Both technological changes and corporate pressures affected an Alfa Romeo effort to push a futuristic sports car into the present. Three models resulted. One garnered global enthusiasm and two showed how mid-engines could be practical.
Italy was well blessed with its trio of respected motor-car makers. In alphabetical order Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Lancia relished their advanced designs, each finding its own way to create automobiles with distinctive personal character and fascinating engineering. Alfa Romeo was the most deeply invested in motor sport to maintain its appeal to auto enthusiasts at home and abroad. Revived after World War 2, its Type 158/159 Formula One car was unbeatable from 1946 to 1950, only yielding to Ferrari in 1951.
Showing its tail to all who are interested, the OSI Scarabeo is one of the most challenging automotive designs ever committed to three dimensions.
Its brilliant twin-cam four-cylinder engines — 1,290 to 1,590 cc — helped Alfa regroup in the post-war arena. Both Giulia and Giulietta could be built and sold in volume with their all-aluminum powerplants, designs that lent themselves to sporting cars. Delightful Giuliettas were lapped up both at home and abroad with Alfa’s annual production breaking into five digits in 1960 for the first time.
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