In the 1960s Alfa Romeo became famous for its small cars and models specifically designed for the Italian police — "Panthers" and Carabinieri; among them the glorious "Giulia Super" or the 2600 Sprint GT, which acquired the expressive nickname of "Inseguimento" (this car is wrongly supposed to be the one that the famous Roman police marshal and unrivalled driver Armandino Spadafora brought down on the Spanish Steps in 1960 while following some robbers — it was actually a black Ferrari 250 GT/E — this picture of Giulia [1], one of the dozens about this legend, is taken from a movie and not at the Spanish Steps).
Before being bought by Fiat, Alfa Romeo always had a daring commercial policy, constantly experimenting with new solutions and using them in its series production, even at the risk of losing market share. Alfa often used controversial and unorthodox styling too, which often challenged assumptions about styling.
In a British sales brochure:
It represented those makes of cars that permitted sporty driving on common roads, provided the driver was enthusiastic enough to appreciate their particular "sound".
In Italian the owner of an Alfa Romeo is an " Alfista", and a group of them are "Alfisti". Alfa Romeo is sometimes worshipped by its owners, and many models have become cultural symbols. There are many thriving Alfa Romeo owners clubs and Alfa Romeo Model Registers. In 1967 the famous Dustin Hoffman film The Graduate gave worldwide unforgettable celebrity to the " Spider" (best known by the Italian nickname of "Duetto", or as "Osso di Seppia," meaning "cuttlefish bone," or Round-tail), and its unique shape [3]. The Spider was designed by Pininfarina; derived from several design studies dating back to the late 1950s, the Spider is believed to be the last design on which Battista Farina personally worked.
Also James Bond (Roger Moore) used an Alfa Romeo, the GTV6 in 1983's Octopussy, where he is pursued by two Bavarian BMW police cars.
In the television crime film series Ein Fall für Zwei ("a case for two", over 250 episodes made so far), the leading actor Claus Theo Gärtner, who plays the role of the private detective Josef Matula, has always been driving Alfa Romeo, starting from Giulia Super to the latest Alfa Romeo models.
Alfa Romeo had also "role" in other German detective serie Kommissar Rex (Inspector Rex). At the beginning Tobias Moretti drove a 155 and later Gedeon Burkhard drove 166.
Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather, drove a magnificent, black Alfa Romeo 6C while in exile in Sicily. This was actually the car that was booby-trapped and explodes with Apollonia, his Sicilian wife, in it toward the end of the movie.
John Malkovich, as Tom Ripley, in Ripley's Game, drives a red Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon.
Edward Fox, as the Jackal, in 1973's The Day of the Jackal drives a white Giulietta Spider. He repaints the car blue in a rented garage to avoid police, then crashes the car.
Giulietta Masina in Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits is courted by a "Romeo" in a Giulietta (Spider), a double play on words.
Alfa Romeo Giulias appear as Polizia cars in the 1969 movie The Italian Job. During the chase in Turin they all suffer some sort of fate, from breaking down on top of a building to being washed away by a weir.
Alfa Romeo motorcars are recognised by all Motor enthusiasts as being the first "supercar", with the term being coined in the 1920s by a British journalist to describe an Alfa Romeo. Some notable owners include Beppe Carletti (Musician, Retailer), Jeremy Christian (Classic Track Driver, Writer), Jeremy Clarkson (Motoring Journalist), Alex Hucksley (Actor, Stock Broker), Roger Moore (Actor) and Michael Schumacher (F1 Driver).
The Hosting team of the popular British motoring interest show Top Gear often state that a car enthusiast must have owned an Alfa Romeo at some point before they can be considered a true petrolhead (meaning an extreme car enthusiast).
In Dan Brown's novel Angels & Demons, the members of the Swiss Guard all drive Alfa Romeo sedans.
Until the 1980s, Alfa Romeos, except for the Alfasud, were rear-wheel-drive.
According to the current Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne in order to reap economies of scale, all new Alfa Romeo models will be made from the same basic platform (i.e., frame). Even Maserati will share components with some Alfas. [8]
Cloverleaf, or Quadrifoglio, badges denote high-end in comfort and engine size variants of Alfa Romeo cars, but previously denoted Alfa Romeo racing cars in the pre-Second-World-War era. The image first appeared in 1923 when Ugo Sivocci presented one prior to the start of the 14th Targa Florio as a good luck token to the team. This became the symbol of competition Alfas, denoting higher performance. Some modern Alfas wear a cloverleaf badge which is typically a green four leaf clover on a white background (Quadrifoglio Verde), but variants of blue on white have been recently observed as well.
The Alfettas of the early 1980s had models available sold as the "Silver Leaf" and "Gold Leaf" (Quadrifoglio Oro). These models were the top of the range. Badging was the Alfa Cloverleaf in either gold or silver to denote the specification level. The Gold Leaf model was also sold as the "159i" in some markets, the name in homage to the original 159.
The trim levels (option packages) offered today on the various nameplates (model lines) include the lusso ("luxury"), turismo ("touring"), and the GTA (gran tourismo alleggerita ("light-weight grand tourer"). The GTA package is offered in the 147 and 156 and includes a V-6 engine. In the past, Alfa Romeo offered a Sprint (from Italian sprintare, "to accelerate fast") trim level.
During the 1990s, Alfa Romeo moved car production to other districts in Italy. The Pomigliano d’Arco plant produced the 155, followed by the 145 and the 146, while Arese manufactured the 164 and new Spider and GTV. The 156 was launched in 1997, and became quite successful for Alfa Romeo; in 1998 it was voted “Car of the Year”. The same year a new flagship, the 166 (assembled in Rivalta, near Turin) was launched. At the beginning of the third millennium, the 147 was released, which won the prestigious title of “Car of the Year 2001”. In 2003 the Arese factory is closed.
The 155, 156, and GTV/Spider are no longer produced. The GTV/Spider was made in limited numbers, and is still a sought after model.
The Arese factory today hosts almost nothing and is nearly abandoned. What remains are some offices and the great Alfa Romeo Historical Museum, a must-see for Alfa Romeo fans.
In the 60s, the main Alfa Romeo seat was moved from inside Milan to a very large and nearby area extending over the municipalities of Arese, Lainate and Garbagnate Milanese. However, since then the Alfa seat is known to be in Arese, since the offices and the main entrance of the area are there.
In 1968, Alfa Romeo, a virtually unknown brand within the UK, was brought to life at Mangoletsi in Knutsford, Cheshire.[citation needed]
In the late 1960s, a number of European automobile manufacturers established facilities in South Africa to assemble right hand drive vehicles. Fiat and other Italian manufacturers established factories along with these other manufacturers, Alfa-Romeos were assembled in Brits, outside of Pretoria in the Transvaal Province of South Africa. With the imposition of sanctions by western powers in the 1970s and 1980s, South Africa became self sufficient, and in car production came to rely more and more on the products from local factories. This led to a remarkable set of circumstances where between 1972 and 1989, South Africa had the greatest number of Alfa Romeos on the road outside of Italy.