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One of the most respected of automotive design firms, Zagato was founded in Milan by Ugo Zagato, who used techniques learned in the wartime aeronautics industry to create a series of lightweight competition cars. Alfa Romeo immediately realized the potential of Zagato’s designs, and thus commenced a fruitful collaboration that has lasted to this day.…

After World War II Alfa Romeo could no longer afford to produce purely the bespoke motor cars that had made the marque famous on both road and track. It was not until 1954 that Alfa found its savior in the Giulietta Sprint, Nuccio Bertone being commissioned to design this small coupe just weeks before its…

The Giulia Tubolare Zagato, or TZ, emerged victorious from its racing debut at Monza in November 1963, and from then on proved a competent competitor. Of the 112 TZs made, approximately two thirds survive. Chassis number 085 was completed on March 9, 1965, but was not officially sold to Autodelta until December 31 of that…

A replacement for the 1900 line, the 102-series 2000 cars first appeared in 1958 and were unusual in so far as production of the Touring-bodied Spider version outstripped that of the four-door Berlina. A Bertone-bodied Sprint coupe followed in 1960. Nowadays referred to as the “Cast-Iron 2-liter,” the twin-cam 2000 engine combined elements of the…

With a total production run of 1,000 units between 1965, when it was launched at the Geneva Salon, and 1966, the Giulia GTC Alfa was an exclusive 2+2 convertible derivative of the Bertone Giulia Sprint GT coupe. Visiting the new Arese plant when the Giulia GTC was introduced, the British magazine Autocar commented that “despite…

The Giulietta Sprint Zagato echoes the severe tumblehome roofline of the fabulous Bertone BATs and the slanted tail of the same bodybuilder’s Sprint Speciale. The BATs, however, were strictly styling exercises and the Sprint Speciales were too heavy to be race cars. It was Zagato that finally filled Alfa’s need for an aerodynamic Giulietta coupe…

Destined to be the last of the separate-chassis Alfas, the 2500 debuted in 1939 as a development of the preceding 6C 2300B. The engine was, of course, the latest version of Alfa’s race-developed twin-cam six, its 2443cc displacement having been enlarged by boring out the 2300 cylinders by 2 mm for a bore and stroke…

This unique 1900 was bodied by the Swiss coachbuilding company, Ghia Aigle, specifically for the 1955 Geneva Salon. This is the earliest of eight Alfas bodied by Ghia Aigle known to survive, and as such, in many respects the most interesting and most important. After the Geneva show the car appears to have remained in…

{vsig}2000-8_1877{/vsig} Tempted to join Alfa Romeo from Fiat in 1923 by the opportunity to head his own department and a three-times salary increase, the brilliant Vittorio Jano became part of the racing department in Milan in the autumn of that year. His first major project was the six-cylinder P2 racing car, winner of the 1924…

The Montreal came about when Alfa Romeo was asked to build a car for Canada’s Expo ’67 which would represent all that was best in the automotive industry. It fulfilled its design brief to the letter and everyone agreed that it was a classic. The chassis derived from the 105-series Giulia, as sweet a chassis…