Alfa Romeo is one of those manufacturers that produced some true classic sports cars but also some really poorly built cars that suffered from rust and reliability issues. They have, however, been around for over 100 years and have had numerous successes on the track including Formula 1 World Championships.
Alfa started out in 1906 as the Societa Anomina Italiana Darracq – essentially the Italian offshoot of Darracq, the French pioneer who was involved in many start-ups.
Sales were initially slow and the investors renamed the company ALFA (Anomina Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili) in 1909. Darracq was still involved although new models were designed and the company went racing to publicise the vehicles. Early Alfa’s were technically advanced with double overhead cams and innovative ignition systems.
Production halted during WW1 and in 1915, Nicola Romeo acquired the factory and company to build military equipment. Romeo was an engineer by trade and clearly an entrepreneur who made a small fortune from supplying the Italian army during the hostilities. After the war he was busy making heavy machinery and only started to build cars again because he had enough pre-war parts for 100 cars. Incidentally one of his seven children was called Giulietta – so now you know where that name came from!
The company was formally named Alfa Romeo after the war and the first car was the Torpedo 20/30 using the same 4 cylinder, 4 litre, 67hp motor as the pre war vehicles. The company went racing again with a young driver called Enzo Ferrari who persuaded FIAT’s top designer Vittorio Jano to jump ship and design Alfa Grand Prix cars. The 20s and 30s saw Alfa winning many Grand Prix and producing more technically advanced road cars. Naturally they all had that gorgeously sexy Italian styling!
Ferrari became a very successful team manager and when the team was sold off, Ferrari bought it and renamed it Scuderia Ferrari, initially designing and using Alfa based cars until 1939 and then Ferrari put his logo his own vehicles.
So, Alfa Romeo had collapsed into a heap in the early 30s. Romeo had parted company and several defence contracts were lost. The Italian Government stepped in and in a good fascist way, Alfa started to building bespoke cars for the wealthy using coachbuilders like Pininfarina to supply the bodies. Hold on a minute! Fascism is about supporting the common man not the rich and famous! Still it was filling Mussolini’s coffers so he didn’t care.
Then came the Second World War and the factory was bombed for making aircraft engines based on Daimler designs (remember the Nazis and Mussolini were buddies). The Italian Government still had control and when the war finished, the company started to build low cost road cars for the general population. The first, the Giulietta in 1954, had a small 1.3 litre 4 pot that was enlarged to 2 litres a few years later.
Motorsport was still a dominant force in the company and they started where they left off before the war – namely being the car to beat. They won the first two Formula 1 Drivers World Championship with Giuseppe Farina in 1950 and Juan Manuel Fangio in 51.
The 50s and 60s saw Alfa building cars designed by Italian coachbuilders including Bertone and the main model was the Giulia with a small 4-cylinder engine. In 1966 the classic Spider was added, based on the Giulia chassis and designed by Pininfarina. The Spider is still going today albeit in a more modern design.
Alfa struggled through the 70s with models like the Alfasud, the Alfetta, the Alfa 6 and the stunning Montreal. The Alfasud was built in Southern Italy, the Government's way of injecting jobs into a very depressed area. The name means Alfa South. The Alfetta was a very popular saloon that helped the company keep afloat (just). The Montreal was a concept car with a 2.6 litre V8 that made it into production for 7 years. The Alfa 6 was a luxury car launched in the late 70s.
The 80s saw Alfa following other European manufacturers by rebadging a Japanese car. The Alfa Romeo Arna was in fact a Nissan Cherry shell with Alfasud running gear. It wasn’t a huge success as you could buy a similar car with a Nissan badge on it! The car, also known as the Nissan Pulsar was also badged as a Holden Astra in Australia!
By 1986, the Government had sold the company to FIAT and it started sharing components with Lancia with new models such as the 164 and the start of the three digit model numbers.
Also produced was the SZ, based on the 75 model with a 3-litre V6 and built by Zagato. Only 1,000 were built. This car has shades of Maserati in it – but this was before Maserati had joined the FIAT Group.
Today, Alfa has successfully raced in touring car championships around the world and their cars are well engineered, stylish alternatives to the Japanese cars, albeit with a slightly higher price tag!
Finally, Alfas haven’t just been built in Italy. In the 70s they had a factory in South Africa and recent models have been made in Thailand, a facility jointly owned by FIAT and General Motors.