alfa romeo

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo is an Italian automobile manufacturing company, founded as "Darracq Italiana" by Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan in partnership with the French automobile firm of Alexandre Darracq. The partnership refurbished an idle Darracq factory in Portello, a Milan suburb, but at the onset of World War I the company converted to a munitions factory and the partnership was dissolved. It has been a part of Fiat SpA since 1987. Fiat plans to put Alfa Romeo together with another division, Maserati, to create a sports/luxury car division within the Fiat Group. The company was originally known as ALFA, which is an acronym meaning Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili.

The first production A.L.F.A. designed by Merosi was the 1910 24HP.   This large, conventional touring car and subsequent designs by Merosi were solid and unadventurous, but consistently achieved a high level of quality and reliability. A.L.F.A.'s sales grew, but the outbreak of WWI put a stop to automobile production.

The first car desgned by the new Alfa Romeo was the G1 in 1920, a large touring car. With some engine modifications this became the G2 in 1921. In 1922 the RL series cars, with 3000 six cylinder push-rod OHV engines, were introduced,  including the RLN (21/70hp) 'Normale', the RLT (22/70hp) 'Turismo', RLS and RLSS (22/90hp).They were followed the following year by the RM series models, a smaller version with 2000 four cylinder engines and RM, RMS 'Sport' and RMU 'Unificato' versions (15/50hp an 15/55hp). In all the above cars, the first number is the approximate horsepower, the second the approximate top speed. These cars were the last designed by Merosi.

In 1915 Nicola Romeo bought ALFA after which his surname was appended to the ALFA initials . 1916 the company came under the complete control the high-flying Neopolitan mathematician and industrialist.

Within a few years of Nicola Romeo taking control, the company began to participate in Grand Prix motor racing.  Guiseppe Merosi, a self-taught engineer, was hired as head designer.

In 1923 Jano began working for Alfa Romeo, and his first design was the successful formula 1 car, the P2. Production cars soon followed, in 1927 began the production of the 6C 1500, designating a six cylinder 1500cc engine. Originally this was a sohc producing 44bhp, but dohc versions soon took over. These were both normally aspirated and supercharged, producing around 54 and 76 bhp respectively. In 1929 bigger 1750 versions were introduced, both in sohc (45bhp) and dohc (55bhp) form. Again a supercharged version was also available, producing 85bhp.

Alfa Romeo to Launch a New Small SUV in Late 2012
Alfa Romeo is going to get a much needed SUV model by late next year. Internally the SUV alfa_romeo_suv_fr.jpg is codenamed C-SUV and will be about the same size as the BMW X3 and Audi Q3 models.

The new SUV is part of a plan to reposition Alfa Romeo as a competitor to Audi and BMW. Currently Alfa Romeo only has four models, the Mito, Giuletta and the 159 sedan and wagon. The 159 is set to be replaced by the Giulia in the beginning of 2013 and a five-door Mito and 4C sports car will also be released in 2013. In 2014 the Giuletta will get a facelift and an SUV based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee will also be added to the lineup.

The new Alfa Romeo SUV will be built at Fiat's Mirafiori plant in Turin in late 2012 alongside a new Jeep that will replace the Compass and Patriot SUVs. The SUV will be based on Fiat's Compact Plus Global Modular Architecture, which is an extended version of the Giuletta's platform.

And just in case you are wondering, it looks like Alfa Romeo's return to the U.S. has been pushed back to 2013.