Alfa Romeo 8c heritage
Alfa Romeo is one of the most famous automobile manufacturers of racing and concept cars. The company’s early beginning was in Milan in 1910 as Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, and hence the Alfa. They started out manufacturing purely racing cars and these cars are really legends in their own space. The company thrives on its heritage and even with the new publicly offered cars incorporate designs of the early racing cars. The cars are always bold statements and are not just mere transporters, they are meant to stand out from the rest and make people notice them wherever they are. The cars are usually a show of personality, character and emotion.
The earliest car was the 1908 Darracq 8/10 HP released by the original Societa Anonima Italiana Darracq (SAID) company founded by Alexandre Darracq and backed by Italian investors in 1906 in Naples. When the Darracq sales started declining Italian investors, the aristocrat Ugo Stella, formed the new ALFA in partnership with Alexander Darracq and moved to a new factory in Milan. They also hired a designer Giuseppe Merosi to be able to manufacture cars more suitable to the Italian market.
In 1910 they released the 24 HP a 24 horsepower car that was part of the Targa Florio in 1911, driven by Franchini and Ronzoni. World War One interrupted the production of cars for three years and resumed in 1915 under the direction of Nicola Romeo, a Neapolitan businessman. Napolean concentrated on military vehicles and parts.
In 1920 Romeo with his profits from the world war, changed the name of the company to Alfa Romeo and started producing racing and normal cars, with the original designer Merosi. They produced the Torpedo 20-30HP, RL Targa Florio and the 40-60HP.
In 1925 Vittorio Jano moved to Alfa Romeo from Fiat on the insistence of Enzo Ferrari, the company’s race car driver. Jano was the designer behind the P2 Grand Prix which won the World Championship in 1925. Jano also made several small and middle sized road cars for Alfa Romeo. These were fitted with a P2 engine and had 4, 6 and 8 inline power plants. The cars were famous for being the most reliable and powerful too.
1936 Alfa Romeo 8c
Unfortunately after the war contracts ended in 1928, the company started having losses that he was unable to cope with, so Nicola Romeo left the company to the hands of the government which produced the Alfa Romeo 2900B Type 35 racers. The factory was then bombed in the World War Two and cause further problems. This forced production to shift from luxury cars to mass produced cars like the Giulietta saloons/sedans, coupes and open two-seaters. This molded the production of the Alfa Romeo Twin Cam engine, from its early 1300 cc form to its final (1962 cc) and continued producing them right upto 1995.
Alfa Romeo was a car to reckon in Grand Prix events. Alfa Romeo’s tipo 158 Alfetta, adapted from a pre-war voiturette, and Giuseppe Farina won the first Formula One World Championship in 1950 and the 158. Juan Manuel Fangio won Alfa’s second consecutive championship in 1951
In 1954, Alfa-Romeo started producing its first front-wheel drive compact car named “33″ which was fashioned on its popular Alfa-Romeo Giulia. In the 60s Alfa continued producing racing cars like the Gran Turismo Allegerita which won the first Sports Car Club of America’s Trans-Am championship in 1966. The 70s saw Alfa producing sports car racing with the Tipo 33, which was successful winning many competitions in 1971. The Tipo 33TT12 won the World Championship for Makes in 1975 and the Tipo 33SC12 won the World Championship for Sports Cars in 1977.
Again in 1970 Alfa started having financial woes and the Fiat Group finally took over in 1986 forming the Alfa Lancia Industriale S.p.A., to manufacture Alfas and Lancias. The company focused on Alfa’s traditional values and its forward styling with a sports car feel with a 147 hatchblack GTA styled., the Brera and the legendary 8C Competizione.
