The Giulietta enters its Septuagenarian Era!

Images: Museo Alfa Romeo, Nicholas Delpierre (Photos: Inedites Alfa Romeo, Berlines, Coupés et Cabriolets de 1958 à 1998), Gaetano Derosa (La Vetture Che Hanno Fatto La Storia: Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider) & Ameya Vikram Mishra

Launched at the 1954 Turin Motor Show, this year marks the 70^th anniversary of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, a car that transformed Alfa Romeo into a major manufacturer.

Born to replace the aging 1900 model, various solutions for a smaller car were considered, ranging from a 350cc two-stroke and a 750cc front-wheel drive. However, by 1952, it was clear that Alfa Romeo would stick to a traditional layout, with a front engine and rear-wheel drive.

The choice of a female name, ‘Giulietta’, was quite a novelty for Alfa Romeo, which until then had named its cars after technical details and design codes. Interestingly, the rumoured story behind the name has a connection with Paris. Legend has it that it stemmed from an exchange of jokes between a “Russian prince in exile who entertained customers by improvising poems and jokes” in a restaurant at Boulevard de Capucines and Giorgia de Cousandier, wife of the ‘poet engineer’ Leonardo Sinisgalli who was there along with a team of technicians to present the 1900 at Salon de l’Auto. The group appreciated the joke to such an extent that it was decided that their next product would be named after the romantic girl from Verona.

More practically, Alfa Romeo wanted to address a post-war society in flux, in which technical data and performance figures were not enough to make their product sellable. The market was increasingly attracted by the fashionable, fresh, and flamboyant image that the Giulietta sought to embody.

Two weeks before its official launch, a preview took place in the Portello courtyard for industry insiders and officials, featuring two actors emerging from a helicopter dressed in Shakespearean costumes as Romeo and…Juliet!

The car launched at the Turin Motor Show was the Giulietta Sprint, the progenitor and icon of the Giulietta family, with a 1290cc four-pot dual camshaft engine producing 65bhp. The saloon followed a year later in 1955.

It’s safe to say that the Giulietta was an immediate commercial success, so much so that orders had to be suspended due to factory overload. The massive demand led to the opening of the plant in Arese, just outside Milan, where the Museo Alfa Romeo is also presently located. The reason for the success lay in its sporty and attractive styling, which was complemented by its class-leading performance.

At the time, Alfa Romeo was also mindful of the very attractive market for sports cars across the Atlantic. At the suggestion of Max Hoffman for an ‘open’ Giulietta, Alfa Romeo responded by involving Bertone and Pininfarina in the design of the Giulietta Spider to capture the imagination of affluent Americans. Bertone’s proposal had unusual and futuristic lines. Conversely, Pininfarina presented a sober and elegant body that would turn the Spider into one of the most popular and iconic cars of its period.

However, all this did not mean Alfa Romeo had forgotten its rich racing heritage. Hot on the heels of the Giulietta Sprint came the Sprint Veloce.

Though the Sprint was not originally conceived as a racing car, it was technically advanced for its time, with a high-revving dual camshaft aluminium block. And with some magic from the great Giuseppe Busso, power was up by 14 horses to 79bhp for the Sprint Veloce. Mighty, considering it weighed just 780 kg (for the 750 series) thanks to the lightened bodyweight: Perspex windows and rear window, aluminium moving body parts and bumpers. The Sprint Veloce brought racing glory back to Milan by winning its 1300 Gran Turismo category at the 1956 Mille Miglia.

However, the story of the Giulietta would be incomplete without Zagato, specifically the Sprint Veloce Zagato or the SVZ. Commissioned by gentleman driver Dore Leto in 1956, Zagato focussed on maximum lightness complemented by a coach-built aerodynamic shape. The chassis was made of lightweight steel tubing fitted with an aluminium body. With the weight reduced by 145 kg, the car was an immediate success, attracting many other orders from Zagato.

When Alfa Romeo realised the SVZ was outclassing its Sprint Veloce, it responded in 1957 by launching the Scaglione-designed Sprint Speciale with power increased to 97bhp and gearbox upgraded to a 5-speed unit. Despite its aerodynamic ‘low nose’ design capable of reaching upwards of 200 kph, the SS remained more suited to social circles than the racetrack.

In 1959, things came to a head, and Zagato finally started officially producing the Sprint Zagato instead of converting privately owned Giulietta Sprints.

The story of this Italian legend is too long to be comprehensively covered in this short article which is just a homage from a sincere fan. The Giulietta marked a turning point in Alfa Romeo’s history. Production, in its various forms, continued for 11 years and a total of 177,513 examples were produced.

In 2010, Alfa Romeo decided to continue its legacy by naming the replacement of the 147, in the 5-door compact segment, after it. In its hatchback form, this new Giulietta was indirectly replaced by the small SUV, Tonale, in 2020, which marked the end of the legendary name.