(engine revving)
- They've changed their name three times,
survived two world wars
and gave us one Enzo Ferrari.
They've been here for over a hundred years
and show no signs of slowing down.
(engines revving)
- You guys have been asking for this episode
virtually nonstop for the entire decade.
This is everything you need to know to get up to speed
on Alfa Romeo!
(8-bit theme music)
- Alfa Romeo wasn't always the car company
that we know of today.
It was established in 1906 as the Italian branch
of a French car company
and was origianlly known as the Societa Italiana Automobili
Darracq.
After their found mister Alexandre Daraacq.
AKA Darracq Johnson.
A guy who had little to no interest in automobiles
or motor sport, matter of fact,
he didn't even like being in cars!
He was a very complicated man.
By 1910 the company wasn't making enough dough
to keep mister Darracq happy
and it was relaunched as Alfa.
Five years later an engineer and entrepreneur
by the name of Nicola Romeo
invested money into Alfa upgrading their automobile
factories to manufacture airplane engines in dub dub one.
Alfa and Nicola would be together for three more years
before he worked up enough courage to finally propose.
On February third of 1918 their marriage was officially
registered and Alfa was now known as Alfa Romeo.
The historical emblem was complete.
But what did these weird (beep) symbols even freaking
stand for?
Well the left side is a red cross on a white background,
representing the city of Milan.
The right side, well the right sides
a little bit more complicated.
Is it a dragon?
Is it a snake?
Is it eating or throwing up a man or a bird?
In 2014 however Alfa Romeo announced,
it is not a person being eaten
but instead a human who was being purified and renewed.
I guess by being eaten and digested and then pooped out!
Let me know in the comments,
if you're pooping right now.
Speaking of poop,
World War One ended and Alfa Romeo found themselves,
with a butt load,
of money and some left over automobile frames.
So they resumed production.
The cars they produced were known as the torpedo 20
through 30 HP.
These were a variant of Alfa's first car the 24 HP.
As the name implies the sub models
had between 20 to 30 wheel horsepower,
depending on which trim you purchased.
Yeah I know, 30 horsepower doesn't sound
like a lot of horsepower
but this is friggen late 1910s.
A couple years later,
and enterprising young man by the name of Enzo Ferrari
would join their team as a race car driver.
You ever heard of him?
He was able to place second at the 1920 Targa Florio race.
As a driver Ferrari was only able to secure 11 wins
for Alfa Romeo.
He made a much bigger impact
after switching to a manager position on the race team.
One of the first things he did was recruit none other
than the Piedmont Punisher himself,
Vittorio Jano!
Jano was responsible for engineering the many masterpieces
that would put Alfa Romeo on the map in motor sports.
And by on the map, I mean,
they basically became the whole freaking map.
In the years following Jano's arrival,
Alfa Romeo was doing so well.
They were practically unbeatable.
Spectators rooting for other race teams
other than Alfa Romeo got sick and tired of doing it
and they started heckling and the Alfa team loved it.
They were like the heel.
Jano being the bad (beep) Italian man that he was,
responded by having a nice meal
and the cars detailed mid race knowing
he would still come out victorious.
Around this same time Ugo Sivocci,
one of Alfa Romeo's elite race car drivers was,
up to something.
Sivocci was thought to be plagued with a horrific curse,
one that would never allow him to take the top spot
on the podium.
Whenever he would do well in a race,
something would go wrong
or his car would have issues.
Sivocci had enough,
so he sat and he pondered until he had a stroke of genius.
It was the day before the Targa Florio race in 1923.
Sivocci hired a local sign painter
to come paint his race car.
What could he possibly have in mind
that would make it go faster,
everyone knows that red is already the fastest color.
Well he hired a painter to paint a white square
with a green four leaf clover inside of it.
The quadrifoglio!
- Quadri- - Yeah.
- Sound familiar?
The quadrifoglio logo, the clover was painted
for good luck of course
and it fricking worked.
