AlfaRomeo 158

Born to win

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Introduction

Since 1934, with the introduction of the Grand Prix new formula, the monopoly of car races has been an increasingly prerogative of German cars : Mercedes and Auto Union, thanks to their government funding which was granted by Hitler (450,000 DM approx.), but above all to their designers' genius who launched some revolutionary racing cars on track. Nibel and Wagner for Mercedes and Ferdinand Porsche for Auto Union respectively designed some cars which were opposing on conceptual points of view but alike for having same purposes. Lightness and stiffness of chassis, independent suspensions, engines with big displacement: these are the secrets of their jewels. A part from obvious difficulties faced at their début, which favoured Alfa Romeo latest success (Avus with Moll, Montlhéry with Chiron) German cars were dominant both in the years of the Formula which called for restriction of weight (1934-37) and the Formula which called for increase of weight and relationship between weight and engine capacity (1938-1939). Thus Alfa Romeo, that till then had played the role of ruler, ended up by running after the competitors without ever being a true danger for German cars. With "B P3" Type, since 1934 only named "B Type", Alfa Romeo ended a cycle that can be hardly repeated, from its début which took place at Monza on 5th June 1932 till 6th July 1934, the day of its victory at the Grand Prix racing in France, when it won 22 out of 26 car races which took part. There was again a new victory scored by Nuvolari at Nürburgring in 1935, but in that case it was a real miracle performed by Tazio. In 1936 other two races are to be added which were always won by Nuvolari, this time at the wheel of the new 8C and on the frame of which a 12 cylinder engine had been then assembled; nevertheless the gap with German silver cars was striking (12 C with 370 hp against 480 hp of W25E Mercedes). Further things got worse in 1937, when Mercedes fielded that jewel called W125 that delivered 645 hp while Alfa with its revised 12C attained no more than 430 hp. Meanwhile "1,5 litre" cars more usually called "Voiturette", comparable with the more recent F2 or present F3000, made a sound reputation all over the world. Long before Maserati had concentrated its attention on this category and thanks to the successful 4C played the part of the first lady. Already in 1937 the Targa Fiorio was devoted to the cars of that displacement and in 37-38s they were accepted to the entry into the competition of the Grand Prix of Tripoli, beside much more powerful GP racing cars (with a separate score). To try to stop German leadership at least at home, the Italian organizers thought of planning their most important races just for these types of cars; Alfa company, included in IRI (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) by the fascist government, was being designing a 1500 cc "monoposto", which could make the company newly successful. That's how the adventure of the most long-lived F1 in the history started out: Alfa Romeo "158".

