Roadside Attraction: Museo Storico Alfa Romeo Part 3: Legends in Living Color (Mostly Red)

By the late Sixties, a new era was beginning at Alfa Romeo, marked by the arrival of mid-engined, V8-powered competition cars, and also by the design of new engines and chassis that would see the company through the Seventies. The T33/2 above is one of the compettion cars. By the time Alfa's Autodelta racing arm modified Carlo Chiti's T33 design for the 1968 endurance racing season, the 2 liter, 4-cam V8 was sending 270 hp through a 6-speed transaxle. A 2.5 liter version made 315 hp, and helped Alfa to finish 3rd in the Manufacturer's Championship in 1968...

...a year in which Daytona Coupe versions of the 2-liter V8 T33/2 finished 5th, 6th and 7th at the Daytona 24 hours.  The first 3 places were taken by 2.2 liter Porsche 907 flat 8s, and 4th was a Shelby Mustang.

A year later, the GT Am replaced the alloy-bodied GTA.  Due to an increase in the minimum allowable weight for production-based road racers, the GT Am featured a steel body with some fiberglass, as well as alloy, panels.  The 2-liter, twin-cam, twin-plug engine eventually made 240 hp, just 30 hp less than the first Type 33 V8.  The chassis on the GT-Am was still based on the live-axle GTV.  As with the Type 33 / 2, the GT Am was built by Autodelta; production numbers are the subject of debate.

The Junior Z also appeared in 1969, and was bodied in steel by Zagato  to Ercole Spada's design on a Duetto chassis shortened behind the rear wheels to allow for the small overhang on the original 1300 cc model, which stayed in production until 1972, and overlapped the 1600 cc version, with longer rear overhang,and a longer rear hatch (which, like that on the 1300, could be electrically opened for ventilation) that was produced into 1973.  The last new Junior Z was sold in 1975.  Slightly over 1,500 were built, of which 402 were the 1600 model, and despite their nimble, focused handling and cutting-edge design, the Junior Zs were not quite the last word in exotic variations on the Giulia chassis...

That honor would fall to the Bertone-bodied Montreal, which in 1970 married the Series 105 Giulia chassis with a  2.6 liter production version of the aluminum Type 33 V8.  Like the endurance racers, it featured a dry sump, but shared chain-drive for its 4 cams with the T33 Stradale*, unlike the gear-driven racer's cams.  Another divergence from the T33 Stradale and racers was that the Montreal featured a cross-plane crankshaft. The body design, penned by Marcello Gandini, was based upon a concept car that had appeared at Expo 67 in Montreal; thus the name.  Alfa surprised critics by retaining the tried and true live axle of the Series 105, even though they were working on a new front engine, rear transaxle chassis for ideal weight distribution.

In 1972, Alfa Romeo released its new Alfetta, a 5-passenger sedan with unit body designed by Alfa's Centro Stile and a rear-mounted 5-speed transmission and clutch assembly in unit with the De Dion rear axle.  In this configuration the new car echoed its namesake, the Type 159 Alfetta that had won the GP World Championship in 1951.  For those who wondered why Alfa had not reserved this chassis for the recent Montreal or the GTV, Alfa released a new Giugiaro-designed fastback Alfetta GTV with the transaxle in 1974, still with the trusty twin-cam Giulia four.  And while the V8 Montreal was discontinued in 1977, Alfisti would wait until 1980 to get their hands on the GTV6, uniting the transaxle chassis with a new 60 degree, 2.5 liter SOHC V6 from the Alfa 6 luxury sedan.

Alfa's T33 was actually a series of cars featuring different engine and chassis designs, beginning with a 2 liter, tubular chassis V8, continuing with a 3 liter V8, then a 3 liter flat 12, still with the tubular chassis, and concluding with a twin-turbo 2.1 liter flat 12 with monocoque chassis when the tubular chassis began to flex under the torque load imposed by ever-more powerful engines.  The TT12 (TT for Telaio Tubolare, a tubular chassis) appeared in 1972 and after teething troubles, won its first race at Monza in 1974, the model year of the car above, which made 500 hp from 3 liters and weighed only 1,477 pounds.  In 1975 a turbo version of the TT12 was introduced, eventually making up to 640 hp in the 1977 version below and requiring a monocoque chassis, indicated by the SC suffix.  The 1974 car above helped win Alfa the World Championship of Makes in 1975; in 1977 Alfa's Autodelta team repeated the Championship win in endurance racing, and then  shifted its attention to Formula 1.

