The Giulia Quadrifoglio - The Revolution of an Italian Car Maker

Believe it or not, there used to be a time back in the 20th century that Alfa Romeo used to make great cars. Especially in the 1960s, Alfa Romeo, at its peak, built cars like the Alfa Romeo Spider, one of the most iconic cars in automotive history. But from then on, it slowly went downhill for the Turin-based car manufacturer. But what were the causes of that? And how the 4C and the Giulia could take Alfa Romeo back to those glorious oldern days, I will explain in this article.

Where it all started

Alfa Romeo was officially founded in 1910 in Milan under the name of ‘Società Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili’ (in short A.L.F.A.) launching their first production car in the same year, the 24 HP with a self-explanatory power output of exactly 42 horsepower - I didn’t get that one either. With this car the Milaneses also entered motor racing and competed in the Targa Florio, an endurance race across Italy, in May of the following year.
After a promising start and the company slowly crawling out of the toddler-phase, WWI overshadowed Europe and in 1914, converted the passionate car factory into an armor production factory. Now being taken over by the war-businessman Nicola Romeo, the company flurished under his lead and the production of plane engines enabled it to expand from 400 up to 4000 employees.
As the war was finally over, Alfa steered their focus back onto cars and in honor of the work he’d done for the company Nicola Romeo’s surname was added to the brand in 1920, creating the name we know today as ‘Alfa Romeo’.
At this time, Alfa also had a very successful racing team scoring noumerous victories with the highlight being the win of the first ever automotive world-championship in 1923. But despite the magnificent successes in motorsport, the Italian car maker struggled with its road car producion line to the point of being financially dependant on the state’s central bank (Banca d’Italia), which was owned by a man we know as Benito Mussolini. Because of the protest against the fierce dictator, many workers from the factory halls as well as the racing team left the party, including one of their racing drivers, a then un-known young man called Enzo Ferrari, in aspiration of founding his own company. And the rest, as we know, remains history…
The financial struggle unfortunately did not seem to have an ending as Alfa Romeo became so desperate and in need for money that the brand was sold to the Italian government.

After the Second World War, which destroyed more than half of the factory buildings, Romeo did not give up and re-built its facilities starting out with smaller and more affordable production cars like the Giulietta (1954-1962) and the 1900 (1950-1959) in order to reach a broader customer audience and to gain financial security.

Alfa at their heights

What then followed, can be reconed as the most glorious and successful times of Alfa Romeo. Throughout the ‘60s the Italian car maker created an array of the world’s most iconic cars like the beautiful Giulia and the even more beautiful Giulia Spider, the slightly smaller Giulietta or the timelessly elegant Alfa Spider. The list just went on and on. And it were the cars of that era that not only pushed Alfa Romeo into a high-class, luxury brand but also shaped people’s perception of what an Italian car could and should be. Of course there were Ferraris, but these were vehicles that one might afford to hang pictures of in their living rooms rather than attainig a real one. So Alfa Romeo found its niche and evolved into the Italian car maker for the people.
As if that was not good enough, cruciual break-throughs like being the first manufacturer to put technologies like all-round disc-brakes or the 5-speed gearbox into a car as standard enabled Alfa Romeo to edge out the dominating German competiton in form of BMW’s or Mercedes’ and regain the automotive crown in their own country, as sales were not particularly well abroad due to the higher pricing in comparison to German cars.
It also was around this time that Alfa Romeo began to develop their trademark visuals like the round headlamps or the typically triangular-shaped grill that made their cars instantly recognizable and gave the company an opportunity to seperate itself from the grey mass of cars that dominated on the streets of Milan and Rome.

The downfall of Alfa Romeo

Since in the 1980s the Italian government decided to privatize hundrets of companies around the country, Alfa Romeo was finally able to free itself from the handcuffs of the Italian state. But realizing that the car manufacturer couldn’t survive on its own, the decision was made to put itself up on the sales market. The two prospective customers - Fiat and Ford - fought it out in the meeting rooms, with the Turinese having the edge over the American in 1986.
Despite the beginning raise in quality due to the increased know-how of Fiat’s imported labour, drastic changes occured during Fiat’s debut years at Alfa Romeo. For example, the idea of Alfa Romeo being a rear-wheel-drive car maker with passionate design and driver-focused engineering was soon put to the history books and altered into a front-wheel-powered concept with rather daft visuals combined with poor build-quality.
From then on, more than two decades of utter misery squezzed into a bunch of mostly underwhelming cars followed and hurt the brand’s reputation massively. Alfa Romeo had lost its originality and its core-fans. So it is no surprise then that in 2001 Fiat announced huge financial losses through its fellow compatriot, not only that but the business lost over three quarters of its worth in less than 2 years - which is a nightmare for any kind of business.

The renaissance of a brand

Hitting that big low was definitely pretty hard, especially since prior to that Alfa Romeo always tried to keep a slick and polished image of its products. The company which was once known for building great cars was now known for creating lousy ones - and that is one hell of a reputation to shake off.

But since the falling bank accounts didn’t pay themselves and there really was no other option than to keep going, a re-branding process was iniciated in order to take the manufacturing company back to its heights of the swinging 60s and 70s.
As a result, in 2007, Alfa Romeo attempted to re-establish its name for the first time and it rather worked. With the launch of the MiTo in 2008, a more enthusiastic and better performing Alfa has entered the world equipped with improved styling and a more driver-focused set-up. Sales were slowly starting to increase as the company announced it would take it a step further and revive an old classic of the past. The Giulietta.
Again, the Giulietta became a magnificent hatchback with pretty visuals and its Quadrifoglio version had the performance to back it all up. In addition to this already very good recipe, the red little bug had one of the best safety ratings throughout the market, making it very appealing to small families, again increasing the width and variety of Alfa’s customers.
So it is spring of 2013 and in six years Alfa Romeo has made two remarkable vehicles, which is impressive in its own right, but there was nothing available that seemed exciting. Nothing outrageous that was thrilling enough to turn heads from two miles away, nothing that embodied the real essence of Alfa Romeo.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Alfa announced the absolutely stunning 4C which is a bare, carbon-fibre tub fitted with all kinds of sports car wizardry and a four-cylinder turbocharged engine that made every petrolhead’s heart melt every time one passed them by. It also had looks to die for just like in the oldern days for with beautiful sweeping curves, large hips and a back end that would put Jennifer Lopez to shame. This is the most outrageous Alfa Romeo went with a high-production car since the 60s and it seemed to pay off as people started talking about it and most of them in a very positive manner. In fact, it got so much traction, even non-petrolheads began to recognize the shape. That is somethong you surely cannot say about the 8C which is an older and more hardcore version on which the 4C is based.

And whilst everone was still busy admiring the 4C and its astonishing lightness and driving feel the Milaneses thought that it was not enough of an image enchancement so they brought back yet another forgotten classic. The Alfa Romeo Giulia.
Finally, after all these years of dreadfulness and boredom we eventually get a proper Alfa saloon that isn’t ridiculously ugly and breaks into pieces the second it leaves the factory. There is an Alfa Romeo that is truly fantastic. Its aggressive yet beautifully rounded exterior are breathtakingly exciting to watch and especially the top-of-the-range Quadrifoglio with its four tail-pipes displays an abolutely stunning piece of engineering and adding to that over 500 hp from a V6 turbocharged Ferrari engine, it really doesn’t get better than this. And as if that wasn’t good enough, it is well-built, too, which nearly unheared of in an Italian car, Alfa Romeo in particular. The shifting-paddles are nice and metally and the interior itself feels luxurious and is such a nice place-to-be. You can really sense the amount of passion and love that went into building that car which went missing for way too long.

So, at least for now, it seems like Alfa rediscovered their mojo, not building cars but charackters stuck onto four wheels, ready to fall in love with. Ups or downs, Alfa Romeo has always been a great compamy and a great car maker throughout its history. We should cherish and fully appreciate the era we are in for as long as possible, we shall drive the cars, enjoy the rides and steer with pride, because essentially that is what Alfa Romeo was all about, right from the start.