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History

Design

In May 1937 the project of "Voiturette" started at AlfaRomeo. Differently from what it happened for the GP cars, whose production was entirely made at the workshops in Milan, for the "158" car the designing and assembling stages were made by Ferrari "Scuderia", Portello was only permitted building part of components. Obviously, the responsibility for the project was given to Enzo Ferrari, while Orazio Satta appointed the then 35 years old Gioachino Colombo as chief designer of the technical staff. Gioachino Colombo was the pupil of that Vittorio Jano who had been in charge of Arese automobile designing dept. for ten years. As soon as Colombo arrived in Modena, he told Ferrari he would like to design a rear-engine car, a sort of Auto Union in miniature, but Ferrari, as traditionalist as he was, settled the question with the famous sentence: "carts have always been pulled by oxen". Bugatti's experience will show that in the 50s the "Drake" was right , proving that under the equipment of that time the positioning of the engine on the rear side was not so advantageous, but as the author of this article I like to think that Gioachino's brains would have set up a much more efficient car than the "158" one . The frame was made up by two 122 x32 mm sections (even if other authorities say 122x35) made of 15 mm welded plate, joined between by four elements placed at 450 mm distance, one front cross-member, six supports of the crankcase sump, one cross bar for the intermediate bearing holder of the transmission shaft and eight studs connected with the differential gear. The body was made of aluminium plates, riveted on four ribs fastened to the chassis. At the beginning they chose a sleek line (to the point that it did non permit the arrangement of mirrors inside the cockpit) with a very inclined front grille, front suspensions on sight and the summit of tail rather low which prevented pilots from using it as headrest; this last feature reduced the capacity of the tank, positioned on the tail, to no more than 135 litres , while the tank placed inside the cockpit, on the pilot's right-hand, kept 35 litres. The weight of what above-mentioned was 510 kg. Front suspensions were made up by two sloping and parallel arms with longitudinal motion under a 125 mm oscillating ray, mounted with ball-and-socket joints towards the wheels side and with cylindrical pins on rollers towards the frame side; while on rear suspension there was an axle with trailing arms. Both on front and rear the spring unit was made up by a leaf spring mounted, crosswise, on two seats on the frame (one by each side 1/3 of their length ) with a slide guide placed on centre by means of a vertical slider so as to avoid a side displacement of the same leaf spring; connection between wheel and spring was secured by a tie rod articulated on its ends, connected on the front with upper arm suspension and on the rear with axle shaft. Both clutch plates (to dampen alternative masses) and hydraulic shock absorbers were mounted on all four wheels that were interacting on the front with the upper arm. The front was then equipped with a stabilizer bar (8 mm in diameter) linked with the two lower arms of suspension. Once analysed the suspension diagram of the car, it is necessary to state clearly: it isn't difficult to find articles on the "158" car where the system with transverse springs is praised as a real novelty. Here, I don't want at all to deny that definition, but I feel bound to correct it; the novelty was not represented by the system in itself (already designed by Vittorio Jano and used in 1935 on the rear axle of the "8C" car) but rather the choice to apply it on both axles, so as to minimize oscillating masses on the front suspension. Braking system was made up by a drum in duralumin with two cylinders for each wheel, 325 mm inner dia. and 50 mm wide brake-shoes (in elektron), on which steel rings had been hot-pressed; the whole was controlled by a hydraulic circuit with a pedal acting on all wheels. The car was also equipped with hand brake linked mechanically to rear wheels only. Also rims of wheels were in duralumin, linked to the hub through 72 tangent radii; the spline was of Withworth type measuring 18 inches for a 18x600 tyre. Steering was made up by a box secured to the height extension of the engine block, containing a worm screw and helical gear under 1:10 ratio; moreover steering sector was with independent link rods.

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Introduction

Design

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Engine

