Alfa Romeo Giulietta (1955-65)
Alfa's fifties original is still one of the most iconic cars in Italian motoring history, and although it was available as a gorgeous spider and sporty coupé, the saloon we have here was the start of Alfa's mainstream success.
It’s hard to understate the importance of the Giulietta to the history of Alfa Romeo. Until its introduction, the firm was known for its racing exploits and exclusive and expensive road cars – but this model helped to bring about a shift in focus.
At the beginning of the Fifties, Alfa sold vehicles in the tens of thousands. By the time production of the legendary original Giulietta ceased, it was shifting hundreds of thousands. Why was this important? Well, Italy was falling in love with the automobile and bosses wanted a piece of the action.
In 1949, only one in every 96 Italians owned a car –but by 1963, that ratio had plummeted to one in 11. The Giulietta name first appeared on the pretty Sprint Coupé in 1954, but the saloon arrived the following year, and remained in showrooms until 1965. During this period, an amazing 131,806 examples of the four-door were built.
Its success lay in its combination of state-of-the-art mechanicals, a spacious interior, attractive looks and lively performance. However, while it was competitively priced in its home market of Italy, high import taxes made the Alfa a more expensive proposition than British-built rivals over here.
Still, the Giulietta’s monocoque construction, rear-wheel-drive set-up, coil-sprung suspension and keen 52bhp 1.3-litre twin-cam engine represented the height of sophistication. In 1954, Jaguar was the only firm producing twin-cam powerplants on a large scale, but Alfa quickly overtook its output.
While the car’s interior is spartan by modern standards, it’s surprisingly spacious and takes care of the bare essentials. There’s an elegant thin-rimmed steering wheel, while our example is one of the later cars, with a distinctive linear speedo read-out.
As well as the Sprint Coupé and Berlina saloon, the firm offered a cute Giulietta Spider. Bertone had penned the existing two-door, but its proposal for a convertible was rejected, so rival Pininfarina came up with the design for the 1955 drop-top.
In keeping with Alfa’s racy heritage, there was a hotter 1957 Ti saloon (the badge stands for Turismo Internazionale). This featured a more powerful 64bhp (and later 74bhp) 1.3-litre twin-cam engine. It accounted for the lion’s share of Giulietta sales, although only 800 of the 92,658 Tis produced were right-hand-drive models destined for the UK.
The racy Zagato-styled Giulietta SZ coupés, stylish Sprint Speciale models and pretty drop-top Spider versions are all more glamorous and desirable than the run-of-the-mill saloon in our pictures. However, the four-door was the mainstay of the Giulietta line-up – and established the Alfa saloon car template for decades to come.