The normally-aspirated version of the flat 12 from 1975's Championship appears below...

The Gordon Murray-designed 1978 Brabham BT45 below relaunched Alfa's Formula One efforts after the 2 endurance racing championships with the T33, and used a similar design for its flat 12 engine, though with some modification as the engine block was a load-bearing element in the Brabham.  Despite the engine's weight penalty compared to Mario Andretti's 1978 Championship-winning Cosworth Ford (in a Lotus), Nicki Lauda won 2 races that year.  The first, the GP of Sweden, later resulted in a protest of the ground-effects fan on the BT45, but race officials deemed it to be legal, and Lauda's victory stood.  Lauda later won a non-Championship F1 race at Imola in the Alfa-powered Brabham.

Alfa's campaigned a new Type 182 racer with limited success in most of 1982's F1 races.  Engineers changed to a 3 liter V12 engine making 540 hp in a new carbon fiber chassis; the combination gained one pole position over the year, but no points... 

This front-drive Alfa 164 with transverse 3.0 liter V6 shared a basic chassis design with the Fiat Chroma, Lancia Thema, and Saab 9000, but featured completely distinct body styling by Pininfarina's designer Enrico Fumia.  Engine choices also included the Twin Spark inline four, a turobocharged 2 liter V6, and a 24 valve version of the 3 liter V6.  The 164 was introduced in 1987, and continued through the Fiat takeover in 1991 into 1997. It was sold in the US through Alfa's temporary departure from our market in 1995.  A version with power to all four wheels was offered in Europe, along with diesel versions.

Designer Walter de Silva's team at Alfa Centro Stile created the Nuvola concept car in 1996. It used a twin-turbocharged version of the 2.5 liter V6, but unlike the contemporary Alfa  Spider (1993-2004) and GTV ('94-2004) which used the 164's transverse engine and front drive, the Nuvola channeled its 300 hp to all four wheels from an longitudinal engine mounted beneath that long hood.  Plastic bodywork convered a tubular steel chassis, and part of  Alfa's concept was to revive the coachbuilding art by offering the chassis to specialists like Pininfarina, Bertone and Zagato.

The grille design seemed a reference to Fifties designs from Touring* and Bertone*, and Nuvola, meaning "cloud" in Italian, also recalled Alfa driver Tazio Nuvolari.  But the Nuvola, like a cloud, drifted away from production plans as the Nineties shaded into the 21st century.

The 156 sedan did make it into production in 1997, though, and was lighter and more compact than the 164 which it overlapped in production for a year.  It was also offered in Sportwagon and Crosswagon versions, the latter with four-wheel drive, and a variety of transverse engines including Twin Spark inline fours in 3 sizes from 1.6 to 2.0 liters, 2.5 and 3.2 liter versions of the V6, and diesels with 4 or 5 cylinders.  The car was successful in Europe, and stayed in production through 2007, but was never imported into the US, where it might have offered an alternative to the Audi line. 

When it appeared at the Frankfurt Show in 2003, the Alfa 8C Competizione show car reminded critics of Sixties Alfa designs by Zagato and Bertone, but if was designed in house by Wolfgang Eggers.  And despite the name, it wasn't a competition car; instead it was designed as a comfortable, high-performance GT.  It took awhile for the Fiat combine to get the car into production, and the first of 500 customer cars appeared in 2007 with carbon fiber bodywork on a steel chassis.  The front-engine, rear-drive chassis echoied Alfas of the classic period, and 444 hp was provided  by a 4.7 liter V8 shared with Maserati and Ferrari.  A six-speed manual was the only transmission.

With just under 3,500 pounds of mass sitting on a 104 inch wheelbase, the 8C did not share the lightness or compactness of its Sixties forbears, but it offered plenty of performance and style.  An 8C Spider appeared in 2008.  Overlapping production of the coupe, which ended in 2009, the Spider was made in 500 units into 2010.  It did have another link to Alfa's legendary classics: like the bodies for the Type 33 Stradale*, the prototype for the 8C Spider was built by Carrozzeria Marazzi...

