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 Alfa Romeo legend was created mainly by the sporting triumphs that accompanied the Make throughout its history. Alfa's many successes make a long and fascinating story on their own, a story of men and their competitive passion, engines and cutting-edge engineering.

It would be impossible to condense the history of successes notched up by the red racing cars produced in Portello over a thousand roads and as many circuits into a few short pages.

Taking a look at just a few of these pages of sporting history as played out by the Giulietta Sprint could help us to appreciate the unparalleled heritage of engine and mechanical engineering that brought us the good looking thoroughbred cars we know today and exactly how the legend was formed over the years on the demanding testbed of the race track.

One of these pages of history should be devoted to the bodybuilder Elio Zagato who, upon a request by the driver Massimo Leto di Priolo, rebuilt a Giulietta SV that had been destroyed in a race.

The Milanese master brought his own absolutely personal approach to the shape and, above all, to the use of the materials used to create the body and moving parts. He replaced almost all the steel with a light alloy that allowed him to keep the car's weight within 854 kg, the limit set by the racing regulations for the Gran Turismo Category (reduced to 840 kg in 1962). The resulting prototype made its debut at Monza in the Intereuropean Cup of 1956 and scored an outright victory.

Alfa Romeo liked the car and commissioned a few more units. Between 1960 and 1961, therefore, we saw the production of the Giulietta SZ that differed from the Sprint Speciale version in its outward appearance while offering the same mechanical configuration and engine: it measured 392 cm in length, 154 cm in width and its end was slightly convex.

Then, between 1961 and 1962, the plant produced the Giulietta SZ Coda Tronca: the body was even lower (height reduced from 125 to 123 cm), the front brakes were disc type and the shape ended with a cut-off tail complete with panoramic rear window. This version touched a top speed of 200 km/h. The car was 8 centimetres longer and 4 centimetres narrower than the SZ. In total, 217 examples of the Giulietta SZ were produced.

Zagato's work was not the only thing that helped to create the legend of the Giulietta Sprint as a thoroughbred sports car. We may remember, for example, the Sprint Veloce raced by the driver Rabino from Modena that was completely revised by Sergio Scaglietti, the Ferrari body worker.

Or the Giulietta Special, nicknamed the Drop due to its streamlined shape, produced by the Michelotti bodyshop and the engine tuner Conrero for the driver Francesco De Leonibus that achieved a top speed of 272 km/h on the Monza race track.