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Although the
company still made some interesting cars such as Flavia, Fulvia and
Beta,
the production scale was relatively small and the market positioning
was
embarrassing - neither a prestige car maker nor a bread-and-butter mass
producer.
In days before Ferrari appeared, Alfa Romeo could be described as the
most
prestigeous sports car brand.
Manufacturer - Italian car makers
Fiat
500 Agnelli family
resumed their
leadership with Giovanni Agnelli II, the grandson of the founder,
became
the Chairman in 1966.
While
Porsche, Lotus, Ferrari, Lamborghini and even TVR had their own
identity
and unique commitment to the sports car industry, De Tomaso seemed
undistinguishable
and half hearted.
As a result, Sebring,
Mistral,
Quattroporte, Mexico, Indy and others greater sports cars described in
here rolled out continuously.
During the De Tomaso era, Maserati’s reputation
declined
to the lowest ever level but the "professional surviver" still kept the
company running until he sold half of it to Fiat in 1993 and the
remaining
stakes in 1997.
Not
much was achieved until the company went into bankruptcy and took over
by Nicola Romeo in 1915, who donated the second word of the company’s
name.
More interesting is that Fiat now builds some niche models
- Barchetta, Coupe and Multipla, thanks to the leadership of CEO Paolo
Cantarella.
Fiat axed the
rear-drive
90 and 75 and replaced them with the 155 which is nearly a rebodied
Fiat
Tipo.
In
2005, Alfa received
Maserati from sister company Ferrari, because the latter failed to turn
around Maserati.
Because it involved too many other business,
including
machine tools and military equipment, car division was not very famous
until the 20’s, when Alfa Romeo created a string of sports cars
masterpieces
- 6C1750, 6C2300, 8C2300 and 8C2900 series.
In the 70’s Fiat
was hit
by strikes and some unsuccessful product design.
Since then, the control of the company had shifted to different hands
many
times and the financial instability was unchanged.
Anyway, the US
giant maker sold Lamborghini to Megatech, a
Malaysian
company, in the early 90s.
During the
following
50 years, non-stop strings of excellent sports cars rolled out the
factory,
including Testa Rossa, 250GTO, 275GTB, 365GTB/4 (Daytona), 246GT
(Dino),
308GTB, 512BB, 288GTO, Testarossa, F40 and more and more to come.
The pre-war
Alfa was more a sports car specialist and racing car maker without
involving
mass production.
With the introduction of great
cars
such as Ghibli, Bora and Khamsin, it once challenged the mighty Ferrari
and Lamborghini seriously to become the best sports car manufacturer.
Fiat itself is
renowned for
making fabulous small cars, such as 500, 127, Panda, Uno and Punto.
We admired Colin Chapman’s pursuit for innovation, Enzo’s
persistent in making the best sports cars, F.
Left :
the world-dominating
Type 35 ; Right : the EB110 In 1987, Italian
tycoon Romano
Artioli purchased the Bugatti marque and built a modernised factory in
the "capital for sports cars", Modena, Italy, where Ferrari,
Lamborghini,
Maserati and De Tomaso locate around.
Therefore in 1997 it let its Ferrari division took over the
remaining
50% ownership, accompany with the company’s administration.
Khamsin Back in 1947,
Maserati brothers
lost control of the company to Adolfo Orsi due to financial problem.
During the magic decade between 1959 to 1969, Fiat’s output
rose
from 425,000 to 1,751,400 cars.
Alfa
enthusiasts once thought the company’s tradition and character would
eventually
disappeared, until the arrival of new GTV and 156.
Dino - the most exotic Fiat, powered by a Ferrari V6 and carrying the name
of
Enzo's son.
These cars employed
advanced
technology
including hemi-sphere combustion chamber, dohc and superchargers, in
addition
to the fabulous styling and superb craftsmanship, no wonder classic car
collectors regard the pre-war days as the golden period of the company.
Alfa never went
bankrupt
again because since 1933 it was owned by the Italian government, via a
state-owned company.
Then the "Professional Survivor" Alejandro de Tomaso came and steered
the
company to produce more affordable coupes base on a single basic
platform.
2005 came the hottest version, Zonda F Clubsport,
which boosted power to 650hp accompany with 20 kilograms of weight
shed.
In fact, today’s Lancia has no independent
R&D
and it is actually a Fiat masked with Lancia’s enclosure.
Because
of
the use of Russian steel and problems in quality control, sales dropped
and Fiat had to pull out from America.
Only the Rolls Royce
could
rival it, however, Bugatti’s strength was in sports car instead of
saloon.
The street, once having 3 Fiats out of 4 cars,
has more and more Volkswagen, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault and Ford now.
In other
words,
Ferrari is now running the company and is responsible for the
production
as well as development.
In 1986, Alfa
Romeo
became fully under the ownership of Fiat after an unsuccessful alliance
with Nissan.
However, to find
financial
support for his F1 team, in 1969 he sold 50% shares to Fiat after talks
with Henry Ford broke down.
3 years, later, the company renamed to Modena Design and
started supplying other supercar and racing specialists, such as
Dallara, Aprilia and Ferrari.
In 2005, Montezemolo
became the Chairman of Fiat group and he decided to shift the ownership
of Maserati to Alfa Romeo.
It was brilliant concept as a front-drive small
hatchback
like the still-born VW Golf, but ruined by poor quality control and
other
problems caused by the bureaucracy within the company.
This company continue to help Alfa racing, until after World
War
II it started to develop its own car.
In the 80’s, new
CEO Cesare
Romiti, saved Fiat by introducing highly automated production line and
standardised components.
It eventually got
into financial
trouble and was saved by Fiat in the late 60’s.
Giovanni Agnelli
firmly controlled
the company till his death in 1945, his family still held a majority
share
but no member succeeded his leadership position.
The giant completely
took
over Lancia in 1978, ending the company’s 70 years of independence.
Before the broke out of WWII, Fiat employed
50,000
workers and remained to be a driving force to Italy’s economy.
Lancia, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, history, Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, DeTomaso, Fiat
His son, Gianni, took over the
company
after WWII and started involving motor sport - first in touring car
races
against Alfa Romeo, then rallying and even Formula One racing.
During this long period, he lost interest in the
company bearing his name and would gamble on other investments.
Since Enzo Ferrari established this company
in 1929, it began racing in various of categories, including Formula 1,
Formula 2, GT racing and endurance racing.
Another error
was to base all the Lancia model on Fiat’s models without introducing
sufficient
deviation and character.
Oil crisis would have
helped it but by then the company had already expanded its product
line-up
to big cars and exotic cars such as the Ferrari-engined Dino.
Located in
Maranello of Italy,
near Modena, Ferrari has been a subsidiary of the giant Fiat since
1969.
In 1988, he simply set up his own company,
Pagani Composite Research, at Modena to make carbon fiber parts for
Lamborghini.
17 years earlier, Fiat reached an agreement with Enzo
Ferrari
to take over 50% stock, letting Enzo to concentrate on Formula One
Racing
activity.
As Alfa Romeo is
intended
to be the sporty arm of the Fiat Group, Lancia has to face the up-hill
battle against the like of Audi and Volvo, if not BMW and Mercedes.
Its success was driven by the passion of Horacio
Pagani who styled and engineered all his cars and the support
from his composite parts company Modena Design.
Under the leadership
of Fiat boss Paolo Cantarella, Alfa got back its own character and
re-established itself as a sport premium brand like BMW.
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