Alfa Romeo 1920-1940 A Brooklands Portfolio: Road Test Book - Couverture souple

Brooklands Books Ltd.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1855209470 ISBN 13 : 9781855209473

Editeur : Brooklands Books Ltd., 2012

Synopsis

A portfolio of road tests plus historical and contemporary articles drawn from the world's leading motoring journals covering Alfa Romeo's classic saloons, sports and racing cars produced between 1920 and 1940.

Models reported on include: G1, P2, P3, Kegresse, 6C 1500, 1750, 2300, 2500, 8C 2300, 2900, 12C/3700, Type B, Type C, Aerodinamica Spider, Alfetta, Bimotore and the Monoposto.

The company that became Alfa Romeo in 1920 was founded as Societa Anonima Italiana Darracq (SAID) in 1906 by the French automobile firm of Alexandre Darracq with the backing of some Italian investors. Sales slowed of these Italian Darracq's and subsequently in 1909 a new company was founded named A.L.F.A. (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili), initially still in partnership with Darracq. The first non-Darracq car, produced in 1910 by ALFA was the 24 HP, designed by their new employee, Giuseppe Merosi. It was a winner and sold 50 cars in its first year.

In August 1915 the company came under the direction of Neapolitan entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who, in 1915, went over to produce military hardware for the Italian and Allied war efforts. In 1920, the company name was changed to Alfa Romeo and car production started again with the Torpedo 20-30 HP which became the first car to carry the new logo.

Their first success came that year when Giuseppe Campari won at Mugello and continued with second place in the Targa Florio driven by Enzo Ferrari. Giuseppe Merosi continued as head designer, and the company continued to produce solid road cars as well as successful race cars (including the 40-60 HP and the RL Targa Florio). In 1923 Vittorio Jano was lured away from Fiat, partly thanks to the persuasion of a young Alfa racing driver named Enzo Ferrari. He replaced Merosi as chief designer, who went on to Isotta Fraschini. The first Alfa Romeo under Jano was the P2 Grand Prix car, which in 1925 won the inaugural world championship for Grand Prix cars.

For Alfa road cars Jano developed a series of small-to-medium-displacement 4-, 6-, and 8-cylinder inline power plants based on the P2 unit that established the classic architecture of Alfa engines. They featured light alloy construction, hemispherical combustion chambers, centrally located plugs, two rows of overhead valves per cylinder bank and dual overhead cams. These designs proved to be both reliable and powerful. Enzo Ferrari turned out to be a better team manager than driver, and when the factory team was privatised, it became Scuderia Ferrari. When Ferrari left Alfa Romeo, he went on to manufacture his own cars. Tazio Nuvolari often drove for Alfa during this period, winning many races for them prior to the Second World War. In 1928 Nicola Romeo left Alfa which soon afterwards went bankrupt when their defence contracts came to an end.

Late in 1932 Alfa Romeo was rescued by the Italian government which took over effective control and Alfa which subsequently became a national emblem. During this period the company produced wonderfully successful sports cars which for many years excelled at Le Mans and built beautiful bespoke vehicles for the wealthy. The elegant bodies for these models were normally built by Touring of Milan or Carrozzeria Pinin Farina and era peaked with the legendary Alfa Romeo 2900B Type 35 racers.

To put production figures into perspective, in the six years between 1934 and 1939, Alfa Romeo built 1994 cars, an average of 332 a year, a little less than one a day.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

The book is an extremely useful collection of reprinted articles and road tests on the products of the Milanese company and starts with two articles by Sir Anthony Stamer and written for Motor Sport over 50 years ago, on Racing and Production cars up to 1940. This is a very good grounding in the origins and history of the company and its cars in 'our' period. Contemporary articles cover the pre-Jano six sylinder cars and then move on to the introduction of the 6c 1750 Super Sports. By the late vintage period Alfa Romeo were bankrupt and rescued by the Italian government who saw the company as a symbol of Italian engineering excellence. The emphasis of the company's production moved to fast and expensive sports cars starting with the 8c 2300 and culminating in teh 'Two-Nine' most of which were almost racing cars for the road. Meanwhile the competition department concentrated on the famous Monza and the Tipo B, or P3 before moving to the independently sprung 8c and 12c models and all the racing cars from the earlier P2 up to the 412 are covered in some detail. This latest offering from Brooklands Books incorporates a vast amount of information on one of Italy's most famous sporting marques in the inter-war period and will certainly be of interest to many members. As ususal the quality of the reproduction is as good as can be obtained given the source material and this heavy tome can be recommended to any who want an easy source of Alfa history or just like a good read. --Vintage Sports Car Club - The Bulletin - Autumn 2012

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Brooklands Books Ltd.
• Date d'édition: 2012
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1855209470
• ISBN 13: 9781855209473
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 346
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible