Sprint Speciale at 60

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Alfa Romeo’s Giulietta Sprint marked a new direction for the Milan firm on its introduction in 1954. Lightweight, nimble and stunningly beautiful, it harked back to Alfa’s golden age of sports cars in the 1920s. The aluminium 1300cc twin-cam engine was a jewel, and outside firms soon realised the potential of the baby Alfa in motor sport. Zagato’s Giulietta SZ, which wrapped the high-revving motor in an ultra-lightweight, aerodynamic skin, was an instant success both on and off the track, and Alfa bosses decided to introduce an in-house rival in an attempt to reclaim a share of the limelight.

The result, the beautiful Giulietta Sprint Speciale, was not quite what they had in mind. Built by Bertone and drawn by gifted stylist Franco Scaglione, it was too big, too heavy and too hard to place on the road to beat the Zagato cars. Almost by mistake, however, Alfa Romeo had created one of its greatest postwar road cars.

The standard Giulietta’s already superlative roadholding and poise was boosted by a partially aluminium body and a tuned engine producing 100bhp. The styling was truly breathtaking, Scaglione’s lines uncluttered by chrome addenda or even rain gutters. Only 100 examples of the original SS were built, before the styling was tweaked to raise the headlamps for homologation in the US. The Automobile magazine was lucky enough to sample one of those rare early cars, the first of a tiny handful to arrive in the UK in period, on the eve of the car’s 60th birthday. Pick up a copy of the October issue to find out what they thought.

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