*Footnote:

Touring-bodied Alfas were profiled in Parts 1 and 2 of this series, posted May 8 and May 19, 2022.  Bertone-bodied cars are reviewed in Part 2, along with Scaglione's design for the T33 Stradale.  The history of Zagato-bodied Alfas was summarized in a photo essay entitled "Body by Zagato Part 2: Five Decades of Alfa Romeos", posted May 6, 2020. 

Photo Credits: 

All photos were generously provided by George Havelka, except for the front closeup of the Nuvola, which is from Alfa Romeo, and was posed on Wikimedia.

 

Roadside Attraction: Museo Storico Alfa Romeo Part 2----Another Golden Era

Because eras pay no attention to the calendar, it should not come as a big surprise that our survey of legendary Alfas from the Fifties and Sixties begins with a car based on a 1938 design. This was the Type 159, a refinement of Gioachinno Colombo's design for the Alfetta 158 which aimed at voiturette racing, which related to Thirties GP racing as Formula 2 related to Formula 1 in the post-WW2 period.  For the prewar 1.5 liter formula, Colombo created a 1.5 liter straight eight with Alfa's by-then expected twin overhead cams, and a single-stage Roots supercharger.  Rear suspension was, as on the 8C 2900, by swing axles.  The car developed around 200 hp and assumed more significance when GP regulations were changed to favor smaller engines for the 1940 season, but war stopped racing, along with much of everything else, in its tracks...

After the war, though, Alfa management realized they had a car well-suited to the new Grand Prix formula, which limited supercharged engines to 1.5 liters and normally aspirated ones to 4.5.  Alfa engineers tweaked the engine to produce around 50% more power than the pre-war version, in the Tipo 158 / 47.  Driver Achille Varzi was tragically killed in this car's debut in the Swiss GP of 1948, but Giuseppe Farina won the 1950 World Driver's Championship in this version of the 158. For 1951, Alfa came back with the 159, which featured 2-stage supercharging, an amazing 420 hp, and a new De Dion rear axle.  With the 159, Juan Manuel Fangio won the first of his 5 World Championships that year.   In the same era, Alfa produced the AR-51 "Matta" four-wheel drive vehicle for the Italian military.  Not surprisingly, the AR-51 brought Alfa's new four-cylinder twin-cam 1900 engine into a different field of service...

The next year, in 1952, Carlo Anderloni's Touring Superleggera produced advanced alloy body work on chassis powered by a 2 liter four based on the 1900, but enlarged and with an aluminum block, as well as a new 3.5 liter twincam inline six based on the 3000 CM race car. The Disco Volantes* ("flying saucers") reflected the postwar fascination with outer space, and featured ovoid, lenticular sections, front to rear and side to side.  Though only 5 cars were produced, their wind-tunnel tested forms can be found (especially if you squint) in designs as diverse as the D-Type Jaguar and the Corvette Stingray, which adopted doors curving into the roof (a feature of the lone Disco coupe) as well as the strong horizontal line separating the upper fender forms from the lower body.

The convex spears formed into the deck became conventional headrest supports on the one Disco Volante that was actually raced, the "narrow-hipped" 2 liter spyder, so called because it lacked the bulging sides of the other cars.  That car is directly below the C52 below for comparison...

A similar narrow body was produced by Colli for six cylinder 3000CM race cars that competed in the Mille Miglia.  Fangio took 2nd place in 1953 in one of those coupes...

A mysterious V12 engine on display is also dated from 1952, but GP races in that year were run to Formula 2 specifications.  Was this a new GP engine for the earlier formula (4.5 liters normally aspirated, 1.5 liters supercharged) that was ready too late?  If so, it's ironic because Alfa's withdrawal from GP racing after their 1951 Chanpionship prompted the change to Formula 2 rules…

At the same time, over at Bertone, designer Franco Scaglione* was designing up a storm of innovation, including the famous BAT* coupes, none of which are at the Museo Storico.  What is there, however, is one of two prototype 2000 Sportiva coupes, based on the same 2 liter engine as the first Disco Volantes.  In 1954 the designer experimented with ideas that would appear on two of Bertone's production cars for Alfa, the mass-produced Giulietta Sprint and the more limited Sprint Speciale.

