Alfa Romeo 158/159 Alfetta
The Alfa Romeo 158 “Alfetta” (Italian: little Alfa) is one of the most successful racing cars in the history of motorsport, having won 47 of the 54 Grands Prix it entered across its competitive life from 1938 to 1951. The car takes its name from its specification: 1.5 litre (150 cc × 10, abbreviated), 8-cylinder engine. Designed by Gioacchino Colombo in the spring of 1937 at the request of Enzo Ferrari — then still managing Scuderia Ferrari on behalf of Alfa Romeo — the 158 was conceived as a voiturette for the 1.5-litre supercharged formula. Its initial 1938 specification comprised a supercharged straight-eight engine of 1,479 cc with twin overhead camshafts producing approximately 200 bhp at 7,000 rpm, mounted in a tubular frame chassis with trailing arm and transverse leaf spring front suspension and a swing-axle rear end.
The 158 competed successfully through 1939, then was hidden during World War II when Allied bombing threatened the Portello factory — legend has it the cars were stored in a cheese factory in northern Italy, emerging at the war’s end effectively unscathed. The first post-war race, the Grand Prix des Nations in Geneva in June 1946, was won by the 158/47 variant (now producing 254 bhp) driven by Farina. When the FIA established the Formula One World Championship for 1950, the 158/50 — producing over 300 bhp — dominated entirely: Alfa Corse entered the full season and Giuseppe Farina won the inaugural Drivers’ World Championship, with Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli completing Alfa Romeo’s near-total domination. The three men — Farina, Fangio, Fagioli — became known informally as the “Three Fs.” Alfa Romeo won every race of the 1950 season.
For 1951, Gioacchino Colombo’s design was further evolved into the Type 159: the swing-axle rear was replaced by a De Dion axle; dual Roots-type superchargers boosted output to approximately 429 bhp at 9,300 rpm; and a new gearbox was fitted. Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1951 World Championship, but the season exposed the 159’s weakness: extraordinary fuel consumption of roughly 1.5 miles per gallon forced two pit stops at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, allowing José Froilán González’s Ferrari 375 to win — the first Formula One Grand Prix not won by an Alfa Romeo since 1939. The writing was on the wall: Ferrari’s naturally-aspirated 4.5-litre cars had matured sufficiently to challenge, and the FIA’s planned shift to Formula 2 regulations (2.0-litre naturally aspirated) for 1952 rendered the supercharged 1.5-litre entirely uncompetitive. Unable to secure government funding for a successor, Alfa Romeo withdrew from Formula One at the end of 1951. The legacy endured: the road car named in its honour — the Alfetta saloon of 1972 — adopted the same rear transaxle philosophy that the 158/159 had pioneered.
Connections
- Gioacchino Colombo — designed, spring 1937, source: wikipedia.org
- Enzo Ferrari — commissioned_design (via Scuderia Ferrari), 1937, source: f1technical.net
- Giuseppe Farina — drove, won 1950 F1 World Championship, source: stellantisheritage.com
- Juan Manuel Fangio — drove 159, won 1951 F1 World Championship, source: wikipedia.org
- Luigi Fagioli — drove, regular front-runner 1950–1951, source: wikipedia.org
- Alfa Corse — entered_by, 1946–1951, source: wikipedia.org
- Scuderia Ferrari — original race entrant (pre-war), source: f1technical.net