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Mitch Isobe, our Japanese correspondent, lives about three miles from the Yokohama Pacifico complex, where Alfa Romeo recently staged an incredible show highlighting the finest cars from its Portello Museum in Italy. He filed this report.
Rarely does the Alfa Romeo Museum show their cars outside their museo and certainly not so far
away as in the Far East. But recently, to the delight of Japanese Italian car enthusiasts,
it happened. Twenty cars, ranging over a period of 90 years were sent to Japan for the
first time as a part of the "Italia in Giappone" fair going on in Japan this year.
Things Italian have been the latest craze in recent years. With the full support
of Fiat Auto Japan, the Alfa Romeo exhibition was held for a fortnight in August
2001, at the port city of Yokohama just west of Tokyo.
The oldest model exhibited was a 1910 24HP Torpedo (chassis number 609), a model made before Nicola Romeo took over the company, so the car is simply called an ALFA.
The first ALFA, the 24 HP Torpedo. ALFA was an acronym for Anonima
Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. In 1915, Nicola Romeo changed the name to Alfa Romeo Milano. (S/N 609)
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This was the first model that ALFA designed and built on their own after several years of selling and building the French Darracq. The 24HP had a monobloc four-cylinder engine with side valves, a modern design at the time. Displacement is 4084cc with a maximum output of 42hp at 2,200rpm.
Coachwork is by Carrozzeria Castagna, one of the renowned Italian houses of the pre-war era. While the top speed was only 60mph, a speed any car can attain today, this model set ALFA's direction towards building automobiles with an emphasis on sporting characteristics. This would ultimately lead Alfa Romeo to build and race racing sportscars and grand prix cars.
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