Альфа Ромео: История итальянского автопроизводителя

Italian automotive manufacturer

Alfa Romeo Automobiles S. p. A. (ˈalfa roˈmɛːo) is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe. It was founded on 24 June 1910 in Milan, Italy, as A. L. F. A., an acronym for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. The brand is known for sport oriented vehicles and has been involved in car racing since 1911. As of 2023 it is a subsidiary of the multinational automotive manufacturing corporation Stellantis. Alfa Romeo began with the purchase of the main factory building of French carmaker Darracq in Milan, which was closing up and selling all its assets. Its first car was the 1910 24 HP, designed by Giuseppe Merosi. Alfa ventured into motor racing, with drivers Franchini and Ronzoni competing in the 1911 Targa Florio with two 24 hp models. In August 1915, the company came under the direction of Neapolitan entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who converted the factory to produce military hardware for the Italian and Allied war efforts. In 1920, the name of the company was changed to Alfa Romeo with the Torpedo 20–30 HP the first car to be so badged. In 1921, the Banca Italiana di Sconto, which backed the Ing. Nicola Romeo & Co., went bankrupt, and the government needed to support the industrial companies involved, of which Alfa Romeo was among, through the "Consorzio per Sovvenzioni sui Valori Industriali". In 1925, the railway activities were separated from the Romeo company, and in 1928 Nicola Romeo left. In 1933, the state ownership was reorganized under the banner of the Italian state industrial organization Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI), which then had effective control. The company struggled to return to profitability after World War II and turned to mass producing small vehicles rather than hand building luxury models. In 1954, it developed the Alfa Romeo Twin Cam engine, which would remain in production until 1994. The Istituto per la Ricostruzione (IRI), the state conglomerate that controls Finmeccanica, sold the marque to the Fiat Group in 1986 due to the marque being unprofitable. Alfa Romeo has competed successfully in Grand Prix motor racing, Formula One, sportscar racing, touring car racing, and rallies. It has competed both as a constructor and an engine supplier, via works entries (usually under the name Alfa Corse or Autodelta), and private entries. The first racing car was made in 1913, three years after the foundation of the company, and Alfa Romeo won the inaugural world championship for Grand Prix cars in 1925. The race victories gave a sporty image to the marque, and Enzo Ferrari founded the Scuderia Ferrari racing team in 1929 as an Alfa Romeo racing team, before becoming independent in 1939. Ferrari has had the most wins of any marque in the world.

The company's name is a combination of the original name, "A. L. F. A." ("Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili" “Anonymous Lombardy Automobile Factory”), and the last name of entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who took control of the company in 1915.