The study of the engine was rather peculiar for the "158": at that time, as a matter of fact, Alfa was in need of a new engine for the GP race cars and at the same time the company needed a smaller unit for the new "Voiturette". To try to reduce costs they decided on the production of a basic engine for "15" and then to redouble it in order to set up an engine for the "316"; on that purpose it was necessary a main structure with cylinders in-line type so that placing aside another one, exactly alike, it was possible to get a V section. Therefore they designed an eight-cylinder-in-line engine and a V-sixteen-cylinder version, out of which the latter would have been first exhibited, as it made its first performance at the Tripoli G.P. in 1938 (May 15). But now let's come back to the exact as possible description of an 8-cylinder unit: the engine was made up by two aluminium cast blocks, bolted between as well as on the engine block and equipped with dry steel liners. The bore was 58 mm ø with a stroke of 70, thus the total displacement was 1478,81 cu. cm. Oil sump and engine block were in electron, the latter with main bearing caps which could be dismantled, it was divided on the central line and, as said before, it was secured to the chassis by means of 12 bolts 8mm size. The head was in silumin, divided into two blocks of four cylinders each (therefore it followed the construction of the twin-block) bolted to the cylinder block by means of 20 stud bolts with 10 mm; the chambers (where cylinder liners were screwed on) hemispherical shaped, with 100° inclined valves to allow the spark plug positioning in the centre. This type of chamber had been chosen because it permitted to use rather big valves thanks to which it was possible to increase the number of revolutions and as a consequence its specific power, even if the strong inclination of these valves increased the ratio "surface of walls to volume kept" (the higher this value is the more increase heat transfers to the coolant). Valves were the same size both for inlet and exhaust phases, with 30 mm inner ø and 36 mm outside ø, controlled by two camshafts overhead revolving on 5 supports. The control was driven by caps screwed on the valve stem (tappets were therefore missing) and adjustable spring caps while returning was operated by two springs, the inner spring of 30 kg and the external one of 60 kg (at open valve and with 8 mm lift). The crankshaft was in casehardened steel in order to get more fatigue strength, with eight collars of 45 mm dia. for each big end bearing; bearings were made up by two shells of bronze completely covered with Babbitt metal, generally called white metal with an alloy of : 84-88% tin, 7-9% antimony, 4-6% copper and 0,75% lead. Same material as previous ones, main bearings were obviously nine (with more than 2 cylinders, the number of main bearings was equal to big end bearings plus one) with collars of 53 mm dia. One of the most important novelties applied to 158 was the positioning of distribution train on the front of engine to minimize the dimensions of crankshaft, until then, in fact, they used to fit it, on eight-cylinder-in line engines, between four-cylinder blocks while as for the multi-cylinder engines they preferred to position it on the rear. The drive was operated by spur gears which were activating the water pump and magnet on the right, two scavenge oil pumps in the centre and the oil pressure pump on the left. Always on the left another gear drove a single-stage-two-lobe Roots supercharger of 125 mm dia. with a ratio of 1.32 times to engine revolutions and a pressure delivery of 17.6 psi; connection between train and compressor was operated by means of a shaft with stakes on rubber which was inserted on the operating shaft, while the profile of lobes was epicyclical corrected by Alfa and exactly alike to the one assembled on the 6C 1500SS in 1928. To improve compressors feed there was a ramming intake on the bonnet little farther than cockpit, that pilots activated by hand. As for lubrication we have already said that it was used a force feed system through three pumps with a 14 litre tank placed inside the cockpit, on the pilot's left hand. The system was water cooling with centrifugal pump and radiator of 14 litre capacity. The coolant was introduced into the blocks through 8 inlets on the right and was expelled through 4 outlets in the cylinders head. Flywheel was secured to the engine and had some inner splines to receive 4 carbon steel disks which were driving 4 other duralumin disks onto the toothed hub of the clutch shaft. Clutch pedal was fastened to the cover in elektron and drove the bearing for coupling. Starting from the timing system up to the clutch the length of the engine was of 765 mm, with a weight of 135 kg. To start from the clutch there was the camshaft, divided into two sectors and equipped of bearing in the centre ( placed some centimetres ahead as to gearshift lever). Gearshift was four-speed type with side drive and the gearbox, which contained it, was an integral piece of the rear axle; the unit was a direct drive on the main shaft, integrated into the bevel pinion of the first step-down pair. The dog clutch was of contrate type for the third and the fourth speed and it was sliding on the main shaft, while the gear of first and second speed slid on the driven shaft.

