EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ALFA ROMEO
It's been over 100 years that this company has delivered jaw-dropping motor vehicles, but there's more to it than meets the eye. This is Everything You Need To Know about Alfa Romeo.
With such a long history, steeped in tales of success and failure, it's no wonder that Alfa Romeo is such a divisive brand. Some don't have the time of day, citing reliability issues and pricing as what puts them off. Others, however, believe everyone should own an Alfa at least once in their life, pimples and all.
But it wasn't always like that. In 1906, a gentleman named Alexandre Darracq opened up an Italian division of a French car company and called it the Societá Italiana Automobili Darracq. By 1910, the company wasn't doing very well, not surprising considering Darracq didn't even like cars, so he renamed it Alfa and decided to try again.
Five years later, an engineer named Nicola Romeo invested in the company and upgraded their automobile factories to build aeroplane engines for World War One. Three years later, in 1918, the two entrepreneurs figured they were on to a good thing and merged, creating the Alfa Romeo company we know today.
After the war, Alfo was flush with cash and the leftover car parts. Vehicle production was back on, and with what they'd learned about aeroplanes, would build the Torpedo 20- and 30HP. These numbers designated the wheel horsepower.
A couple of years later, a young chap called Enzo Ferrari joined their factory racing team as a relatively good racing driver. When he moved into a managerial role for the team, though, is when he came into his own. Soon, he recruited another Italian named Vittorio Jano, and Alfa's racing legacy was born.
Jano was responsible for creating many of Alfa's most successful racing cars and, legend has it, that once he even ate a meal in the garage mid-race knowing the cars would be victorious.
In the video below, we join James from Donut and learn so much more. Like where the Quadrifoglio logo came from, how they got taken over by the fascist government before the Second World War, their relationship with Ferrari and a gallery of their most stunning cars.
Alfa has always been seen as delivering cars you buy with your heart, not your head, but it's easy to see why when you look at their cars over the past century... just look at the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale.
With that said, it's time to hand over to James, for Everything You Need To Know about Alfa Romeo.