Those ideas included the fastback roof line with parabolic arc reflected in the section and plan of the rear window (both cars), the shape of the tail lights (Sprint coupe), and the placement  of the Alfa shield grille shape as a decorative element in the center of a low, oval air intake (Sprint Speciale).

The 1300 Giulietta sedan shown below appeared after the 1954 Giulietta Sprint coupe. Bodywork on the sedan was designed and built at Alfa's Milan factory, and reflects the company's more conservative approach to sedans.

Bertone's Sprint Speciale, shown below, first appeared in 1957. Early prototypes had an even lower nose than the example car. Like the Giulietta series itself, the Sprint Speciale enjoyed a long life, starting production in 1959 and extending into the Giulia series in 1966.

The Sprint Speciale was the first production Alfa to have a subtly chopped tail with a recessed panel beneath the deck (barely visible in mirror above and below).  Zagato's Coda Tronca, shown below, had a much more pronounced chop, also shown in the mirror, and fewer than 50 were produced in 1961-62..

Also in 1962, Alfa introduced its new Giulia 105 series, first with the square-rigged sedan shown below.  Possibly as a result of the dropped nose and the concave indent along the fender tops, the car has a lower CD than expected, and became a successful sedan racer. 

Giorgetto Giugiaro's design for Bertone's new 2000 Sprint coupe went into production in 1961 and lasted into 1962, when after only 740 examples it became the 2600 coupe with new aluminum block six.  This version lasted into 1968; more importantly, the roof shape would be echoed in the 1963 Giulia GTV, a design that would stay in production a dozen years.

The silver 1965 prototype for the Giulia version of the Bertone's Giulietta Sprint Speciale was designed by Giugiaro, and shows some influence from his earlier Corvair Testudo show car, including the large, wraparound rear window with reverse slant B-pillar, and the horizontal crease along the flanks.  The production Giulia versions of the Sprint Speciale, however, used the old design.

Giugiaro's GTV design for Bertone had great popularity with the public from the start, and the body design was also built in alloy for the GTA factory road racers, as shown below.

Zagato followed the Coda Tronca with the tubular chassis, independent rear suspension, alloy-bodied TZ, and built over a hundred.  For the TZ2 in 1965, engineer Carlo Chiti's Autodelta team adopted magnesium castings, twin-plug ignition, dry sump lubrication, and a body built in fiberglass, a first for Zagato.  Power went up to 170 and top speed to 160, but costs were higher as well, so production amounted to a dozen.

One figure that did not increase was overall height, the roof of the TZ2 was only 41 inches above the road, requiring a new design for the seats, with a more reclined driving position.

One of the other projects occupying ex-ATS engineer Carlo Chiti at the Autodelta racing operation was the Type 33, a mid-engined 2 liter road racer with a 2 liter V8 engine. This was not a surprising configuration when you consider that his design for the short-lived ATS* road car had been a 2.5 liter V8 in the same location.  But in the Type 33, he specified twin-cam heads, where the ATS had been an SOHC design.  The new engine produced 240 hp, making the Stradale road version below an early Supercar.  Even without the landmark engine, the Stradale would've been noted for the body design by Franco Scaglione, who had left Bertone. Touring needed the body contract, but the company expired in 1966. First prototypes were built by Scaglione's crew, and later cars by Carrozzeria Marazzi, a firm composed of ex-Touring artisans who also built the Lamborghini Islero. At a time when a Stradale's price would've bought a Lamborghini Miura, demand was limited.  Only 18 chassis were produced from late 1967 to spring 1969, and 12 received the Scaglione body design...

This begs the question of what happened to the other chassis. They went to coachbuilders like Bertone, Giugiaro's new Ital Design, and Pininfarina and became spectacular show cars. In 1968, Ital Design showed the Iguana below.  It continued the exploration of creased wedge  forms he'd started with the DeTomaso Mangusta and the Maserati Ghibli, and also confirmed his preference for silver as the color for show cars.  Here, though, the silver tone was achieved by polishing the alloy body to a medium reflectivity...