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Introduction

Design

Engine

History

Debut of the car may be dated from 5th May 1938 on Monza circuit with Nardi at the wheel, that is only three months earlier than its debut in races. Obviously this test had been preceded by many engine bench tests, the first of them took place on 19th March 1938 at Modena plants; results had been really encouraging ones, with 180 hp at 6800 rpm. Meanwhile the construction of the car was finished, but however the car was not born at Modena, but with the new plants in Milan; The structure intended for Alfa Corse at Portello had been actually finished and its drive was taken by Enzo Ferrari, with Ferrari racing team purchased and wound up. In June and July tests were constantly repeated, in order to smooth out the difficulties of the "monoposto" in its youth, but also the engineering study went on in the workshop thanks to which the engine attained 195 HP at 7000 rpm.; At last August came and with it the first appearance. At the Ciano Trophy three 158 entered, with Emilio Villoresi (Luigi's brother ), Clemente Biondetti and Francesco Severi at their wheels. During racing tests the cars of Arese ran very fast straight on, but during the contest they were seriously threatened by Luigi Villoresi with his Maserati 6CM; anyhow when on the 15th lap he was obliged to drop out of the race, the "158" cars had the opportunity for a splendid triple win, ruined only by Severi who left the track and arrived seventh. Villoresi and Biondetti ended the first and the second separated only by 2.2 seconds, while Marazza at the wheel of Maserati 4CM was the third to arrive at 1'00.6; taking into account that the race had been run on 25 laps, this means that the difference was 2.5 seconds per lap, First victory of "158" dated from 7th August 1938! At this point the "158" was expected to rout competitors also in the other races of the year, but all a series of problems related to carburetion and lubrication obliged them to withdraw or to get disappointing scores. Luckily things changed for the better at Monza, during the Milan GP, where 2 cars out of the 4 entered into the competition, finished the contest in the first and second places. Breakdowns faced during the first year of activity did not worry the technical staff of Alfa Corse dept., that envisaged some changes to bring to lubrication circuit, above all concerning the oversize of bearings. The 1939 season opened with the craved GP of Tripoli at its 13th edition and run on the very fast circuit built around the saltworks at Mellaha, where they entered six "158" cars which should have disputed the victory among them. When entries were about to close, Mercedes asked for the entry of two cars of its; unexpectedly in winter (between 18th November and early April ) technicians in Stuttgart gave birth to a Voiturette called W165 that looked quite like W154, obviously except for dimensions and the displacement of the engine. If surprise was the queen during the entries, incredulity lorded it when cars were fielded . Those small jewels immediately showed incredible qualities of speed (thanks to an engine power of 254 hp) and of handling, which were made the most of by Lang and Caracciola who on such occasion consented to drive monoposto of lower displacement. The event is worth a story told in a film so exciting as it was; the second one of the two cars was in fact finished aboard of a ship transporting them to Libya and they did not obtain the pole position because Neubauer decided not let them participate to the second test drive not to force them so much. Ever since the starting Lang mocked Luigi Villoresi, author of the best time at the wheel of the new Maserati 4CL(streamlined), flowing away towards a victory that nobody would have any longer brought into question, while Caracciola took four laps to get the better of the Italian driver, then forced to retire. The Alfas never succeeded in worrying competitors and on the contrary, 3 seconds less fast at every lap in respect of the opposing cars, they were forced to drop out of the race on account of boiling water in the cooling system and vapour-lock in fuel pipes; in part it was fault of the mechanics sent to Tripoli who lowered pressure in the cooling system from 1 to 0.5 atm. The only one that crossed the finishing line was the car driven by Emilio Villoresi, in the third place at 7'47" from the winner. Unfortunately for motor racing the fantastic story of W165 ended the same day on which it began (7th May); in September of the same year the second World War started and Germany had to give up its cars entering into various competitions, even if for a short time the development of that Voiturette went on, brought up to 278 hp by means of a two-stage fuel system. As Lurani wrote in the 70's, the cars suits very well to the saying: "Veni, Vidi, Vici" by Julius Caesar . But let us come back to the"158". Defeat in Tripoli obliged the staff of Alfa to be subjected to a period of continuous studies and tests on Monza circuit; they decided to modify the cooling system trying to let the coolant go into direct contact with steel liners and pouring cold water directly on the cylinder heads, moreover retaining a clear memory of what happened in Libya, they increased the system operating pressure. They redesigned the lubrication system as well as the car line, which from July 1939 has been shaped with the same styling features as today's and thanks to these ones the capacity of the rear tank had increased to 150 litres. The exhaust pipe, single one and earlier low-positioned, was doubled and let it pass over rear suspension. All these betterments at once turned out to be winning factors, during the remaining season events the car won all the competitions in which it took part and was even able to threaten the most powerful GP cars during Grand Prix of Switzerland, open competition to both categories. After winning the heat devoted to Voiturette, in a torrential rain Farina was the leader of an exceptional start that caused him to pass from the sixth on the grid to the second place behind Lang. For seven long laps Caracciola and von Brauchitsch at the wheel of two other Mercedes did not succeed in