Nowadays the quadrifoglio logo is there to let you know
that an Alfa means business.
It's mark signifies that your ride is the sportiest
of the sportiest, the luckiest of the luckiest.
(engine revving)
- Alfa had already established a racing team
known by the name of Scuderia Ferrari.
It was managed by,
you guessed it, a little dude named Enzo Ferrari.
The prancing horse that had become synonymous with Ferrari
was initially displayed on two Alfa Romeo Eight c spiders
at the 1932 24 hours of spa.
Those cars finished in first and second place.
Like Enzo would have it any other way!
The guy loves winning.
Enzo would stay on as director of Alfa's racing division
until a series of unfortunate events
would Lemony Snicket him to abandon the company in 1929.
It all started with the Italian government
purchasing 80% of Alfa's company shares
and then forcing them to move from Milan
to Porto Bello on top of that,
Enzo lost his decision making authority and just like that,
the famous factory racing team known as Scuderia Ferrari
was gone and replaced by Alfa Corse.
Parent company, Alfa Romeo was going through
a similar situation.
At the brink of World War Two,
they were once again facing bankruptcy
and were eventually bought out
by the Fascist Italian government.
They thought that winning races would be a good form
of propaganda.
This new influx of money would allow Alfa Romeo
to make some seriously, seriously cool cars.
The only downside was being contracted by a
fascist government which meant
they once again had to make airplane engines
for a second war effort.
Because of this many of their manufacturing warehouses
were targeted and destroyed during the war
but Alfa never lost their will to innovate.
They wanted to utilize their knowledge for manufacturing
airplane engines and take it a step further
by going to fricking space.
(engine roaring)
- In 1952 they came out with something that looked
like it was straight outta the Jetsons.
It was called the Disco Volante,
Italian for flying saucer.
The experimental race car was extensively tested
in wind tunnels and was designed to have a low drag
coefficient in both head and cross winds.
In total, only five of them were ever made.
But one was quickly torn apart after being constructed.
Or so they say.
Alfa Romeo took what they learned from the Disco Volante
and made a land speeder for the masses.
Code named, Julia.
This sedan was unveiled in 1962,
one year after they began exporting cars to the US.
It was the successor to the Juliette,
whose popularity amongst young single Italian men,
earned it the nickname,
the Italian girlfriend.
That's what they call me.
The Julia was well received by the public
and was one of the most raced Alfa Romeos ever.
There were many variations of this car
but the most bad (beep) one was created by Alfa Romeo's
competition department, Auto Delta.
The monster that they created was called the GT AM.
(tires burning out)
- AM stood for America,
even though it was never raced in America.
This suped up version was based on the US Julia 1750 GTB.
Getting wider plastic fenders to tuck thick,
10 by 13 inch alloy wheels,
borrowed from Alfa's teapot endurance car.
The Julias absolutely dominated the European touring car
challenge, bringing in six wins within seven years
between 66 and 72.
The Julia's domination was felt worldwide
from showroom stock races to rallies and hill climbs.
Remember that teapot 33 slash two I mentioned,
well Alfa decided to make,
a street legal version.
The 33 Stradale was released in 1967
and let me tell you,
this thing is beautiful.
Only 18 examples of this masterpiece were created
and five of them were turned into concept cars.
That means there's only 13 of them, for me to buy.
And you know me you guys,
I like to have at least 15 of everything.
The 33 Stradale came with a two liter v eight, oh love it,
pushing out 227 horsepower and revving up to 10,000 rpms.
(engine roaring)
- Weighing in at only 1,500 pounds
and would still be considered pretty quick today.
Further adding to it's clout.
It was the first production car to have butterfly doors.
Suck it Lamborghini.
The car was devised by Franco Scaglione.
Each aluminum body was hand crafted by Marazi coach builders
but unfortunately they had some shaky hands
and the cars all had different mounting positions for
everything.
Some even had a different amount of wipers
and lights.