Once motorsports resumed after the Second World War, Alfa Romeo proved to be the car to beat in Grand Prix events. The introduction of the new formula (Formula One) for single seat racing cars provided an ideal setting for Alfa Romeo's Tipo 158 Alfetta, adapted from a pre war voiturette, and Giuseppe Farina won the first Formula One World Championship in 1950 in the 158. Juan Manuel Fangio secured Alfa's second consecutive championship in 1951. In 1952, Alfa Romeo experimented with its first front wheel drive compact car, "Project 13–61". It had the same transverse mounted, forward motor layout as the modern front wheel drive automobile. Alfa Romeo made a second attempt in the late 1950s based on Project 13–61. It was to be called Tipo 103 and resembled the smaller version of its popular Alfa Romeo Giulia. However, due to the financial difficulties in post war Italy, the Tipo 103 never saw production. Had Alfa Romeo produced it, it would have preceded the Mini as the first "modern" front wheel drive compact car. In the mid 1950s, Alfa Romeo entered into an agreement with Brazil's Matarazzo Group to create a company called Fabral (Fábrica Brasileira de Automóveis Alfa, "the Brazilian Alfa automobile factory") to build the Alfa Romeo 2000 there. After having received government approval, Matarazzo pulled out under pressure from Brazil's President Juscelino Kubitschek with the state owned FNM company instead commenced building the car as the "FNM 2000" there in 1960. During the 1960s, Alfa Romeo concentrated on motorsports using production based cars, including the GTA (standing for Gran Turismo Allegerita), an aluminium bodied version of the Bertone designed coupe with a powerful twin plug engine. Among other victories, the GTA won the inaugural Sports Car Club of America's Trans Am championship in 1966. In the 1970s, Alfa Romeo concentrated on prototype sports car racing with the Tipo 33, with early victories in 1971. Eventually the Tipo 33TT12 gained the World Championship for Makes for Alfa Romeo in 1975 and the Tipo 33SC12 won the World Championship for Sports Cars in 1977. As Alfa Romeo was a state controlled company, they were often subject to political pressure. To help industrialize Italy's underdeveloped south, Alfa Romeo's new compact car was to be built at a new factory at Pomigliano d'Arco in Campania. Even the car's name, Alfa Sud (Alfa South), reflected where it was built. 18 January 1968, saw a new company named "Industria Napoletana Costruzioni Autoveicoli Alfa Romeo Alfasud S. p. A." being formed, 90% of which belonged to Alfa Romeo and 10% to Government controlled holding company Finmeccanica. This plant was built in the wake of France's 1968 protests and Italy's Hot Autumn and was never "properly started." The employees had mainly construction backgrounds and were not trained for factory work, while industrial relations were troublesome throughout. Absenteeism rates in the Pomigliano factory ran at 16.5 percent through the 1970s, reaching as high as 28 percent. By the 1970s, Alfa Romeo was again in financial trouble, with the company running at about sixty percent of capacity in 1980.—and IRI president Romano Prodi put Alfa Romeo up for sale. Finmeccanica, the mechanical holdings arm of IRI and its predecessors owned Alfa Romeo since 1932. Prodi first approached fellow Italian manufacturer Fiat, which offered to start a joint venture with Alfa.

Alfa Romeo was imported to the United States by Max Hoffman from the mid 1950s. The Giulietta Spider was developed on the request of Max Hoffman, who proposed an open top version of the Giulietta. In 1961 Alfa Romeo started exporting cars to the United States through its own dealer network. In 1995, Alfa Romeo ceased exporting cars to the United States, the last model sold in that market being the 164 sedan. On 5 May 2006, Alfa Romeo made its return to the US Market as announced by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne after a series of rumours. North American sales resumed in October 2008, with the launch of the limited production 8C Competizione coupe with Alfa Romeo models being imported by Fiat's US subsidiary Chrysler. Also in 2008, Alfa Romeo and Chrysler were reported to be in discussions over the possibility of producing Alfa Romeo cars in some Chrysler manufacturing plants that had shut down due to the company group's restructure and cost cutting. Instead, as reported by The Wall Street Journal in November 2009, Chrysler discontinued several Dodge and Jeep models while phasing in Alfa Romeo ones and the new Fiat 500. The next significant milestones in Alfa Romeo's North American return occurred in 2014, with the launch of the more affordable two seater 4C coupe. That year, Fiat Group Automobiles S. p. A. confirmed that its original agreement with Mazda Motor Corporation, for the speculated manufacturing of a new Alfa Romeo Spider based on the Mazda MX 5 had been terminated mutually in December 2014. The proposed model for this joint venture became the Fiat 124 Spider convertible launched in 2015. In 2015, Alfa Romeo's return to this market was further bolstered by the automaker's display of the new Giulia at the Los Angeles Auto Show. In February 2017, Chrysler featured its Alfa Romeo brand exclusively in three ads during Super Bowl LI. the first road car with such an engine, the 6C 1500 Sport, appeared in 1928. Alfa Romeo tested one of the first electronic fuel injection systems (Caproni Fuscaldo) in the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 with "Ala spessa" body in 1940 Mille Miglia. The engine had six electrically operated injectors, fed by a semi high pressure circulating fuel pump system. 1969 models for the North American market had SPICA (Società Pompe Iniezione Cassani & Affini, a subsidiary of Alfa Romeo) mechanical fuel injection. According to Alfa Romeo, the engine's power output and performance were unchanged from the carburetted version. The SPICA system continued until the 1982 model year with the introduction of 2.0 liter Bosch electronic fuel injection. Many examples of SPICA powered Alfa's are found still running,