scoring off the agile 158 and their humiliation was over only when it stopped raining and the track became less slippery. On that moment Nino Farina was only 17 sec. late from Lang and at the end the score saw the Italian driver in the absolute sixth place and the winner of the Voiturette category, success that confirmed the competitiveness of the Arese car. However to consider this year positively would mean patriotism. After the prank of Tripoli other two events had afflicted the activity of Alfa Corse; Emilio Villoresi had died (19th June) during some test runs at Monza and Giordano Aldrighetti had met same fate during the tests of the Trophy Acerbo at Pescara. Besides within the team an inflamed rivalry was beginning between Enzo Ferrari and Wilfredo Ricard (responsible for Special Studies Dept.), then ended in the resignation given by the former; also Colombo was removed from the project, sent to make the team stronger for the Grand Prix racing cars. During the winter break six new monoposto, called 158/40, had been built on the basis of previous models (four were left), and considering the capacity of performance shown by Mercedes and Maserati in the year, they took care to strengthen the engine of the "158". In fact they put in some connecting rods rotating on 26 bearing rollers, full filling, 2.95 mm. in diameter and 26 spacers, 2,90 mm in diameter, having the same length as antifriction metal bearings (20 mm), and operating under 5.5 - 6 kg p. sq. cm oil pressure; thanks to all that they succeeding in getting 225hp at 7500 r.p.m. Four of those cars raced on track in 1940 at the GP of Tripoli, ready to challenge the W165 Mercedes cars that, as said before, did not enter the competition. If the return match couldn't take place, the only consolation could be taken by a challenge against time; then the target was to beat the record obtained by the silver Germans the year before. At the end the "158" cars did even better: not only Farina won the race in an effective minor time than the time recorded by Lang the year before (1h54min16sec40 against 1h59min12sec30) but he also succeeded in lowering the hourly average that same pilot scored in 1938 at the wheel of a Grand Prix car (206,347 against 205,108 kmph). That was the last real competition of racing cars before the II World War. The "158" car development went on till 1942, moreover they built a 158 equipped with rear axle "De Dion", practically an anticipation of what should have been the structural arrangement of 159. In the same year five "158" and three engines "512" were stored in the garage at Monza and when next year the German army made a requisition for the motor racing circuit, the Alfa management had the Voiturettes hidden (completely assembled) in a cheese factory at Melzo, from where they would have gone out only in 1946. Racing activity started again early in 1946, when a quadrumvirate was set up (Satta, Colombo, Nicollis, Guidotti) to manage Alfa Corse. On account of the scanty means of that time it had been decided with unanimous approval to field the old "158" , being aware of the fact that nobody would have any longer heard of the Mercedes and Auto Union Grand Prix. The car was overhauled by using recycled material (they went so far as to utilize 3-4 blocks scrapped before the war because they showed some cracks) and in spite of that the results soon appeared; working on the assembling clearance, on free sliding and selecting a suitable fuel (86% ethyl alcohol and 14% petrol) the same year on 9th June they fielded two 158/40's at St Cloud which delivered 240hp. To report the events in the order of their happening J.P. Wimille and Farina were chosen as pilots who fully dominated the first half of the race but later on they were forced to retire because of the clutch disengagement. At the GP of Nations run in Geneva next month, Alfa brought another novelty: two of the four 158/40 cars entered the contest equipped with a two-stage compressor that increased the horsepower to 254 hp at 7500 rpm. The quadrumvirate decided to pilot the race so as to make one of the two uprated cars win in order to convince the management of new investments, besides the matter was not so difficult if you consider that the other two entered cars were of the 1940 Tripoli type. Before the end of the year the "158" cars also entered the GP staged in Turin and Milan, all equipped with the two-stage compressor, scoring the second and the third place, but by that time the thought was absorbed by a new version: the "158/47". That new evolution involved the enlargement of the suction valve of low pressure which allowed the engine to deliver 310hp at 7500 rpm. The increase of horsepower obliged designers to check the type of machining made on the engine block, besides which increasing the break strength up to 3 tons per sq. cm, so as to minimize the cracks caused on the main friction bearings. Moreover the connecting rods were coupled between the caps of crankshaft bearings and the blocks. Outside they modified the air intake and they return to one single exhaust, even if it was kept the positioning over the rear suspension. Differently from what we could think, the "158/47" car did not debut in 1947; the version employed till the previous year turned out to be still so competitive to win all four races to which it took part during the season. They preferred then to carry out a number of tests to eliminate the very few defects of youth that the new version could have shown. Thus its first outing was postponed in 1948 at the Swiss GP where during the preliminary practices two 158/47 cars were on track at the wheel of Varzi and Senesi. We use to say "wet debut, lucky debut" , but it was not like that for the newborn race car; few minutes before the end of the practices, made in the rain, Varzi drove on the circuit trying to get a better performance, but as soon he arrived at a mixed run downhill he lost control of the car and ended up by overturning his car into a ditch. When first rescuers came there was nothing to do for the Italian driver; because of the impact he beat his head against the ground and died suddenly. Also in the Grand Prix of France the new monoposto was driven only on practice, by Wimille who