Do Look Back

When I started working at BMW Concessionaires GB Ltd in 1971, our cars were not ten-a-penny on London’s more affluent streets. The trendy thing to drive then was an Alfa Romeo. The 105 Series Giulia models offered a heady mix of great styling, courtesy of Bertone and Pininfarina , together with exhilarating performance reflecting the Marque’s racing successes, primarily with the brilliant GTA variant. On my first visit to Munich, I was told that with the impending Tii version of the 2002 and further development of the E9 coupe, it was hoped that Alfa would find itself with a worthy Bavarian competitor. By the time I moved to Alfa Romeo GB Ltd . (ARGB) at the end of the decade, places like Kensington and Hampstead were knee-deep in BMWs, whereas, though its UK registrations were peaking, Alfa Romeo’s reputation and market share was beginning its woeful decline. Both the sales volume zenith and the collapse of esteem for the Marque’s products were mainly attributable to the Alfas...

The Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ and TZ models are well documented in Marcello Minerbi’s 1985 study, published by La Mille Miglia Editrice.  In the book’s foreword, Giuseppe Busso outlined the somewhat tortured gestation of the TZ, from initial concept in 1955, through the ‘exploratory,’ but flawed, Abarth collaboration known as the 750 Competizione/Sport, on to the 1961 spider prototype.  Courtesy Alfa Romeo Automobilismo Storico Despite the disappointment of the 750, Alfa Romeo design chief, Orazio Satta Puliga (Satta) and Busso determined that Alfa Romeo should create a lightweight, (tubular spaceframe chassis), sporting GT, with serious racing potential.  Power would come from the four cylinder engine that was such a distinctive feature of the Giulietta saloons and coupes with which Satta had achieved much commercial and reputational success for the Marque.  The model and its engine had enabled Alfa Romeo to gain a foothold in the mass market.  Necessary as this ...