This year, 2010, AlfaRomeo celebrates itscentenary. One of thegreat sporting

marques, over the last 100 years,Alfa have been one of thevenerated companies of theEuropean car industry.

After the Second World WarAlfa Romeo committed itself tomass production as distinct fromit’s pre-war policy of low volumehigh performance road cars andracing cars. This policy wasessential to survive.

This led to a succession ofmodels with characteristics thatset them apart for mostenthusiastic drivers, some of themin the tradition of the great Alfasports cars of the 1920s and1930s. The ranges havesometimes included fairlyunsuccessful models, strategieshave been uncertain in times ofbusiness stress, and racingfortunes were mixed. But thebread and butter cars have alwaysbeen complemented by moresporting models which havecontributed enormously to thelustre that surrounds Alfa Romeo’sname. The car featured in thisarticle is one of the latter.

Alfas have soul, the reasons for thisbeing their styling, their engines, andthe way they handle. Traditionally, AlfaRomeo have gone to the great Italianstyling houses to have their body shapesdrawn up. The majority of enduringdesigns have come from Touring ofMilan, Zagato, Pininfarina, and Bertone.Alfa Romeo engines were designed byengineers with racing experience, allrace proven and honed to somethinglike perfection there. Similarly, thechassis and suspension set-up of an Alfahas always been sports oriented, sooverall you get a car which isentertaining and rewarding to drive.

The Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale (orSS) was one of those beautifully bodiedAlfas produced in limited numbers inthe 50s and 60s, i.e. about the middleperiod of Alfa’s 100 years.

It was designed by Bertone’s chiefdesigner, Franco Scaglione (who builtthe famous BAT concept cars in 1953-56)

and appeared in prototype form at the1957 Turin show. It was built accordingto aerodynamic principles and had an estimated Cd of0.25. It was the most curvaceous of allproduction Alfa Romeos.

The car, called the Giulietta SprintSpeciale, was fitted with a 1300cc twincam engine developing 100bhp and afive speed gearbox. Due to the fantasticaerodynamic efficiency the car wasincredibly fast at 124mph which wasunknown for a 1300cc car in the late50s. It had a good competition historybut was eventually outpaced by thesimilar Zagato bodied car which wasmuch lighter with its alloy body. A totalof 1,366 Giulietta SS cars were built in1958-62.

In 1963 the car was upgraded. It wasgiven a 1600cc twin cam engine withtwin double-choke Weber 40DCOE

Carburettors which developed112bhp. It was also fitted with frontdisc brakes. It had a marginally betterperformance, particularly better torquein the lower speed ranges. It was nowcalled the Giulia Sprint Speciale.(Giuliettas had 1300cc engines whileGiulias had 1600cc units). A total of1,400 Giulia SS units were built in1963-65.

The Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale is a

remarkable car which was designed 53years ago, and with its long flowinglines was called the most perfectstreamlined car. To many collectors it isone of the most desirable smaller Alfasof all time.

The car illustrated here (a 1965 SS)is owned by Chris Furlong and itappeared at the Alfa RomeoCentenary Exhibition at the MondelloClassic Live event in June.

By CHRIS FURLONG