unsuccessfully made an attempt to break the record on drive done by Lang in 1938, while for the first enter into the competition we had to wait for the GP in Italy (always driven by Wimille), staged on the circuit of Valentino in Turin. On that occasion we attended at a real driving lesson by Jean Pierre who was able to leave one lap behind the driver that came second , but already in preliminary it was evident the gap existing in respect of the old two-stage "158" that on such event were forced to withdraw from racing. Three "158/47" were lined up on the grid at next GP at Monza and as usual they scored first three positions; the fourth place was won by Taruffi at the wheel of a "158/40; this event further confirmed the superiority of that car in respect of competitors. Then all next year round we no longer heard of the Arese sport cars; shortage of funds had compelled the Company to concentrate the study on the "1900" car, thus cutting down the funds allocated to the racing dept. However, changes went on the vehicle , above all for what the engine is concerning, that attained 350hp at 8500 rpm. That improvement came in useful in 1950, when Féderation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) created the first World Championship contest of Formula one (even if the specified term "world" was merely formal and that would be still present till 1953 with the introduction of the GP in Argentina ) event that Alfa did not want to escape; the idea of being the first motor race Company to bear the title of World Champion convinced the person responsible to newly launch the project "158". The pilot pool had to be formed again, given that after Varzi also Trossi and Wimille had died under different circumstances; they came to a unanimous decision to let Farina join again the team placing veteran Fagioli on his side, while the choice of Juan Manuel Fangio as the third driver was less unanimous, about whom many had serious doubts. It was just he who had the task to gain the first race of the season, run on the circuit of St. Remo, the second meeting of the season was the GP in England, staged at Silverstone circuit and it corresponded to the first test run of the World Championship. At starting point four "158/47" of 350hp were lined up on the grid, the fourth out of them driven by Reg Parnell replacing the unlucky Sanesi, they were not faced by any difficulty in gaining first places in qualification and racing; as a matter of fact on such occasion Ferrari cars did not enter into the competition, the only cars of the moment which were in a position to cause some problems to Alfa Romeo's, while Maserati and Talbot were real so obsolete ones that the former crossed the finish line with two laps late. The race saw a big duel between Fangio and Farina ended on the Argentine's Stowe car spun right round and next breakdown of a connection rod, while Fagioli restricted himself not to losing contact; As for Parnell he had to adapt to the driving style of "158" and that fact prevented him from worrying his team, even if it didn't prevent him finishing in an unquestionable third place, At GP of Monaco it was Fangio who won without any problem, helped on the occasion of a pileup at Bureau de Tabac during the first lap which caused seven cars to withdraw from racing (included the other two "158) and owing to some troubles given to Ascari by his Ferrari "125", while at the GP of Swiss Farina and Fagioli still double-declutched. The more the time went by the more fierce was the competition: At the following Belgian GP, Talbot driven by Sommer took the liberty of interfering in the lonely ride of "158" then arriving at 2' from the winner, while Ferrari fielded a 3300 cc non-supercharged engine that turned out to be competitive. At the GP of France and of Bari the Alfa car went on its lonely way, but at the GP of Nations two Ferrari powered by a 4100cc engine entered into the competition and during the test drive they obtained the second and third time behind Fangio. In consideration of these results at Portello works were started to improve the vehicle but they realized that the project on the "158" was beginning to be obsolete and it needed some betterments not only related to the engine. At the International Trophy at Silverstone Farina ran and won at the wheel of a "158/47" car whose engine delivered 380hp, and the same type of car was driven by Farina and Fangio in the last race of the season, a decisive contest for the world championship: the GP in Italy. As opposed to them two Ferrari, powered by a 4500cc engine, were lined up on the grid and driven by Ascari and Villoresi, with the former able to gain the first position for two laps, At the end, however, the "158" car proved to be once more the car to beat, winner with Farina and with Fagioli in the third place preceded by Ferrari driven by Serafini, while Fangio was forced to retire twice (first with his car and then with the car borrowed by Taruffi); Nino was awarded the title of World Champion with 3 scores' lead over the Argentine crack-racing driver and 6 scores' lead over Fagioli, while the first driver not belonging to Alfa was Rosier with only 13 scores. However the results of the last races had persuaded the staff of Alfa Corse to allocate new funds for the next year ; starting the 1951 season there would have been the alternation of both the old "158" cars equipped with "159" type engine and the proper "159" cars , but in any case they were called according to this last name. It was therefore the 1950 GP of Italy the farewell race of the "158", on the same circuit where it had its debut, on that umpteenth victory the story ended of the most long-lived Formula One of all time, of the car that, thirteen years before, was "born to win".

Marco Zanello

In particular we are grateful to the Centre of Documents at the Museum of Automobile "Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffa" in Torino for the material of research and for having kindly authorized to take and reproduce the photographs of the cars. Moreover, we thank the Archive of AlfaRomeo Company for permission to publish some images of their property.

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Introduction

Design

Engine

History