Mechanical variable valve timing was introduced in the Alfa Romeo Spider, sold in the U. S. in 1980. All Alfa Romeo Spider models from 1983 onward used electronic VVT. The 105 series Giulia was quite an advanced car, using technologies such as all wheel disc brakes, and a plastic radiator header tank. It had also the lowest drag coefficient (Cd) in its class The same trend continued with the Alfetta 2000 and GTV, which had quirks such as 50:50 weight distribution, standard fit alloy wheels and transaxle. Newer innovations include complete CAD design process used in designing the Alfa Romeo 164 and an automated/paddle shift transmission called Selespeed used in the 156; the 156 was also the world's first passenger car to use Common rail diesel engine. The Multiair an electro hydraulic variable valve actuation technology used in MiTo was introduced in 2009. In 2016, the Alfa Romeo Giulia came with electrical brakes.

Alfa Romeo's logo incorporates two heraldic devices traditionally associated with its birthplace, the city of Milan: A red cross, from the emblem of Milan, and the biscione, a big grass snake swallowing a child—emblem of the House of Visconti, rulers of the city in the 14th century. The logo was originally designed in 1910 by a young Italian draughtsman from the A. L. F. A. technical office, Romano Cattaneo.

In June 1910, the Società Anonima Darracq became Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, and was readying its first model, the 24 HP. The board asked chief engineer Giuseppe Merosi to devise a badge for the radiator shell of the new car; Merosi turned to his collaborators. One of them, Cattaneo, was inspired by the coat of arms he had seen on the gates of Castello Sforzesco to include the biscione in the logo. Merosi liked the idea, and together with Cattaneo came up with a sketch, then approved by managing director Ugo Stella; Cattaneo was entrusted with doing the final design. The original badge was round, of enamelled brass, measuring in diameter, and carried already all the present day accoutrements: the red cross on a white field of Milan on the left, a green biscione on a light blue field on the right, all surrounded by a blue ring inscribed with the words "ALFA" at the top and "MILANO" at the bottom. In honour of the King of Italy, the two words were separated by two figure eight knots—named Savoy knots in Italian, and symbols of the then reigning House of Savoy. Originally solid brass, the lettering was changed to white enamel in 1913. In 1918, after the company had been bought by Nicola Romeo, the wording "ALFA" was replaced with "ALFA ROMEO". In 1925, to commemorate the victory of the Alfa Romeo P2 in the inaugural World Manufacturers' Championship of 1925, a silver metal laurel wreath was added around the badge, used (in varying form) until 1982.

On 24 June 2015, 105th anniversary of the company, a new logo was unveiled at a press event at the Alfa Romeo Museum; together with the Alfa Romeo Giulia as part of the brand's relaunch plan. The redesign was carried out by Robilant Associati, who had previously reworked several other Fiat Group logos—including Fiat Automobiles' and Lancia's. The logo colors have been reduced from four to three: the green of the biscione, the red of the cross, and the dark blue of the surrounding ring. Other changes are a new serif type face, and the absence of the split white and light blue fields, replaced by a single silver textured background.

