Alfa Romeo Museum
In anticipation of being able to travel again, Michael Milne reports on the marque history that is on stylish display at the Alfa Romeo Museum in Italy.
Over a century of heritage, beauty and speed on display in Arese, Italy.
I have to admit that I approached the Museo Storico Alfa Romeo (Alfa Romeo Historical Museum) in Arese, Italy with a sense of bittersweet nostalgia. Years ago, my wife Larissa and I owned a 1988 Spider Quadrifoglio, naturally in Alfa Red. With its sleek lines, the car looked like it would get a speeding ticket while standing still. Ironically, the 115bhp engine was more suited to ambling along country lanes, unlikely to outpace a bogstandard Ford or Vauxhall from a stop light.
But Alfie was a still a beauty, and soon we were spending many a weekend attending Alfa club road rallies. Alas, the honeymoon was not to last. Despite a racy wooden steering wheel and those Italian good looks, our Alfa lacked power steering, which was tortuous to our aging shoulders and arms following a rural jaunt. After a few years we finally sold the Alfa, but the warm memory lived on. It’s still the only car we’ve ever driven where people would pull up alongside and give us a hearty thumbs-up.
Which is why we were in northern Italy on a crisp autumn day to learn all about the history of Alfa Romeo style and hoping to discover a bit more about the substance behind this stylish marque. The 200- car collection sprawling over six stories is laid out in three sections, focusing on heritage, beauty and speed. The museum begins with its A.L.F. A. ( Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili) days, before it merged during WWI with Nicola Romeo & Company to create the legendary marque we know today as Alfa Romeo.
Heritage
Visitors begin their visit with a stroll through a time line of Alfa vehicles, starting with a 1910 A.L.F. A 24hp and a 1911 A.L.F. A 15hp Corsa with a sporty torpedo body. Next to them, a 1925 RL Super Sport adorned by a brushed aluminium body, formerly owned by an Indian Maharaja, represents the second generation of these highperformance Alfas.
The post-war gallery features smaller, more elegant fare including a 1950 1900 (it was introduced at that year’s Paris Motor Show), a 1954 1900 Super Sport and a 1955 Giulietta. A section on Alfas in film pays homage to famous movie cars, including the 1966 1600 Spider Duetto roadster driven by Dustin Hoffman in The
Graduate, which would serve as the inspiration for this author’s purchase (along with many others no doubt) years later.
The 1970s are represented by the bright orange Montreal 200hp 2+2 coupé, which debuted as a concept car at Expo 67 in Montreal and then hit the road in numbers in 1970.
Beauty
We then head to the lower level for The Masters of Style gallery. Here, eight cars that have broken the automotive design mould showcase the breadth of Alfa Romeo. The first vehicle, a 1913 Castagna Aerodinamica built on an A.L.F. A. 40- 60HP chassis with its shimmery Zeppelin shape, appears to be from a Jules Verne novel. Its porthole windows really do make it look ready to venture 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Next to it is another aeronautically inspired vehicle, the 1952 Alfa Romeo 1900 C52 Disco Volante (Flying Saucer). Built with Milan-based coachbuilder Touring as a potential race car, only five were produced. Similar streamlined styling was seen later on Jaguar’s legendary D-Type.
According to Alfa, with the advent of the lime- green mid- engine 1969 Carabo, ‘the car was no longer a bundle of sinuous muscles but a sharp blade.’ True enough, the bonnet on the pioneering supercar looks sharp enough to slice open a wheel of Cheddar.
Speed
Not surprisingly, the Speed section is the most exciting one. Shiny red race cars are lined up against walls that are covered floor to ceiling with movies highlighting Alfa Romeo’s racing heritage. An immersive sound and light show drops visitors into the centre of the race track as Alfas capture the chequered flag again and again. And why not? Any marque with a young Enzo Ferrari’s involvement – he started as a driver there in 1920 – must surely be able to claim bragging rights when it comes to racing heritage.
The 1923 Alfa Romeo RL, piloted by Ugo Sivocci, won the 1923 Targa Florio. It was the first Alfa adorned with the lucky charm of a green cloverleaf on a white background that would become symbolic of Alfa Romeo excellence. Vittorio Jano designed the 1925 Alfa Romeo GP Tipo P2 that won the Italian and European Grand Prix races that year. It featured Alfa’s straight 8- cylinder supercharged engine with two carburettors placed after the compressor.
In 1929 Enzo Ferrari set up Scuderia Ferrari as Alfa’s racing arm. His iconic prancing horse symbol first appeared on Alfa Romeo race cars like the shark
finned 1935 Bimotore, which featured dual supercharged 2.9-litre eight- cylinder motors both fore and aft. They were connected by two driveshafts to a single gearbox to achieve 540 combined horsepower and a top speed of 226mph. The dualengine configuration placed the fuel tanks on the side so, not surprisingly, with the increased horsepower the car was difficult to handle on the curve.
Alfa’s post-war racing years were led by the 158/159 Alfetta line. Although designed before the war, the cars dominated the newly inaugurated Formula 1 World Championship races starting in 1950. A 1951 GP Tipo 159 Alfetta chassis is displayed without its bonnet to reveal the powerful 425hp straight- eight engine with one triple- choke carburettor and dual two-stage superchargers arranged in series.
Later successes on view include the 1968 Tipo 33/ 2 Daytona, 1975 Tipo 33 TT12 – a tubular chassis and 12- cylinder engine led it to seven victories in eight tries – and a 1977 Tipo 33 SC 12 Turbo which achieved eight wins in eight races. The hand-built, mid- engine 1967 33 Stradale prototype was another pioneering supercar that could reach 162mph.
In addition to the vehicles, engines are also displayed on pedestals throughout the museum, along with a wall of model cars, videos, images and interactive access points.
After seeing all this heritage, beauty and speed arrayed in one place, I left with a new appreciation for the vaunted marque. Perhaps there’s another one in my future after all, but this time with power steering? Rather dangerously, this is one of the few motoring museums that has a new car showroom attached, so it was tempting to ditch the hire car and hit the autostrada in search of another thumbs-up.