One of the stars of the Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend was the Grand Prix winning Alfa Romeo 159 "Alfetta", the single-seater that carried the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio to his first Formula 1 World Championship title in 1951. The 159 was an evolution of the 158, the "little jewel" which won countless races during a long career: a prewar car that successfully claimed the 1950 F1 title once a new 1.5-litre capacity Grand Prix formula had been put in place. Fangio drove the 159 in 1951 to victories in Berne, Rheims and Barcelona, and a consecutive title for the Milanese brand was in the bag.

All weekend the Alfa 159 was at the centre of attention in the Goodwood "Cathedral Paddock", a racing car that truly evokes memories of the "golden age" of motor racing. Entered in the "Leading from the Front" category for "Grand Prix Cars 1945-60" it joined a string of legends from that era on show which also included the Maserati 250F, Ferrari 166/212 America, BRM V16 P15 MkI, Mercedes-Benz W196, Connaught B-Type, Lancia-Ferrari D50A and the Cooper-Climax T51.

Alfa 158/159

The 158 was a single-seater designed by Gioacchino Colombo in the spring of 1937, with a rather complicated development story. The idea for the car came from Alfa Romeo's main office in Milan, but the early stages of development took place at Modena at the Scuderia Ferrari. Alfa Romeo sent Colombo to Modena in 1937 to head the project, but at the beginning of 1938 Scuderia Ferrari was dissolved and Alfa Romeo's own team, Alfa Corse, was established in Milan not far from the factory at Portello with Enzo Ferrari as its chairman. Also working on the project was Orazio Satta Puglia, another extraordinary engineer who, at the time, was starting out a very long an impressive career at Alfa Romeo.

The 158 - affectionately called the "Alfetta" by enthusiasts - preserves the traditional Alfa Romeo engine setup and arrangement of mechanical assemblies on the chassis. By doing so, the engineers remained faithful to Alfa Romeo's traditional approach. The eight-cylinder inline engine had screw-in steel liners and was of a monobloc design cast in Elektron. A case-hardened counterbalanced steel crankshaft ran in nine main bearings, while there were twin overhead camshafts driven by gearwheels arranged in a Y at the front of the cylinder bank. On the Tipo B, the gear drive had been central, between two blocks of four cylinders each.

Two valves per cylinder were used, inclined at 100 degrees, and both inlet and exhaust valves had the same 30mm diameter. One of the car's distinctive features was the integration of the 4-speed and reverse gearbox with the rear axle. This transaxle solution allowed the propshaft to be mounted significantly lower, thus improving the car's centre of gravity. Fuel was supplied by a Roots type supercharger, manufactured by Alfa Romeo, driven by a small shaft powered by one of the intermediate gears of the timing system. In its initial 1938 guise, the small engine developed 195bhp at 7200prm on a compression ratio of 6.5:1. By the following year, 1939, still using a single supercharger, the power had been increased to 225bhp at 7500rpm, a figure which improved to 310bhp directly after World War Two.

Compared with larger cars, with engine capacities above 4500cc, the 158 with its 1500cc seemed comparatively small, albeit with a slender and elegant style. Its agility however was to make it more than a match for the "giants" of the time. The 158 made its debut on the 31 July 1938 in the Coppa Ciano, held on the Montenero circuit at Leghorn. The winner was Emilio Villoresi, who averaged 82 mph, with second place going to Clemente Biondetti. Both Alfa Romeos easily defeated the Maseratis over the short 60-mile distance. Villoressi tragically died one year later after testing a similar Alfetta. Only one month after the Coppa Ciano, the little Alfettas made their debut at Monza in a race that was supporting the Italian Grand Prix. The Grand Prix was won by Tazio Nuvolari in a 12-cylinder 3-litre Porsche-designed Auto Union D-Type, ahead of Farina's Alfa Romeo and Caracciola's Mercedes.
 

Despite this, the voiturette race was won by Villoresi and Francesco Severi, who came both first and second in their little 1.5-litre Alfettas. Villoresi's average speed was an astonishing 92.5 mph which compared well to the 97.3 mph of the winning 3-litre Auto Union.

As the Italians were convinced that they had no rivals in the voiturette class, they concentrated on the developing cars for this class. As a result, the 1939 Tripoli Grand Prix was limited only to small capacity cars. Ironically, however, it was here were the Alfettas were severely defeated by the technically advanced eight-cylinder supercharged Mercedes W165. The two W165s appeared at the last moment, and surprised everyone by finishing first and second by Lang and Caracciola, ahead of Villoresi's Alfa. An average speed of 123.5 mph rendered the Mercedes cars almost unbeatable. Fortunately for Alfa Romeo, this was the first and only time that the W165 appeared on the competitive scene, and the rest of the season was therefore uninterupted. Successes on the Montenero circuit in Leghorn and in the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara were followed by an impressive victory at Bremgarten in Switzerland. It was there, on a considerably wet circuit, where Nino Farina succeded in beating Hermann Lang in his 3-litre Mercedes W154.

Farina also provided impressive results at the 1940 Tripoli Grand Prix with the highest average speed. Here Biondetti and Trossi came second and third, giving a convincing vindication as the average speed of 126.7 mph was higher than that of the previous year's winning Mercedes W165. During the following winter, the power output was further increased by Alfa Corse.

However, a few weeks later and Italy was at war. By the time that war came to an end, five years later, a large number of racing cars and motorcycles had been destroyed, or stolen. The story of the Alfetta was more fortunate, of which a dozen had been built with production split evenly between 1938 and 1940. Someone at Alfa Corse had the brilliant idea of hiding the racing cars behind some farm buildings in Valganna, in the Varesotto, where they managed to escape everyone's notice. By 1946 the Alfettas had been unearthed, and were ready for racing again.

The Alfetta 158 continued to race successfully, revealing its amazing reliability. The Alfetta won almost every race, often taking the first two or three places. There was a gap in 1949 when Alfa Romeo did not race, with the 158 undergoing technical modifications. The next year saw the 158 compete for the last time, providing Giuseppe Farina with his first World Championship.

In 1951 the Alfetta changed its name to the 159, with a few final modifications to technical perfection. A two-stage supercharger and twin exhaust pipes, still on the right of the car, were the two most obvious improvements. The suspension was modified with a de Dion rear axle, and the chassis tubing was also strengthened. By now the power output had risen to 425bhp at 9300rpm, which heavily effected the fuel consumption which now lay at a thirsty 1.5mpg. Top speed was officially 190mph, although reports of the day stated that the Alfetta touched 200mph on the long straights at Pescara.

In 1951, the Alfetta won its second World Championship with Juan Manuel Fangio behind the wheel. This was the first of Fangio's five World Championship titles. The long life of the Alfetta, an extremely successful and cutting edge model, from 1938 to 1951, gave no fewer than fourteen years of uninterrupted sporting success.