Alfa Romeo was one of the featured marques at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance this year - and to reflect this important and prestigious occasion - the official Alfa Romeo Museo shipped over to the United States a stunning representative collection of historic cars, from its showcase in Milan.

Alfa Romeo is undoubtedly one of the world's most evocative automotive brand names with a long and rich history filled with fine achievements that others can only dream of emulating. Alfa Romeo's racing cars have triumphed in track competition against their rivals in just about every discipline, and the official 'Alfa Romeo Museo' has recorded this tradition, while carefully preserving and restoring the cars that litter its history. Luigi Fusi - who was the responsible of the creation of the Museo - which was officially opened in December of 1976 - not only recovered cars that were had been abandoned around the Milan factory, but he also brought cars back all over the world to build one of the most complete museums anywhere dedicated to a single marque. The Milanese firm's cars were always created to be raced, and as such, the 'Museo' is today an active participant in events such at the Mille Miglia Historical Rerun (which it in fact won this year) and the Goodwood FEstival of Speed (where Alfa Romeo was a main backer this year) - and so - bringing a stunning (and very valuable) representation of its collection to Pebble Beach was a natural course of action to take.

The mouth watering line-up of Alfa Romeo cars in Pebble Beach kicked off with the A.L.F.A. 24HP Torpedo, the first car to be built under the then A.L.F.A. name in 1910, and which had appeared - like many so other exhibits at Pebble Beach - during the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England earlier this summer. The 2.0-litre supercharged 'P2' - the first Alfa Romeo Grand Prix car to be designed by Alfa Romeo's then new "rising star" Vittorio Jano in 1924 - was complemented by the Alfa Romeo 159 - the last F1 championship winning' Alfa Romeo, and a car that has recently given its name to the brand's very latest new road-going sedan. Sportscar racing was represented by the 8C 2900B Le mans - a car that was aerodynamically streets ahead of its time.
 

The body - created by style house Touring - allowed it to slice through the air during the famous French endurance race in 1938, and achieve the biggest ever lead margin, before a tyre failure robbed it of the chance to claim outright honours. The Museo's representation was rounded out by the truly stunning Disco Volante, both versions - Coupé and Spider - on show, two sleek cars - bodied by Touring of Milan - that were also designs far ahead of their time. Finally the Museo's representation was completed by the 2000 Sportiva, designed by Franco Scaglione while he was chief designer at Bertone, just one only two 2000 Sportiva coupés which were built.

As Alfa Romeo was the featured marque, Centro Stile weighed into the proceedings by showing - as a "world premiere" - the beautiful Alfa 8C Spider, a concept car that was to capture the imagination of the media and visitors to the event alike, and which wound up as one of the true stars of Pebble Beach 2005. Some of Alfa Romeo's most important figures attended the North American event. These included Karl-Heinz Kalbfell (the new Chief Executive Officer), Wolfgang Egger (Director of the Centro Stile Alfa Romeo), Pasquale Olivieri (Director of the Alfa Romeo - Automovilismo Storico), Antonio Magro (Director of the Museo Alfa Romeo), Luciano Viario (Official Driver for the Museo, and the winner of the 2005 Mille Miglia as well as the 2004 Gran Premio Nuvolari with the 6C 1500). Squadra Alfa Romeo drivers present included enthusiast and collector Axel Marx who was showing his Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Brianza, and Daniel Claramunt, who drove the 8C 2300 Le Mans during the Mille Miglia earlier this year.

by Edd Ellison / Photos: Cristián Bertschi