At Bertone, designer Marcello Gandini produced the most memorable Type 33 prototype, the Carabo, also in 1968.  It took the wedge trend to a new extreme, emphasizing the low chassis with dropped window sills and dark body sills, and a startling color scheme including special bronze glass.  It also featured the scissor doors that later showed up on Gandini's design for the Lamborghini Countach...

At Pininfarina, Leonardo Fioravanti's design for the 33/2 Coupé Speciale went off in the opposite direction.  Composed of a series of compound-curved volumes and voids, the Speciale almost seemed a protest against the wedge fashion.  It was closely related to the Ferrari P5 show car Fioravanti had designed for PF the previous year, and some suggested that the P5's body had simply been grafted onto the Type 33 chassis.

The 33/2 Coupé Speciale, like the Carabo and  Iguana, would remain a unique example of an idea Alfa chose not to produce in quantity. Even the Stradale bodies designed by Scaglione were so few, and different in detail from car to car, that "production" doesn't apply. When Alfa Romeo finally decided to offer a production car related to their V8 racing engine, it would turn out to be a front-engined relative of the successful Giulia series.  That story will be told in Part 3...

*Footnote:

We surveyed Franco Scaglione's work on Alfa and other chassis in "Unsung Genius Franco Scaglione: The Arc of Success" (Dec. 20, 2017) and in "Bertone's Bookends: Alfa Romeo BATs" (Aug. 25, 2020).  Touring Superleggera body designs on Alfa chassis were featured in "Touring Superleggera: The Italian Line Travels Light" (Sept. 30, 2020) and the influence of their Disco Volante on other Alfas in "After the Flying Saucers", posted Aug. 5, 2018.  The history of Zagato-bodied Alfas was summarized in a photo essay entitled "Body by Zagato Part 2: Five Decades of Alfa Romeos", posted May 6, 2020.  And we reviewed the saga of the ATS make, and attempts ot revive it, in "Forgotten Classic Revival Show" (Nov. 12, 2018).

Photo Credits: 

All photos were generously provided by George Havelka.

 

Roadside Attraction: Museo Storico Alfa Romeo Part 1, Before and Between the Wars

It was a young century, and as war clouds gathered, scientists and engineers persisted in laying down schemes for a bright future perfected by technology.  This may sound like the news you read early this year, but it was also the news in 1913, as the Italian Futurist movement drew plans for modern cities connected by airplanes and elevated highways. This was the scene into which Alfa Romeo dropped its 40 / 60 hp Aerodynamica, also known as the Siluro (torpedo) Ricotti. Inspired by airships, Count Ricotti commissioned a special body in unpainted, damascened alloy on an Alfa Romeo chassis designed by Giuseppe Moresi.  The body was designed and built by Castagna, and the whole project brought attention to Alfa Romeo, a young company founded in 1910...

The compound-curved windshield and side windows wouldn't appear on any production cars until the Fifties, though they would show up on aircraft before then.  The streamlining effect added 14 kmh to the car's top speed, which was 93 mph.  Portholes lend a Jules Verne effect to the design. Rectangular doors behind the front wheels gave access to the 6.1 liter power unit, an inline four. 

    

A year after Alfa's founding, the Alfa 15 HP Corsa above made 25 hp from its cast-iron, inline side-valve four.  Peak power occurred at 2,400 rpm, and was sent to the rear wheels by a 3 speed transmission.  The 24 HP model below shared the same engine design, but the model name, perhaps reflecting greater confidence by Alfa's engineers, more accurately described the available power. The 24 HP was produced into the fateful year of 1914, in around 200 examples.

The renovated Alfa museum, the Museo Storico Alfa Romeo in Arese, exhibits these and other wonders, from Alfa's beginnings into the modern era...

The RL of 1922-27 was the first sporting Alfa Romeo, and engineer Moresi's engine design was an overhead-valve inline 6 of 3 liters, making 71 hp in this 1925 RL Super Sport.  As with the Aerodynamica, the unpainted alloy body features a lively pattern.  

Ugo Zagato's  firm bodied this 6C 1750 Gran Sport from 1932 in what would become a signature pared-down, lightweight style.  By this time sports Alfa Romeos featured the famous twin overhead cam engine originated by Vittorio Jano, and in this Gran Sport it made 85 hp. Suspension was by rigid axles on semi-elliptical leaf springs, front and rear.