The quadrifoglio has been used on Alfa Romeo cars since the death of Ugo Sivocci in 1923. As a friend of Enzo Ferrari, Sivocci was hired by Alfa Romeo in 1920 to drive in the four man works team—Alfa Corse—with Antonio Ascari, Giuseppe Campari, and Enzo Ferrari. Sivocci was thought to have enormous experience, but often hampered by bad luck and considered the eternal second placer. To banish his bad luck, when the Targa Florio came around, the driver painted a white square with a green four leaf clover (the quadrifoglio) in the centre of the grille of his car. Sivocci had immediate success, crossing the finish line first. The quadrifoglio subsequently became the symbol of the racing Alfa Romeos with the victory at the Targa Florio. Almost as if to prove the magic effects of this symbol, Sivocci was killed while testing Merosi's new P1 at Monza, a few months after winning the Targa Florio. The Salerno driver's P1, which went off the track on a bend, did not have the quadrifoglio. Since this period in 1923, the bodies of Alfa Romeo racing cars have been adorned with the quadrifoglio as a lucky charm. The white square was replaced with a triangle in memory of Ugo Sivocci.

The first road car to bear the quadrifoglio was the 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super, a variant of the Giulia saloon car devised for competition but put regularly on sale; it had green four leaf clovers on its front wings, without the triangle. In the 1970s "Quadrifoglio Verde" or "Green Cloverleaf" became the trim level for each model's sportiest variant, equipped with the most powerful engine. The Alfasud, Sprint, 33, 75, 164 and 145 all had Quadrifoglio Verde versions. Also in the 1970s and through the 1980s golden four leaf clover badges were used to denote the most luxurious and well equipped variants of Alfa Romeo cars, named "Quadrifoglio Oro" or "Gold Cloverleaf". The Alfasud, Alfetta, Alfa 6, 90 and 33 had Quadrifoglio Oro versions. In recent times the quadrifoglio was revived on the 2007 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and Spider sports cars. With the current Alfa Romeo MiTo and Giulietta the Quadrifoglio Verde was reinstated as the sportiest trim level in the range, and green four leaf clovers on the front wings are once again the hallmark of high performance Alfa Romeos. Alfa Romeo's 2016 sport sedan, the all new Giulia, was launched first in Quadrifoglio trim before the release of the base models. Starting with the high end model wearing that historic signature emblem.

Alfa Romeo has been involved with motor racing since 1911, when it entered two 24 HP models in Targa Florio competition. Alfa Romeo won the first World Manufacturers' Championship in 1925 and the first AIACR European Championship in 1931 and it scored wins at many races and motoring events such as Targa Florio, Mille Miglia and Le Mans. Great success continued with Formula One, when Alfa Romeo won the first World Formula One Championship in 1950 and won the second Formula One Championship in 1951. The company also won international championships in Prototypes, Touring and Fast Touring categories in the 1960s and 1970s. Private drivers also entered some rally competitions, with good results. Alfa Romeo has competed both as a constructor and an engine supplier, via works entries Alfa Corse, Autodelta and private entries. Alfa Romeo's factory racing team was outsourced to Enzo Ferrari's Scuderia Ferrari between 1933 and 1938. Drivers included Tazio Nuvolari, who won the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. Alfa Romeo have been in a technical partnership with the Sauber F1 Team since 2018. In February 2019, Sauber announced that it would compete as Alfa Romeo Racing although the ownership, racing licence and management structure would remain unchanged. Alfa Romeo will end their partnership with Sauber and exit Formula One after the 2023 season. Alfa Romeo has won five FIA European Formula 3 Championships and five FIA European Formula 3 Cups with the support from the Alfa Romeo stable Euroracing, who created the motor for the Formula 3 championship and with the support of Italian motor company Novamotor which work in the Formula 3 competition.

