(Wed 12 Dec 07)

An Alfa Romeo once owned by Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini will go on sale at the H&H auction in Cheltenham on February 27.

The 1935 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder was built to special order. One of Mussolini's requests was that the standard power output of 68bhp should be raised, and when the car was delivered it produced a more purposeful 95bhp. This made it a reasonable contender in the 1936 Mille Miglia road race, in which Mussolini's chauffeur Ercole Boratto finished 13th overall.

It may have been producing more power during the race. When Italy invaded Abyssinia in late 1935, the League of Nations threatened sanctions, and while these did not include an oil embargo the Italians had reason to suspect that it might. The Italian government therefore sponsored experiments with alternative fuels, and several of the Alfa Romeos in the 1936 race ran on alcohol.

The Mussolini car was probably one of those - today it still shows traces of the alcohol fuelling system. It probably wasn't one of the six Alfas which got their power from charcoal burners; those cars averaged about 30mph, and nobody could possibly have matched Boretto's result in one of them.

Since Mussolini sold it in 1939, the car has had only three owners. It's clearly in very good condition, since it won the New York Concours in 2005 and finished second at the similar Pebble Beach event in the same year. H&H estimates that it will sell for between £600,000 and £800,000.

This makes it by far the most valuable car in the auction, but other lots are of great interest too, such as the Subaru Legacy with which the late Colin McRae won the 1992 British Rally Championship.

There also two historic examples of the Mini Cooper S. The original competition career of one of them included being driven by Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon in the 1964 RAC Rally, and by brothers Donald and Erle Morley in the 1965 Monte Carlo.

That car has an estimate of £40-50,000. A 1967 version, which Hopkirk drove in the Tour de France (no, not the bike race) is expected to sell for £30-40,000.

The auction will take place at Cheltenham Racecourse. For more details visit www.handh.co.uk.

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