The History of Alfa Romeo, a Car Manufacturer With a Passion for Racing
Hearing the history of the Italian automotive brand, Alfa Romeo, must be familiar to petrol heads around the world. What comes to the mind of the automotive enthusiast must be about a classic design. Not only that, Alfa Romeo's history in the racing world is also quite brilliant. Well, this time we will tell a little history of Alfa Romeo for all of you.
The writing of the Alfa Romeo history pen began on June 24, 1910 ago. Alexandre Darracq, a French man who first founded a company called Società Anonima Italiana Darracq (SAID) in 1906. Darracq was not alone, he was assisted by several Italian aristocrats in establishing this company. One of them is Cavaliere Ugo Stella from Milan, Italy.
Three years later, in 1909, Darracq collaborated with Giuseppe Merosi to design a new car. After discussing in detail, they agreed to use the name Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (A.L.F.A) in this company. The wheels continued to run, time also passed quickly until finally they both created their first car with the name 1910 24 HP which was designed directly by Merosi.
In order for the name ALFA to be more famous and known by the wider community, they also agreed to deploy this brand to the world of racing. This 24 HP vehicle is the first vehicle used by the company to enter the racing event. At that time ALFA produced 24 HP with 4 cylinder engine specifications, DOHC, four valves per cylinder with twin ignition used. But unfortunately, the first World War made this company to stop its activities temporarily.
Origin of the name Romeo At that time, the event which became the first race that ALFA participated in was Targa Florio with drivers Franchini and Ronzoni in 1911. Four years later, in August 1915, the company finally developed under the tutelage of Nicola Romeo. Romeo turned a factory that originally produced hardware needs into a military factory for the Italian and allied war effort.
De facto, this company officially made cars in 1920. At that time Giuseppe Merosi designed the first car called Torpede 20-30 Hp. This year, the company ALFA officially changed its name to Alfa Romeo. The car designed by Merosi was entered in the Targa Florio race with a young driver whose name has now become the history and legend of the Ferrari brand, Enzo Ferrari.
Enzo did not go down alone, he was accompanied by Giuseppe Campari. Due to this success, Merosi continued to be the Head of Design of the company and continued to produce quite successful race cars. In 1923, Vittorio Jano was pulled from Fiat at the encouragement of Enzo Ferrari to replace Merosi as Head of Design for Alfa Romeo.
The first car created by Jano was the P2 Grand Prix which made history as the first Alfa Romeo car to win the world championship for Grand Prix cars in 1925.
The construction design made by Jano proved reliable and strong on the race track. Enzo Ferrari, who at that time served as team manager, said that this team was indeed better than the drivers themselves.
When the factory racing team began to be private or individual, Enzo left Alfa Romeo and founded a racing team called Scuderia Ferrari and went on to build his own car brand under the name Ferrari.