An Alfa engine was first used on an aircraft in 1910 on the Santoni Franchini biplane. In 1932 Alfa Romeo built its first real aircraft engine, the D2 (240 bhp), fitted to Caproni 101 D2. In the 1930s when Alfa Romeo engines were used for aircraft on a larger scale; the Savoia Marchetti SM.74, Savoia Marchetti SM.75, Savoia Marchetti SM.79, Savoia Marchetti SM.81 and Cant Z506B Airone all used Alfa Romeo manufactured engines. In 1931, a competition was arranged where Tazio Nuvolari drove his Alfa Romeo 8C 3000 Monza against a Caproni Ca.100 airplane. Alfa Romeo built various aircraft engines during the Second World War; the best known was the RA.1000 RC 41 I Monsone, a licensed version of the Daimler Benz DB 601. This engine made it possible to build efficient fighter aircraft like the Macchi C.202 Folgore for the Italian army. After the Second World War Alfa Romeo produced engines for Fiat, Aerfer and Ambrosini. In the 1960s Alfa Romeo mainly focused upgrading and maintaining Curtiss Wright, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce and General Electric aircraft engines. Alfa Romeo also built Italy's first turbine engine, installed to the Beechcraft King Air. Alfa Romeo's Avio division was sold to Aeritalia in 1988, from 1996 it was part of Fiat Avio. Alfa Avio was also part of developing team to the new T700 T6E1 engine to the NHI NH90 helicopter.

Alfa Romeo also produced marine engines. The first marine engine was produced in 1929. Later, for three consecutive years: 1937 1938 1939 with remarkable affirmations, Alfa Romeo demonstrated its constructive efficiency by contributing to the development of marine engines. (1938) 12 cyl (4.500) 121,710 km/h

During the years Alfa Romeo has been marketed with different slogans like: "The family car that wins races" used in the 1950s in Alfa Romeo 1900 marketing campaign, "racing since 1911" used on most 1960s Alfa advertisements. In the 1970s the Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV was marketed as "if this kind of handling is good enough for our racing cars, it's good enough for you." The Giulia Sprint GTA was marketed as "The car you drive to work is a champion". More recent slogans used are "Mediocrity is a sin", "Driven by Passion", "Cuore Sportivo", "Beauty is not enough" and present day "Without heart we would be mere machines". Also other more recent ones are: "It's not a car, it's an Alfa Romeo. ", one of them after a couple argue in Italian. As part of its marketing policy, Alfa Romeo sponsors a number of sporting events, such as the Mille Miglia rally. It has sponsored the SBK Superbike World Championship and Ducati Corse since 2007, and the Goodwood Festival of Speed for many years, and was one of the featured brands in 2010 when Alfa Romeo celebrated its 100th anniversary. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta has been used since Monza 2010 race as the safety car in Superbike World Championship events. Alfa Romeo has been also shirt sponsor of Eintracht Frankfurt football club in period between 2013 and 2016. In 2002, Alfa Romeo I, the first Alfa Romeo super maxi yacht was launched. It finished first in at least 74 races including the 2002 Sydney—Hobart Race. Alfa Romeo II, commissioned in 2005, measures LOA. It set a new elapsed time record for monohulls in the 2009 Transpac race, of 5 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes, 20 seconds. It finished first in at least 140 races. In mid 2008 Alfa Romeo III was launched for competitive fleet racing under the IRC rule. Alfa Romeo III measures LOA and features interior design styled after the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. The BBC motoring show Top Gear repeatedly argued the significance of owning an Alfa Romeo car as a car enthusiast, stating that "You can't be a true petrolhead if you have never owned/or wanted to own an Alfa Romeo". Presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May continuously praised Alfas for their beauty and driving characteristics even though Italian cars had a long term bad reputation for unreliability. They argued that the owner build a personal relationship with the car despite all of its mechanical faults. Both Clarkson and May have previously owned Alfas (a GTV6 for Clarkson and an Alfa 164 for May) and both have stated that they regretted selling their Alfas the most. As part of its U. S. relaunch, Alfa Romeo ran three commercials during Super Bowl LI; the brand was the sole marque advertised by FCA during the game, after exclusively focusing on its Jeep brand at Super Bowl 50. In February 2013, Alfa Romeo sponsored University of St Andrews FS fashion show which saw luxury fashion designer Luke Archer and milliner George Jenkins win with their Alfa Romeo inspired garments. Alfa Romeo announced Zhou Guanyu as China's first Formula One racing driver for the 2022 season, hailed by both the team and the sport as a historic breakthrough in a key growth market.