Riverside 1962, before the Times GP. Car #61 is actually the V12 Maserati Tipo 64, car #60 is the Cooper Monaco/Buick, which would change its number to #63 for the race.

Cunningham/Momo had two late-model Cooper Monacos:

- CM/3/61 [in which the Scarab people put a Buick V8 in 1961]

- CM/1/62 [in which a 4-cylinder Maserati engine was installed in 1962]. This car was later ungraded to Buick V8 power, after the 1962 season.


Am not familiar with CM/6/59, which was an earlier Mark 2 version of the Monaco. Hap Sharp is one of the people that comes to mind as racing one, as are Rodger Ward [4.2 liter Buick power!] and George Grinzewitch.

WINO

[David McKinney]

CM/6/59 was raced by John Fitch in 1959, with - I think - 2.0 FPF. I think Harry Blanchard had something to do with it early on, too.

BTW, what's a BOP 215? Ah, got it - 215-inch Buick/Oldsmobile/Pontiac?

[Richard Neale]

David ~ I though it arrived in the States in 1960 ??? Having been rebuilt after a crash at Snetterton.

[WINO]

The Fitch Monaco was indeed a Mk 2, owned by Kreisel.

BOP stands for the alloy Buick-Oldmobile-Pontiac V8, introduced in 1961. Both the Buick and Olds versions were raced.

WINO

[WINO]

The first US races for the Charles Kreisler owned Monaco with Fitch at the wheel were:


- Lime Rock [July 25, 1959]

- Meadowdale [Don's favorite USAC track!, September 6, 1959]


Not sure about the car' chassis number though.

WINO

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Richard Neale
David ~ I though it arrived in the States in 1960 ??? Having been rebuilt after a crash at Snetterton.

I was going to say we could both be right, in that it went back to England to crash at Snett
I thought my original source for the number of the Fitch car was Doug Nye's book, but on checking see I was mistaken
I think it must have been someone associated with CM/6/59 now racing in the UK who told me it had come from the US, where it had originally been raced by Fitch. I don't think Fitch raced more than one Monaco, did he? Perhaps my informant was merely quoting 'FIA papers' history ;)

[Richard Neale]

David ~~

Supposedly ( I say advisedly) that chassis/car is with Terry Hefty in the US.

"""FIA Paper History"""""""


Is that a Joke ?????

Or were you being terriblely serious