About Alfa Romeo

One of the oldest automobile manufacturers still in business is Alfa Romeo, a producer of high-performance premium vehicles.

Despite being recognisable as Italian, the manufacturer’s origins may be traced to the French Darracq company’s unsuccessful attempt to expand into Italy in 1906, when it erected a plant in Portello, a suburb of Milan. The Darracqs were unpopular with wealthy Italians, and the business was shut down. Some Italian Darracq investors founded the new company Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, or A.L.F.A., at its plant in 1910. A year later, A.L.F.A. built its first automobile, the six-cylinder 24 H.P., so called because of its Italian tax rating.

After developing several vehicles, A.L.F.A. entered Grand Prix racing in 1914, but the First World War ended its automotive aspirations. Nicola Romeo, a former engineer turned mining mogul, took over control of A.L.F.A. in 1915. In 1919, car manufacture began, and in 1921, the business changed its name to Alfa Romeo. A reincarnation of the original 24HP was the first vehicle to sport the new badge.