Back in 1910 Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, in short ALFA, was founded. Nowadays this name is still used by most people instead of the full name Alfa Romeo. In 1918, shortly after World War I, a frenchman wanted to put the market back up. His name was Nicola Romeo. Unfortunately the name Romeo wouldn't be recognized, so the name Alfa Romeo was born.
Back in that time Alfa Romeo already was into racing. The one and only Enzo Ferrari was the big Chief of Alfa's Race Division in 1938. In 1939 he sadly left. During World War II nothing the factory was unused. Sadly they threw bombs on the factory, 3 times.
1950 was a turning point for Alfa Romeo. Conveyor belt production started! The Alfa 1900 was the first car made that way. Formule 1 started that year and Alfa Romeo dominated!. The first two years Alfa Romeo became World Champion.
The first known mass-production is from 1954; the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. By that time Alfa started to cooperate with maufacturers like Bertone, Pininfarina and Zagato. In 1960 the new factory was built in Arese, just outside of Milan. It's still there, including the production. There's a museum too. If you drive from Lake Como to Milan, you will pass the factory, it's next to the higway. Too bad it's not a building you easily can recognize. The first Alfa Romeo built in Arese, is the Alfa Romeo Giulia. The built over one million of that model!.
The seventies was a period with ups and downs. But they did built the Alfa Romeo Montreal back then. One of just a few V8-engine cars they built! Other models of that time are the Alfasud and Alfetta.
In 1983 rolde the first Alfa Romeo 33 was made. Most Alfisti have warm/sweet memories to this model. Shortly after the introduction of the 33, the Alfa Romeo Arna was released. Thos model is built in cooperation with Nissan. Enough said.....also the Alfa Romeo 75 was born in the early eighties.
In 1986 Alfa Romeo became part of the FIAT-group. It took allthough up to half the nineties untill Alfa Romeo was back on the market; the Alfa Romeo 156 was born!. Alfa's most successful model so far. In The Netherlands it became car of the year!
The history also contaisn several specific signs which are special commited to Alfa Romeo. First of all the four-leaf clover; Quadrifoglio in Italian. the meaning is prety the same as in general; it brings you luck. In 1923 Ugo Sivocci used it during the Targa Florio on both sides of his racingcar. Eversince it's used by Alfa Romeo on all racingcars. Most recent example is the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.
GTA stands for Gran Turismo Allegerita. It's translated as Grand Touring with weight reduction. Perhaps you can better say it's the most sportive/fast car of a certain model.
The Serpente is probably the most known symbol; the snake. it comes from a young guy from the designing division. While waiting on a tram he saw a snake-symbol at thetowe of Filarete at the Piazza Castello.
The logo has been changed several times. The Red cross, which stands for the cross that the Milnese man Giovanni da Rho during the crusades as first placed on the citywalls of Jerusalem, is next to the Serpente. Both symbols at first were surrounded by a dark-blue circle with the words "ALFA" (on top) and "Milano" (at the bottom). When Nicola Romeo took over the company in 1915, "Romeo" was added to the logo.
Source: wikipediaandn alfaromeo.nl
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