None the less, the cars were sold for a honking $17,000
in 1967, making it the most expensive car,
being sold to the public at the time.
To put that into perspective,
$17,000 today would be about $130,000.
But the estimated resale value of the car
sits quite comfortably above a $10,000,000.
(gasping and coughing)
- I would have to shoot 10 episodes of up to speed,
to afford one car.
(tires burning out)
- Around that same time Alfa Romeo introduced a roadster
in 1966 that would become a legend.
This car wasn't meant for racing,
no it was for pure pleasure.
It was called the Alfa Romeo Spider
and no it didn't have eight legs
or shoot any webs out its butt.
It was a convertible.
The spider was sold between 1966 and 1994.
Receiving four changes known as series,
one, two, three and four.
The cars popularity grew after being featured
in the 1967 film, the graduate,
where that Dustin Hoffman boy
does the wonkers with his friends mom.
Alfa Romeo capitalized on this fact
and released a special graduate trim level
in the 1980's.
The best selling spider was the series two Veloce.
It's most distinct feature was the new booty
known as a camtail.
Besides a new thick butt the series two was
the first production vehicle to have a variable
valve timing system.
You hear that?
It's freaking Vtec!
Only available in the fuel injected two liter spica engines.
The spider had a 111 horsepower
and 112 pound feet of torque.
It's almost a perfect horse port.
Another notable car worth mentioning, is the Alfasud.
Unveiled at the 1971 Turn Car Expo,
the car was an instant hit.
Able to get the kids, pick up the groceries
and still kick a little booty on the race track.
(engine roaring)
- No matter how hard they tried,
no other manufacturers could match it's engineering prowess.
The sud came with a 1.2 liter boxer engine,
which provided many advantages.
It meant the car had a lower center of gravity,
it had a lower hood.
It had better aerodynamics
and a roomier interior.
A coupe version of this car was introduced in 1976
adding sprint to the end of it's name.
The more angular and lower car only came as a hatchback.
But building innovative and beautiful cars,
just wasn't cutting the cheese anymore.
With their government money drying up
and struggling to make ends meat.
Alfa Romeo would once again be put up for sale in 1986.
This time however they were bought by Fiat.
Under this new ownership Alfa would adopt a new look.
Thanks to the help of computer aided designs, computers.
Alfa Romeo 164 was the introductory sedan
to sport this design language.
164 was equipped with what is possibly the best looking
v six ever designed.
Known as the Busso after developer Giuseppe Busso.
(engine roaring)
- In 1989, six years before Post Malone was born,
they debuted the controversial SZ,
also known as the ES30 which stood for,
experimental sports car 3.0 liter.
It came with a convertible option under the name RZ.
Which stood for roadster zagado.
Many people criticize the $67,000 msrp.
If the car were still on sale today,
it would be listed at like $140,000.
That's like paying $140,000 for a BRZ.
Under Fiat's ownership Alfa Romeo wanted to go back
to their racing roots.
Fast forward to 1992 and say chao to the Alfa Romeo 155.
The one five five was originally developed to be a
compact four door executive car
but coincidentally was way better as a race car.
- [Announcer] Almost over on two wheels!
- Winning the Italian Superturismo championship,
German DTM championship, Spanish Touring Car championship
and the British Touring Car championship,
this car was a freaking clear cut champion.
But the 155 wasn't done,
it went back to the gym
and hit the squat rack
and then it did some curls,
then it did some freaking dead lifts
and it really focused on it's diet and got big.
Coming back as the T155 v six TI
at FIA class one touring car.
It was raced from 1993 to 1996.
This car stampeded its way to victory
at a screaming 11,500 rpm,
amassing of total of 38 wins within its four year career.
To celebrate these victories,
Alfa Romeo decided to stop exporting cars into the
United States in 1995.
They just wanted to keep all the glory to themselves.
The decision certainly had nothing to do
with the fact that they were,
you know not selling any.
How not selling much you ask?
Alfa sold less then 600 cars in the US in 1994.