The 8C 2300 Corto (short chassis) features twin, inline 4-cylinder blocks with a detachable head in aluminum.  As in the the 6c 1750, the camshafts are gear-driven, and a 4 -speed gearbox transmits a healthy 155 hp to the rear wheels.  Over 300 examples  of this series  were built from 1931-34.  Zagato*, Castagna and Touring Superleggera* supplied bodies for the series.    

The 6C 2300B Mille Miglia coupe below shows how body designers followed trends toward streamlining after the mid-Thirties.  This car was bodied by Touring Superleggera; the engine features a detachable twin-cam head in light alloy.  Independent front and rear suspension was introduced in 1935, with swing axles at the rear.  106 examples were produced from 1938 to '39.

The ultimate road car offered by Alfa, and the fastest car offered for sale from 1935 to '39, was the 8C 2900.  The 8C 2900B shown below was bodied by Touring Superleggera in 1938.  Engines were 2.9 liter supercharged inline eights, with two separate 4-cylinder blocks, based upon a design used in Alfa's GP cars.  Power ranged from 180 to 220 hp.  Carlo Anderloni's design emphasizes teardrop fenders and curved surfaces converging at a strongly tapered tail.  No more than 42 cars were built of the 8C 2900, A and B series included.

Touring also bodied the 6C 2500 Sport below in 1939. Aerodynamic touches include headlights integrated into the fender contours, and sliding side windows curved in plan.  The 2500 series would become Alfa's flagship after the war.

When Alfa management found out that the 3-liter formula for GP cars would be changed to 1.5 liters in 1940, engineers Gioachinno Colombo (later at Ferrari) and Wilfredo Ricart (later at Pegaso) designed a mid-engined single-seater powered by a supercharged flat-12. In its massing and aerodynamics, the Alfa 512 resembled the Auto Union racers designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

This was an interesting choice, as Alfa's racing team already had a 1.5 liter racer in the 158, a front-engined, supercharged inline 8 introduced in 1938.  The new 335 hp flat twelve had a short stroke by comparison, and the flat configuration suited the goal of keeping mass low and centralized...

The result was a driving cabin sandwiched between the radiator and the fuel tank.  World War Ii ended the 512 program, and only one of 2 chassis completed received a body. In the postwar era,  Alfa's front-engined 158 and 159 racers would win championships...

Alfa introduced the Freccia d'Oro (Golden Arrow) in 1946 as their first postwar car.  It was a coupe version of the 6C 2500, built on the 120 inch Sport wheelbase, and unlike other versions of the 2500 bodied by specialists like Touring and Pinin Farina, it was fitted with bodywork designed and built by Alfa Romeo.  The savings from standardization made this the most popular 6C 2500 by far, with 680 examples built before production ended in 1951.  By then Alfa was involved in mass production of an even more standardized car, the four cylinder 1900 sedan parked behind the Freccia d'Oro in the photo below.  The Golden Arrow became famous in the USA for a not-so-golden moment:  one was blown up in a scene from "The Godfather", in 1972.  This would not happen today, even in a big-budget film...

The 6C 2500 SS coupe below was a postwar design by Touring Superleggera, and was first shown at the Villa d'Este concours in 1949.  Carlo Anderloni's body design predicted Fifties styling trends, with ribs formed around the wheel arches that visually lowered the car as well as adding stiffness to alloy panels.  Indented curves bordering the hood and deck forms help unify the form.  Only 3 dozen of this design, named for the Villa d'Este, were built before production ended in 1952...

The 2500 series was the last hand-built, prewar chassis offered by Alfa Romeo before the firm launched the mass-produced 1900 Series at the dawn of the Fifties.  The story of that decade at Alfa will be the subject of Part 2.

*Footnote:

The history of Zagato-bodied Alfas was summarized in a photo essay entitled "Body by Zagato Part 2: Five Decades of Alfa Romeos", posted May 6, 2020. Bodywork by Touring Superleggera on Alfa chassis was featured in "Touring Superleggera:  The Italian Line Travels Light", posted September 30, 2020.

Photo Credits: 

All photos were generously provided by George Havelka.