14.05.2004 To mark the 50th anniversary of the ALFA ROMEO Giulietta Sprint a long series of events and exhibitions with the aim of reviving the history of an extraordinary legend iS planned

The year was 1954 and cinemas throughout the world were showing 'On The Waterfront', a film directed by Elia Kazan that won 8 Oscars. The Oscar for best leading actor was awarded to a young and charismatic star: Marlon Brando.

As one of the legends of international cinema was born, in Italy the public flocked to see the magnificent Sofia Loren in the film 'L'oro di Napoli' by Vittorio De Sica.

But 1954 was also the year of 'La Strada' (winner of the 1956 Oscar for Best Foreign film) in which another great Italian actress achieved fame and international fortune: this was Giulietta Masina, wife of Federico Fellini, who played the part of Gelsomina, a poor and ingenuous girl, alongside Zampanò, the disreputable fire-eater magnificently played by Anthony Quinn.

It may have been a coincidence, but the year that brought us the charming Gelsomina also welcomed a new Alfa Romeo that was to blaze its own trail through motoring history: its name was the Giulietta, the same as the famous actress who became its symbolic godmother in 1960 when car number 100,001 rolled off the Portello lines.

The strand linking Fellini's films and the Giulietta reappeared in 1955 when the car promenaded along the sea front at Rimini (Federico Fellini's home town) to mark the Miss Italia competition, won that year by Brunella Tocci.

The Giulietta soon came to the fore as one of the symbols of the Italian renaissance after the ruins of World War II. After that it was but a short step to the status of veritable motoring legend.

Any self-respecting legend is often shrouded in mystery and the Giulietta was no exception because two different tales are told to explain how it got its name. The first has it that the name Giulietta was suggested by Mrs De Cousandier, wife of the poet Leonardo Sinisgalli. The second, however, claims that it was Alfa Romeo's answer to a question from a Russian prince. The story goes that one evening in 1950, at the time of the launch of the Alfa Romeo '1900' in Paris, the driver Wimille and some Alfa Romeo directors entered a nightclub where the noble prince was wont to entertain the customers with poems and stories. After recognising the directors, the prince went to greet them with the question: 'You are eight Romeo's without even one Giulietta?'.

Three years later, (Alfa) Romeo introduced its Giulietta to the world. Whichever story is true, the Shakespearian reference appealed to the imagination of the entire world and the name of the young romantic girl who leans over the balcony in Verona to hear the words of her lover earned the Giulietta the name of 'the Italian girlfriend'.

Now let us go back to 1954, when Nunzio Filogamo introduced the San Remo Festival for the fourth time in succession on the occasion when it was won by Gino Latilla and Giorgio Consolini with 'Tutte le mamme' (written by Bertini and Falcocchio) and bereft, for the first time, of the Queen of Italian song: Nilla Pizzi. The newspaper front pages were emblazoned with words of homage to Ardito Desio who on 31 July led an Italian exhibition to conquer K2, the second highest mountain in the world. Inside the papers, you could also read news of the 'Montesi' mystery and the arrest of Fausto Coppi for adultery: a photograph captures the cycling champion as he loads his bicycle into the boot of a Giulietta saloon. Between joy and sadness, Italy was rushing headlong into modernisation and just about to undergo its very first economic boom.

One emblem of this crucial stage in the history of Italy was the Giulietta Sprint that made its debut at the Turin Motor Show in the spring of 1954 and was welcomed like a true film star. In the wake of the 1900's success, Alfa Romeo introduced a small, nimble coupé offering superior performance that marked its entrance to the small car category, i.e. cars equipped with power units of under 1500 cubic centimetres.

The first thing that strikes you about the car is its slender body designed by Bertone that cleverly uses aerodynamic principles to ensure a stylish shape. At the front, the distinctive Alfa Romeo badge and side grilles had been adjusted to suit more modern tastes.

What people saw was a brand new revolutionary twin shaft 1290 cc engine that benefited from extensive use of aluminium alloy, a truly unprecedented idea at the time. This engine, forerunner of all subsequent four cylinder engines, was designed by Giuseppe Busso in accordance with a philosophy of weight containment that came from his training as an aviation engine designer. It is not the first time that superior qualities of power and safety have been conferred on a car that was exceptional for its compact cylinder capacity and size. All these qualities allowed Alfa to maintain the attributes of handling and brio that won such acclaim in the 1900 but offer them at an accessible price.

The result was the Giulietta Sprint, a coupé type-approved for 2 + 2 seats that remained in production until 1962. The three main car series were complemented by Sprint Veloce versions and the last car produced in 1962 that was called simply the '1300 Sprint'. 24,084 units of the Giulietta Sprint were produced in total; 3058 of the Giulietta Sprint Veloce; 1252 of the Giulietta Sprint Speciale - and 217 of the Giulietta SZ and the Giulietta SZ Coda Tronca.

All versions of the Giulietta model represented significant icons of their day: the car starred in many films of the Sixties, the years of the economic boom and the Dolce Vita. It won everyone's hearts: from the man in the street, who certainly dreamed of it, to celebrities such as Sofia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Esther Williams, Diana Dors, Vittorio Gassman - and many others - who owned it. It became an emblem of social and economic growth in Italy and in the TV advertisements of those years, it was actually chosen to reinforce the benefits of other products. For example, Domenico Modugno shouted 'With API you flyyyyy!', after filling his car at the petrol pump and speeding off in his Giulietta Spider. Its speed on the road was also reflected by the speed of its sales. It may, therefore, be affirmed that the Giulietta invented a new class, that of the 1300 cc car, that would soon become a European formula.

Not to mention the fact that in 1955, no other standard production saloon in the world offered the mechanical and performance specifications of the Giulietta. It taught us all something. Despite its years, this model still maintains a strong personality that confirms Alfa Romeo's great tradition. The same appeal was inherited by the Giulia, the natural heir to the Giulietta that continued to improve on its predecessor's already cutting-edge attributes and record breaking performance over the years.

Alfa Romeo got off to a head start and has always maintained a distinct edge over the competition by producing medium-sized cars with performances that were entirely worthy of higher cylinder models and, in terms of handling, continued to learn from race tracks and circuits throughout the world.