This is a set of 68 original Alfa Romeo factory blueprints, archive photos, and factory windscreen stickers that feature car and engine designs dating from the 1910s right the way through to the 1960s.
This collection was amassed by Luigi Fusi who joined Alfa Romeo back in 1920 as an archivist in the technical department. Fusi would remain working at Alfa for a remarkable 47 years, becoming the Head of Control Drawings in 1955 – essentially the master of blueprints.
This unusual mid-engined Alfa Romeo aero car is fascinating to look at – its design is prescient of many Le Mans and endurance racing cars in use today.
The Origins Of Alfa Romeo
The historic roots of Alfa Romeo can be traced back to 1906 with the founding of Società Italiana Automobili Darracq, an Italian-French company that would have a fraught and relatively short history before being put into liquidation in 1909.
Alfa Romeo would rise from the ashes of this earlier concern, initially named ALFA, an acronym for “Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili,” meaning Lombardian Car Factory in Italian.
The company hired Giuseppe Merosi to design an entirely new car for them, he would also design the automaker’s logo – combining a red cross on a white background on the left side (the medieval symbol of Milan) with the Visconti serpent on the other (the symbol of Visconti of Milan, a noble Italian family).
ALFA would produce 80 cars in 1911 but by 1914 the figure had grown to 272. World War I would come to Italy in 1915 leaving ALFA in a precarious situation, they now needed to produce war supplies but lacked the funding to retool the factory.
Much financial wrangling took place, eventually the company was taken over by entrepreneur Nicola Romeo. After the war in 1918 the company name was officially changed to Alfa Romeo, and it’s remained unchanged for the 106 years since.
This collection of blueprints includes some of the companies earlier open-wheeled race cars like the one shown here.
The Factory Blueprint Collection Shown Here
The collection you see here was amassed by the aforementioned Luigi Fusi, former Head of Control Drawings of Alfa Romeo from 1955 until his retirement in 1967. Fusi would later write what many consider to be the authority on Alfa’s vintage models, Alfa Romeo, Tutte Le Vetture Dal 1910 (All Cars From 1910).
The blueprints include a fascinating selection (some of which are shown above and below) including models spanning almost 50 years of Alfa Romeo history, from open-wheeled race cars to streamlined aero racers.
A number of engine blueprints are also included, as well as historic images, and some new-old-stock Alfa Romeo windscreen stickers that will be greatly sought after by Alfa collectors.
If you’d like to read more about this collection or register to bid you can visit the listing on Collecting Cars here. It’s being offered for sale out of Milan, Italy by the grandson of the man Luigi Fusi gave them to as a gift many years ago.
Images courtesy of Collecting Cars
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
