Page 1 of 2 Next >> Even though Alfa Romeo officially retired from motor racing after clinching their second consecutive Formula 1 title in 1951, the racing department was never really shutdown. Under the banner 'Experimental Department', the people responsible for the very successful racing cars continued their work, which resulted in a number of experimental vehicles with a remarkably large racing pedigree. Under the leadership of young engineer Carlo Chiti, stunning machines like the Disco Volante and Sportiva were constructed. Although these were raced, 'for testing purposes', the bulk of the Alfa Romeos entered in races in the 1950s were modified road cars. Especially the 1900 and Giulietta models equipped with the lightweight and slippery Zagato bodies proved to be popular with the customer racers and quite often very successful.
In the second half of the 1950s, the number of projects rapidly decreases and Chiti left Alfa Romeo to join Ferrari's competition department. Together with a large number of key personnel, Carlo Chiti left Ferrari again in the 'palace revolution' of 1961. Together with some of the other defectors, Chiti formed ATS, which produced a Formula 1 racer and a mid-engined road car. Neither was particularly successful and Chiti returned to familiar ground when he founded Autodelta. Although strictly speaking independent from Alfa Romeo, Autodelta served as the manufacturer's racing department, much like Scuderia Ferrari had done before the War. The first job at hand was to produce a replacement for the Zagato bodied Giuliettas; a project that had been started as early as 1959, but never really took off.
Chiti was ideally suited to complete this project as it followed the same design principles as the experimental cars like the Sportiva. With these older cars, the new racer shared the tubular spaceframe chassis that set them apart from their contemporaries and even ten years later, it was an unusual construction for a GT-car. As the car was intended to run in the competitive sub-1600 cc class, shaving off as much weight as possible was vital. The road car derived Zagato Giuliettas featured sturdy, but heavy unitary constructions. The tubular spaceframe offered similar rigidity at a fraction of the weight. Much of the drive-train and the running gear was carried over from the new Giulia road car. The twin-cam four cylinder engine was available with single and later with twin spark ignition. Page 1 of 2 Next >>