And as soon as they stopped exporting cars to America,
they also coincidentally rolled out
what would be one of their best selling cars ever.
Behold the 156.
(engine revving)
- It was made form 97 to 2005,
approximately 680,000 cars were produced and sold
in its nine year run.
The 156 was plagued with reliability issues
hurting its resale value
and more importantly, Alfa Romeo's reputation.
(Engine revving and clanking)
- You know what my man Puff says,
"Mo money, mo problems."
- And the more cars that Alfa sold,
the worse the problems became.
Dealers couldn't keep up with the amount of spare parts
that customers needed, causing long wait times and delays.
Maybe it was a good thing
that we didn't get the 156 over here after all.
That's what you call looking on the bright side.
In 2003 Alfa Romeo revealed a jaw dropping concept.
It would come to life four years later
as the eight c competition.
If you were rich and lucky enough
to get one of these bad boys,
you got a 4.7 liter v eight.
Making 444 horsepower.
Remember how Alfa stopped exporting cars to the US
in 1995 well,
they finally realized what a bad idea that was
and resumed exporting cars with the introduction of the
eight c but because there were no more official
Alfa Romeo dealers over here.
Customers got hit with a $60,000 price hike
imposed by the middleman.
Thus raising the already hefty price to $260,000.
So obviously it didn't sell very well.
Somebody bought em, I don't know.
Fast forward to 2014 when Alfa Romeo officially reentered
the US market.
After learning from their experience with eight c
they decided to open dealerships this time.
Good job!
To mark their official return to the states,
Alfa introduced the four c.
(tires screeching)
- The four c was a groundbreaking car,
with it's carbon fiber monocock chassis.
A feature usually reserved for exotics.
It was powered by a teeny weeny, weeny beanie,
little baby boy, mid mounted 1.7 liter turbocharged
four cylinder engine.
And currently Alfa still sells the four c alongside
the Julia Saloon and Stelvio SUV.
These cars a rocking a Ferrari source,
2.9 liter, twin turbo v six pumping out 505 prancing ponies.
But Julia gets adaptive suspension,
a torque vectoring rear differential.
While the Stelvio, you know it's an SUV
so it comes with all wheel drive
and enough room to fit all your friends!
In mid 2018 Alfa Romeo revealed some delicious teaser images
hinting at the sexy body lines of future Julia GTB
and eight c in the works for 2022.
Unfortunately, due to slower than planned development
of the brand, both the eight c and GTB were canceled.
Alfa Romeo has been around for over a hundred years
and tried their best to hold true to their racing roots.
Hopefully, they can turn things around
and come back stronger than ever
and give us that real Italian driving passion,
that they're famous for.
(engine revving)
- That was a long one,
I'm gonna go take a nap.
(beep)
- Hi, you may be wondering why I'm standing in a field.
Well this isn't just any field,
it's a field of dreams.
What's your dream, is it to own a BMW M8 competition coupe?
And $20,000 in cash?
Yeah I'd say that's a pretty good dream.
Lucky for you,
we've partnered with Omaze to give away a brand new,
2020 BMW M8 Competition
and $20,000 in cash.
You might be saying,
"James, even if I won,"
"I can't afford the taxes."
Well guess what pal!?
Taxes and shipping are included.
You win, you get the car
and $20,000.
Every time you donate it helps the Ronald Regan UCLA
Medical Center.
Those are the guys who saved my life.
It's a cause very near and dear to my heart.
Literally, they went into my heart
and they saved my life.
So if you like me
and you like the fact that I'm still alive
and you wanna win a cool car and some cash.
Go to omaze.com/donut to enter today.
(beep)
- We got tons of new shows coming out,
make sure you don't miss any.
Make sure your subscribed,
make sure you hit that bell.
Donut is gonna be on every day.
We're working our hardest to get to daily uploads.
Follow Donut on Instagram and Twitter @donutmedia
follow me on Instagram and Twitter @jamespumphry
I love you.