Manufacturers  /  Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo

Milan, Italy · est. 1910

Competition engineering translated into small-series road cars.

Models
2
Top value
€12M
Period
1910–
Alfa Romeo — manufacturer stage

Curated entry points

The essential Alfa Romeos

Three cars that explain the manufacturer: its origins, its engineering peak and the shape of its modern ambition.

Complete catalogue

Every Alfa Romeo on file

2 models · 1 families

The Stradale Line

2

A racing prototype made road-legal in 1967, and the 33-unit homage that revived the name in 2024 — the two collectible poles of the marque.

The house

Competition engineering translated into small-series road cars.

Alfa Romeo was winning grands prix before Ferrari existed — Enzo Ferrari ran Alfa’s works team before founding his own marque. That racing bloodline peaked on the road in 1967 with the Tipo 33 Stradale.

A road-legal version of the T33 sports prototype, the 33 Stradale carried Franco Scaglione’s butterfly-doored body over a race chassis — around 18 were built, and collectors routinely rank it the most beautiful car of all time. One rarely trades; when it does, the price is a rumour.

In 2024 Alfa revived the name for a new 33 Stradale: 33 examples on Maserati MC20 bones, every one sold before announcement — the marque’s first true collectible in decades.

Founded
24 June 1910
A.L.F.A.—Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili—was formed in Milan; the Romeo name came later.
33 Stradale programme
18 chassis
Alfa's own accounts differ: one identifies twelve road-bodied Stradales and six design-study chassis, while others call all eighteen specimens.
Defining engine
Aluminium twin-cam
The 1954 Giulietta brought an all-aluminium twin-overhead-cam engine into volume production.
2016 auction result
$19.8 million
RM Sotheby's sold the 1939 8C 2900B Lungo Spider at Monterey.

Selected milestones

A bloodline, not a list.

  1. 1910

    A.L.F.A. is founded in Milan

    Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili begins on 24 June with the 24 HP and 12 HP as its first cars.

  2. 1950

    The 1900 changes the factory

    Alfa's first unitary-body car made on an assembly line moves the company towards series production.

  3. 1954

    The Giulietta scales the twin-cam

    The Sprint takes an all-aluminium twin-cam engine derived from racing practice into volume production.

  4. 1963

    Arese opens

    The new plant increases capacity for the Giulia and Alfa Romeo's next phase of series production.

  5. 1967

    The 33 Stradale is shown at Monza

    Franco Scaglione's road-going Tipo 33 derivative joins a competition chassis to a hand-built aluminium body.

  6. 2023

    The 33 Stradale returns as a fixed commission

    Alfa unveils 33 individually configured cars, all allocated before launch; the first is completed in December 2024.

What defines Alfa Romeo

Competition engineering reaches road cars

The 33 Stradale carries the chassis thinking and mechanical priorities of the Tipo 33 onto the road.

Low mass before displacement

Aluminium engines, compact dimensions and lightweight structures recur from the Giulietta to the 33.

Specialists remain part of development

Alfa Romeo repeatedly works with independent designers and coachbuilders for its smallest production programmes.

The mark

The cross and the serpent.

Milan, 1910: the story the house tells is of a draughtsman, Romano Cattaneo, waiting for a tram at Piazza Castello with the Filarete Tower in view — and on it the biscione, the serpent of the Visconti who once ruled the city. With chief engineer Giuseppe Merosi he set it beside the red cross of Milan’s own banner: a municipal coat of arms, worn as a car badge.

The ring has kept minutes ever since — Romeo added to the name in 1918, a laurel wreath for the P2’s inaugural world championship in 1925, Milano dropped in 1972 as production spread south. The cross and the serpent have never moved.

Romano Cattaneo, 1910 · with Giuseppe Merosi

Alfa Romeo crest, 1910–1918

1910–1918

The first roundel — Milan’s red cross beside the Visconti serpent, ALFA MILANO on the ring.

Alfa Romeo crest, 1918–1925

1918–1925

Romeo joins the name — the new owner written into the ring.

Alfa Romeo crest, 1925–1946

1925–1946

A laurel wreath for the P2, winner of the inaugural world championship.

Alfa Romeo crest, 1950–1972

1950–1972

The postwar redraw — gold on blue, geometry in place of engraving.

Alfa Romeo crest, 1972–2015

1972–2015

Milano leaves the badge as production spreads beyond the city.

Alfa Romeo crest, 2015–

2015–

One metal field, the dividing line gone — cross and serpent share the ground.