10 things you didn't know about Alfa Romeo

["Nick Koleszar" <nick@domain.elided>]

10 things you didn't know about Alfa Romeo

1. Alfa Romeo won the first World Motor Racing Championship in 1925 and the
first Formula One World Championship in 1950.

2. During the 1925 Belgian Grand Prix, the Alfa Romeo P2s of Ascari and
Campari were so far ahead that the crowd became disgruntled with the
apparent walkover. They were, therefore, brought into the pits for a light
snack, whilst the mechanics polished the cars. When the competitors caught
up, the Alfa Romeo team went back out to record a somewhat closer victory.

3. In the 1933 Mille Miglia, the first 10 cars across the line were all Alfa
Romeos.

4. Henry Ford once said: "Whenever I see an Alfa Romeo, I raise my hat".

5. The famous four leaf cloverleaf motif set against a white background was
introduced as a means of conveying the Italian national colours (red, white
and green).

6. Alfa Romeo has not always confined its talents to producing cars. Over
the years it has made aeroplanes, marine engines, trucks, buses, tractors,
road-rollers, railway engines, cooking stoves and aluminium windows.

7. After the Second World War, Alfa Romeo's return to international motor
racing was made possible by the existence of five Alfa 158 Alfettas that had
been dismantled and hidden in a cheese factory in Melzo near Lake Orta,
Italy.

8. In the 1950s, 'Alfetta-powered' speedboats won 25 European Championships,
26 World Championships and gained no fewer than 62 world records.

9. In 1958, during a celebrated murder trial, the defence case rested on the
claim that it was impossible to drive from Milan to Malpensa in less than an
hour in an Alfa Giulietta. So the prosecution tried it - and succeeded. The
defendant got life imprisonment.

10. President John F. Kennedy owned an Alfa Giulietta Spider.

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Nick Koleszar : npk@domain.elided
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