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Who is Alfa Romeo and when did it start making cars?
Alexandre Darracq was a big cheese in the French market in the early 1900s and started an Italian offshoot. Its factory moved from Naples to Milan in 1906, but Darracq grew tired of poor sales and wound the company up in 1909. His chairman, Ugo Stella, gathered some investors and founded a new company called Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobil, snapping up Darracq’s assets in the process.
Alfa produced some road- and racecars over the next few years, before entrepreneur Nicola Romeo bought up a chunk in 1915. He focused the company’s efforts on military hardware in World War One, then post-war got involved in trains. The first Alfa Romeo car – the 20/30 HP – wasn’t made until 1920. The same year that a young racing driver called Enzo Ferrari joined the firm, rising to become race team manager.
Nicola Romeo left in 1928 when the company got into financial diffculties, and Alfa Romeo ended up under government control after 1933, a crown jewel for Mussolini’s Fascists. It was never very profitable, even with state aid, and ministers were only too happy when Fiat bought it in 1986. As has happened with many companies in recent years, Alfa Romeo was folded into the ever expanding Stellantis portfolio in 2021.
Alfa Romeo’s greatest hits
01 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio
The 2015 Giulia saloon was a return to form for Alfa Romeo,
