The Giulietta and the Italy of the Boom

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The Giuliettas

By Alessandro Spagnol

It was 1955 when Giuseppe Luraghi, CEO of Alfa Romeo, put into action the industrial plan for the production of the Giulietta, a car that will see the rise of the Alfa Romeo brand after the war.

In those years Italy was putting new trust in the economy and consequently the most important companies on the world scene, Alfa was one of them, worked hard to create new jobs and new opportunities to give prestige to Italy in the world and to increase income.

It was the historical period in which a car was not just a car, it was the vehicle that the family would choose to move around for decades, so it had to be reliable.

In addition to efficiency, you could always find style, charm and performance on cars like the Alfas. The Giulietta as a car was a ssum of all this, becoming “the fiancée of the Italians” as it was defined in one of the many advertising campaigns of the time.

It should be noted that the coupé version was first launched only because some tests on the sedan had not been completed and paradoxically this created great curiosity and reservations, especially from the United States and other countries abroad, which gave further confirmation on the body lines designed by the Center. Style led by Giuseppe Scarnati.

132,000 were the total cars produced, numbers that for the time were considerable. At the time the lines and fashion were very different from today’s style, just think that a model like the 2000 sprint, released only two years later in 1957, already had more aggressive lines, being a top sports car.

A Giulietta at the time could be bought for about 1.500.000 Lire (it would be about 20,000 Euros today, but for the time it was really a lot of money considering the average salaries of about 43.000 Lire), while a Fiat 500 could be bought for just over 500.000 Lire (When it comes to vintage cars I always like to contextualize to give the idea of ​​how some things were unreachable for many, even in full economic boom).

Today there are very few of these cars and they are jealously guarded in order to preserve the functionality and prestige of a period that will hardly return to our country shortly, but one thing that period taught us: the ability to dare, to try to explore, so creative in every sector, from the fashion and style industry, because the Alfas were also style, up to music and art.

Three sectors in particular are and will always remain interconnected: Music, Cinema and Motors. When only one of these pillars creaks and starts to produce something poor, everything else gives way and boredom is created. Always contextualizing the historical period, it must always be remembered that at the end of the 50s overseas a new wave of energy was raging characterized by grease, huge cars with sinuous lines and Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Giuseppe Luraghi and his Portello

Luraghi, the man of providence for Alfa Romeo after the war, was one of the greatest industry executives: tenacious, creative, far-sighted and visionary, he managed to hold out even in the darkest moments of the company, when the long corrupt hand of politics has come to do harm to the perfectly oiled and running machine that Alfa had become at the time.

He will remain in history as the person responsible for the rebirth of the Alfa Romeo’s Legend.

Thanks

Thanks to the portellofactory.com site for some images in the article.