PAUSE
 
Alain De Cadenet In 1949 the factory more or less stopped racing because really there wasn’t any competition but when Ferrari started to win races with their four and a half litre normally aspirated V12, Alfa Romeo took up the cudgels once again. In 1950 the Alfetta’s were entered in a total of eleven races. They won all of them. And Farina became the first world formula one driver’s champion. The biggest problem with the Alfetta was its prodigious thirst for its dope fuel. Let’s have a look under here.
 
Alain De Cadenet This little engine in 1951, can you believe was actually giving 420 horsepower from its one and a half litres. There's the twin cam engine. Two magnetos. Each one feeds four plugs. And on this side this massive Webber carburettor feeds the alcohol mix, firstly into this supercharger which compresses it into this second supercharger which then, feeds it into the engine at some thirty odd pounds of boost. That’s how they got the horsepower. But of course Ferrari were quite right, the Alfetta’s had to make far more pitstops than they did. And at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1951, Froilan Gonzalez in one of those four and a half litre Ferraris fair and square beat the Alfetta’s. The writing was on the wall. But it was a toss up as to who would be world champion in 1951. And it went right down to the line to the Spanish grand prix at Barcelona. Ferraris made a rather critical mistake, choosing the wrong tyres that threw their treads. They were out of the race. Fangio won it, and so doing became world drivers champion for 1951. Today there are two of these cars in the museum. A third one that’s a chassis. And one of them managed to escape from captivity. It was traded for the 1938 Alfa Romeo Le Mans car that we’ve already seen by a privateer. It’s currently in Switzerland but it comes out for vintage events whenever it gets time. But perhaps, the Alfetta can be described as one of the most successful grand prix racing cars of all time. 
 
Narrator Alfa Romeo were on a big high at the end of 1951 and it’s hardly surprising. They'd just won two back to back world championships. Perhaps more importantly their 1900 series of road cars had also been selling like hot cakes. So for the 1952 season they decided to be a little more adventurous in their design. This is the Alfa Romeo C52: Disco Volante - the flying saucer. 
 
DRIVING CAR
 
Alain De Cadenet Independent front suspension. Coil springs. Live back axle. The 1900cc engine bored out to about two litres. It’s only four cylinder single plug per cylinder. Altogether producing something like a 160 horsepower. Good enough to propel this little car to a 140 miles an hour. The body by the way is all aluminium stretched over thin tubes in that kind of super legere touring of Milan style. 
 
DRIVING CAR
 
Narrator For the 1953 season they became even more adventurous. This is a 6C 3000CM. They built four coupes and the one spider. The end of the year they decided to enter Fangio in this car in the Super Court Magiori grand prix. Well he did very well indeed. He won it. 
 
Alain De Cadenet This driving position must be just how Fangio wanted it, but boy it’s close. The steering wheel. Typical fifties grand prix position.
 
DRIVING CAR
 
Narrator This engine was bored out to three and a half litres. Six cylinders, twin overhead cam, single plug per cylinder. Gave about 265 horsepower. That was good enough to propel this car to a 150 miles an hour.
 
DRIVING CAR
 
Alain De Cadenet In the early 1960s the Chizzola brothers had a car preparation company called Delta. Alfa Romeo bought them up, called it Autodelta, and it became the racing arm for the factory. Rather like Scuderia Ferrari had before the war. One of the first cars that they built was this. The 1600cc Guilia Sprint GTA. A for Aligarita. Because the production road car, the 1600 Giulia Sprint that had debuted at the Geneva motor show in 1965 weighed some 450 pounds more than these little lightweights did by the time they were finished. They stripped out everything they didn’t need from inside. This has an all aluminium body. It’s a real wolf in sheep’s clothing. Of course it’s what's under here that also makes the difference.  That is Alfa Romeo’s four cylinder twin overhead camshaft engine. Two plugs per cylinder. Running on Webber carburettors. Now when the 1750 cc version of the Giulia Sprint came out, the race car wound up with a two litre engine with speaker fuel injection. They called it the GTAM. Now they only built twelve of these cars. They also went on to great success. In fact the GTA series of cars were so successful for Alfa Romeo that even today they have a GTA car at the top of the range. It’s a popular name for them and it signifies success. So let’s have a look at the GTAM engine shall we? It’s the upgraded version of that four cylinder engine. Still with twin overhead camshafts. Two plugs per cylinder. Bored out this time to about two litres. Gone are the Webber carburettors in favour of this speaker fuel injection. Mated to a five speed gearbox of course, same as before. But these cars had legendary handling and performance. And I’ve never seen one before. They only built twelve of course.  So I think it’s something that definitely needs a road test for me, I may never get the chance again.
 
DRIVING CAR
 
Alain De Cadenet This is a fantastic bit of kit. Truly magnifico. 
 

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