Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo logo

Alfa Romeo is an Italian automobile manufacturing company, founded as "Darracq Italiana" by Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan in partnership with the French automobile firm of Alexandre Darracq. The partnership refurbished an idle Darracq factory in Portello, a Milan suburb, but at the onset of World War I the company converted to a munitions factory and the partnership was dissolved. Alfa Romeo has been a part of Fiat SpA since 1987. The company was originally known as ALFA, which is an acronym meaning Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. (First logo: [1])

When Nicola Romeo, engineer industrialist, bought ALFA in 1915, his surname was appended to the company name. Within a few years of Nicola Romeo taking control, the company began to participate in Grand Prix motor racing.

The company's first automobile was the 24 HP [2], which appeared in 1910, and the following year entered the Targa Florio, the special competition in Sicily.

In 1928 Nicola Romeo left, with Alfa going broke after defense contracts end, and in 1933 Alfa Romeo was rescued by the government, which then had effective control. Alfa became an instrument of Mussolini's Italy, a national emblem. The Alfa factory was bombed during World War Two, and struggled to return to profitability after the war. The luxury vehicles were out. Smaller mass produced vehicles began to issue from Alfa's factories. By the seventies, Alfa is again in financial trouble, and the Italian government bows out in 1986, as FIAT buys in, creating a new group, Alfa Lancia Spa, to manufacture Alfas and Lancias.

Racing history

The badge on the front of an Alfa in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum

Alfa Romeo 159 detail

Alfa Romeo 6C

1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Mille Miglia from the Ralph Lauren collection

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Alfa Romeo scored many prestigious victories in all the different categories: Formula 1, Prototypes, Touring and Fast Touring. Private drivers also ran some rally competitions with fine results.

In 1923 Vittorio Jano was lured to Alfa from Fiat, designing the motors that gave Alfa racing success into the late thirties. (When Alfa began to lose in the late thirties Jano was promptly sacked.)

In the 1930s, Tazio Nuvolari won the Mille Miglia in a 6C 1750 [3], crossing the finishing line after having incredibly overtaken Achille Varzi without his lights (at nighttime).

The 8C 2300 won the Le Mans 24 Hours from 1931 to 1934, with Alfa Romeo withdrawing from racing in 1933, when the Italian government took over, and the racing of Alfas was then taken up by Scuderia Ferrari as Alfa's outsourced team. (Enzo Ferrari drove for Alfa, before he went on to manage the team, and after that, went on to manufacture his own cars.) In 1935 Alfa Romeo won the German Grand Prix with Nuvolari. In 1938 Biondetti won the Mille Miglia in a 8C 2900B Corto Spyder, thereafter referred to as the "Mille Miglia" model.

In 1950 Nino Farina won the Formula One World Championship in a 158 with compressor, in 1951 Juan Manuel Fangio won while driving a Alfetta 159 (an evolution of the 158 with a two-stages compressor). Other titles won in 1975 and 1977, while the 33 dominated the Prototype category from 1967 to 1977.

In the 1960s Alfa Romeo became famous for its small cars and models specifically designed for the Italian police ("Panthers" [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]) and Carabinieri ([9]); among them the glorious "Giulia Super" [10] - [11]. Or the 2600 Sprint GT [12], which obtained an expressive nickname of "Inseguimento" (this car is wrongly supposed to be the one that the famous Roman police marshall and unrivalled driver Armandino Spadafora brought down on the Spanish Steps in 1960 while following some robbers - it was instead a black Ferrari 250 GT/E - this pic of Giulia [13], one of the dozens about this legend, is taken from a movie and not at Spanish Steps).

After the 1970s, economic issues caused the government to finally sell Alfa Romeo to Fiatin 1986, which still own it.

Before being bought by Fiat, Alfa Romeo always had a daring commercial policy, constantly experimenting with new solutions and using them in its series production, even at the risk of losing market share. Alfa often used controversial and unorthodox styling too, which often challenged one's assumptions about styling.

On an English sales brochure:

The Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 SS - For the man who has everything, here is the car to keep him company. ... The price is GBP 2394.1.3 including tax. Expensive? Naturally! What else would you expect a hand-built Alfa to be? [14]

It represented the make of those cars which could allow some sporty driving on common roads, provided the driver was enthusiast enough to appreciate their particular "sound".

One owner of an A.R. is an "Alfista", and a group of them are "Alfisti", in Italian. Alfa Romeo is sometimes worshipped by its owners, and many models have become cultural symbols [15]. There are many thriving Alfa Romeo owners clubs and Alfa Romeo Model Registers.

