From the men who made Alfa Romeo great – Jano, Fangio, Luraghi – to the iconic 8C 2300, from the first competition to the construction of the Balocco Proving Ground: 2021 is a year rich in anniversaries and the Museum in Arese will be celebrating them with a calendar you can download for free in pdf format from December 31 st on the portal museoalfaromeo.com.
Twelve themes, one for each month, ranging from race cars to road vehicles, without forgetting about the men that stand behind them. Among them is the ‘father’ of the legendary P2 that won the World Championship, Vittorio Jano, whose 130 th birth anniversary is coming up next year. 2021 also marks the 110 th anniversary since
the birth of Juan Manuel Fangio, a man who exactly sixty years ago – in 1951 – won the Formula 1 world title on board the Tipo 159 Alfetta. And a due tribute, finally, to the memory of President Giuseppe Luraghi on the thirtieth anniversary since his passing.
110 years separate us from the first race disputed by a vehicle produced in the Portello production plant: in 1911, in fact, Nino Franchini and Giuseppe Campari drove the ALFA 12 HP towards victory in the Modena regularity race, the Biscione’s first-ever race. And regarding competitions: 1931 was the birth year of an authentic icon of the brand: the 8C 2300 which took Nuvolari towards victory in the Targa Florio the same year and made Howe-Birkin the winners at the 24-hour Le Mans race.
If we consider the post-war period, 2021 will mark the 70 th anniversary of the 1900 M – AR 51, better known as the “Matta” (Crazy one), an off-road vehicle that Alfa Romeo started to produce in 1951 mainly for the Armed Forces.
Another important anniversary is the launch of the construction works for the Balocco Proving Ground, originally composed by a main track and other minor tracks for test driving the road and racing vehicles
produced by the Milanese carmaker. The track had been specifically designed for activities strictly related to series production, but it was later enriched by Autodelta’s activities, which started to develop its race cars in Balocco.
Fifty years exactly: that is the age of the Alfasud, the first Alfa Romeo vehicle assembled in the Pomigliano d’Arco plant, in the province of Naples. With production starting in 1972, it had been presented on preview the previous year at the Turin Auto Show. Not only was it to become the best-selling Alfa of all time, but it was also
one of the most technologically advanced vehicles of its time.
2021 also marks 50 years since 1971, the year when Nino Vaccarella and Toine Hezemans brought home their legendary victory on the 33/3 at the Targa Florio race, followed by Andrea De Adamich - Gijs Van Lennep, again on the 33/3.
Another chapter in the 2021 calendar of Alfa Romeo anniversaries is dedicated to the concept 164 Protéo presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 1991, a futuristic coupé-cabrio designed by the Style Centre on a platform that had been evolved from the 164.
Then there is the twenty-year anniversary of a prestigious title, the ‘car of the year’ award, which the 147, Alfa’s compact sports car, won in 2001. The last anniversary is the ten-year milestone of the 4C Concept, presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 2011, two years before the production vehicle. The winner of many prestigious acknowledgements - the Auto Bild Design Award in 2011, awarded by the readers of the German magazine Auto Bild; the Design Award for Concept Cars's Prototypes at the Villa d'Este elegance contest – the 4C is preserved in the collection of the Museo Alfa Romeo in Arese, in the storage rooms which are now open
to the public upon reservation.
The 2021 calendar of Anniversaries can be downloaded free of charge, both in Italian and English, on the museoalfaromeo website, where you can find the pdf files for online printing in a 50x70cm format.
