Alfa Romeo Giuliette 1954 - 1965 - Model history

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

In May 1954, a car was introduced to the audience that would be produced in more copies than all the earlier Alphas combined.
Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Until the middle of the last century Alfa Romeo has enjoyed about the status of the Ferrari in the car world. They won races, produced extremely expensive and exclusive sports cars, and survived largely from other industries, such as commercial vehicles or aircraft engines. But the factory has been state-owned since 1932 and such a practice, which did not bother the big fan of the brand, Benito Mussolini, was no longer sustainable in democracy.

The first step towards mass production was the 1900 model 1950, but a real breakthrough required a smaller and cheaper model, for which the name Giulietta was chosen, a Shakespearean word game associated with another firm name. In May 1954, a coupe arrived, scheduled as an announcement for a sedan. They planned to produce several dozen copies, but already received about 700 orders during the Turin Salon. Because they did not plan mass production, they left the assembly to Bertone, who for this purpose built a new factory and from a small body shop became a serious car manufacturer.

The same thing happened with Pinin Farini (the name was still spelled separately) with the open model Spider, another design masterpiece, introduced in 1955. So Giulietta raised not only Alfa Romeo from the ashes, but also two of Italy's most famous bodybuilders, which shows how important the model is. The sedan also arrived on the market in 1955, and later introduced two more coupe variants intended primarily for racing, the SS and the NW. All models were equipped with a new 1290cc engine, with two camshafts in the head, which in the basic version developed 62 hp, and in sports at 100 each. It is no wonder that different models of Alfa Romeo Giuliette managed the category up to 1300 cc on racetracks Worldwide.

This fantastic engine with an aluminum head and engine block was later enlarged until 1962 cm and remained in the Milan firm's offer for an incredible 40 years until 1994. It launched the most famous models, the ones that created the new Alpha legend, radically different from the pre-war one. As for the Giuliette itself, these models remained on offer until 1965, some with the 1.6-liter engine from the successor to the Giulietta, and a total of more than 180.000 copies of various models were produced.

The name Giulietta has such power in history Alpha that it has even been revived twice, first in 1977 on a dicey but in line with the company’s tradition of a very manageable sedan, and in 2010 on the still current five-door lower-middle class model. But none of these reincarnations managed to get close to the glory of the original.

Source: autoportal.hr


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