In 1967 the famous Dustin Hoffman's film "The Graduate" gave worldwide unforgettable celebrity to the "Spider" (best known with the Italian nickname of "Duetto", or as "Osso di Seppia" or Round-tail), and its unique shape. See here [16] - [17]. The Spider was designed by Pininfarina.

Production models

Until the 1980s, Alfa Romeos, except for the Alfasud, were rear-wheel-drive.

In 1995 Alfa Romeo ceased exporting cars to the US. While rumours occasionally surface of their intent to return to that market, no formal plans have ever been announced. The most credible is a rumour that, with Maserati's help, the Alfa Romeo 159 and Alfa Romeo Brera will be the make's pilot models should it reenter the North American market.

Cloverleaf or Quadrifoglio badges denote variants of Alfa Romeo cars, where the name denotes the high-end of the range in comfort and engine size, but previously denoted Alfa Romeo racing cars in the pre-second-world-war era. The image first appeared in 1923 when Ugo Sivocci presented one prior to the start of the 14th Targa Florio as a good luck token to the team. This became the symbol of competition Alfas, denoting higher performance. Some modern Alfas wear a cloverleaf badge which is typically a green four leaf clover on a white background (Quadrifoglio Verde), but variants of blue on white have been recently observed. It is assumed that these might denote advanced equipment in other areas (?).

The Alfettas of the early 1980s had models available sold as the "Silver Leaf" and "Gold Leaf" (Quadrifoglio Oro). These models were the top-of-the-range at the time. Badging was the Alfa Cloverleaf in either gold or silver to denote the specification level. The Gold Leaf model was also sold as the "159i" in some markets, the name in homage to the original 159.

The trim levels (option packages) offered today on the various nameplates (model lines) include the lusso, “luxury,” turismo, “touring,” and the GTA (gran tourismo alleggerita, “lightened grand touring”). The GTA package is offered in the 147 and 156 and includes a V-6 engine. In the past, Alfa Romeo offered a Sprint (from Italian sprinta, "tuned") trim level.

List Of Models

An exhibition celebrating 50 years of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta in Milan, 2004

Alfa Romeo Cars by Era
1950-1960	Alfa Romeo 1900 Alfa Romeo AR 51 The 'Matta' off road 4WD. Alfa Romeo Disco Volante Alfa Romeo Giulietta - 1.3 Alfa Romeo 2000
1960-1970	Alfa Romeo Giulia - Super 1600 - TI Alfa Romeo TZ Alfa Romeo GTA Alfa Romeo 2600 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce [18] Alfa Romeo 1750
1970-1980	Alfa Romeo Montreal (1970–1977) Alfa Romeo Alfasud (1972–1983) Alfa Romeo Alfetta (1972–1977) Alfa Romeo Arna
1980-1990	Alfa Romeo GTV Alfa Romeo GTV6 Alfa Romeo Sprint Alfa Romeo 33 (1983–1994) Alfa Romeo 90 (1984–1986) Alfa Romeo 75 (1985–1992) Alfa Romeo 164 (1987–1998)
1990-2000	Alfa Romeo SZ Alfa Romeo GTV (1995–present) Alfa Romeo Spider (1998–present) Alfa Romeo 145 (1995–2001) Alfa Romeo 146 (1995–2001) Alfa Romeo 155 (1992–1998) Alfa Romeo 156 - GTA (1997–present) Alfa Romeo 166 (1998–present)
2000 onwards	Alfa Romeo GT (2004–present) Alfa Romeo 147 - GTA (2001–present) Alfa Romeo 159 Alfa Romeo 167( 2007?) Alfa Romeo Brera (Preview-2005) Alfa Romeo Spyder (2007?) Alfa Romeo Kamal (Expected-2007)

Concept Cars:

Alfa Romeo 8C (2004)

Engines

The Boxer Engine or Flat-4.
The Alfa Romeo TwinSpark engine.

External links

Official Alfa Romeo site
A love story for Duetto: [19]
Evolution of the logo: [20]
A typical A.R. dashboard: [21] (1750 GTV - 1970s)
A complete list of links to discover Alfa Romeo's world: [22]
The Alfa Romeo Webring: [23]
The Montreal: [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29]
The Alfa Wiki [30]
Short history of the 158/9 GP Car [31]
Category at ODP
The Alfa Romeo Owners Forum [32]
The Alfa Romeo Fan Site Alfa-Romeo.com