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Another lovely photo received from our Forums Sleuth, Mark Dawber (New Zealand), from a forum of old photos asking for information on the make of vehicle photographed in the Australian outback? Is it a 1910/12 Alfa 24HP? - - The radiator carries an ALFA Badge, so an ALFA it is, and it would indeed be from the period 1910/12. ALFA's first car was the 24HP model which was made 1910 to 1921. We however think that the photo shows from the upright open position of the steering wheel, also the shape of the scuttle, the bonnet and the radiator, - that it is their smaller model made from 1910 to 1911, being the cca 1911 ALFA 12HP Torpedo Corsa with a four-cylinder engine of 2413cc.

The origins of the ALFA company came from the ashes of a previous company started in 1906 by Cavalier Stella called SIAD, Societa Italiana Automobili Darracq, who had built a factory in Portello Milan to manufacture the French Darracq cars under licence for the Italian market. The cars were considered 'small' and were not a success. A new bigger car was under design by Giuseppe Merosi, who had previously worked for Bianchi and FIAT, when Darracq decided to pull out of Italy. A new group of Italian investors and management decided to buy the remains, and formed a new organisation called Anonima Lombarde Fabbrica Automobili - ALFA. Their starting point was the new 24HP car that was already in the pipeline and which was completely new concept, not connected to any previous Darracq designs. The prototype was quickly completed and the new ALFA 24HP was launched in 1910.The ALFA 24 car was an immediate success and was made in five series over the next 10 years. 

It was powered by a four-cylinder 4100cc engine, had a four-speed gearbox, and was available as a torpedo tourer, a limousine, or a Baquet (racer). The car was immediately used for racing, having made its debut in the Targa Florio in 1911. Two vehicles ALFA 24 Tippo Corsa with lightened two-seater bodywork with 30L fuel tank behind the seats and two spare tyres were built. Cars had in-line side-valve four-cylinder tuned engines rated 45BHP and were capable of 110kph (68mph). Cars were driven by Italian drivers; one crashed and one retired due to physical exhaustion.

At the same time as the ALFA was having its successes with the ALFA 24, they introduced in 1910 a second, smaller car, the ALFA 12. This was derived from the 24 but had a smaller four-cylinder engine of 2413cc, a four-speed gearbox, had drum rear  brakes, and was capable of 56mph. The wheelbase was reduced to 3.2m and it was available with torpedo tourer bodywork, saloon and as a baquet corsa. A year later, the Alfa 12 was developed into the ALFA 15 which was a basically similar chassis same engine but tuned to a higher output, a three-speed gearbox, and available as either a torpedo or a saloon, capable of 59mph. These cars were made up to 1913. Within a relatively short period of 5 years ALFA cars had come to dominate European motorsport before the outbrake of World War One put an end to motorsport activities.

The bigger ALFA 40'60 HP model was made between 1913 and 1922 and was also designed by Giuseppe Merosi, The vehicle was powerd by a 6082 cc straight-four engine with overhead valves, which produced 70PS and had top speed of 125 km/h (78 mph). The 40-60 HP Corsa racing version produced 73 PS and had a top speed of 137 km/h (85 mph. Based on the 40'60 in 1914 a milanese count Marco Ricotti commissioned Carrozzeria Castagna to make the ALFA Aerodinamica to join a number of companies producing teardrop shaped cars. This vehicle, also known as Siluro Ricotti had a lengthened chass and could reach 139 km/h (86 mph). Apparently quite a number of these were made The post-war 40-60 HP Corsa was developed to have 82PS and a top speed of around 150 km/h (93 mph).



1913 Alfa 40-60 HP 6L Aerodinamica Castagna,

ALFA finances going into First World War were not very good and they a needed cash injection. This came in the form of a take-over by a company 'Nicolo Romeo e Cia', who were manufacturers of mining equipment and portable air compressors. So, in 1915, just as the war had started, the ALFA Company was taken over, and car manufacture ceased. The whole company production facilities were turned towards military hardware for the Allied war effort; munitions, aircraft engines and other military items that both companies already had considerable experience in. Business prospered and grew during the war. In 1918 the company was renamed 'SA Italiana Ing Nicolo Romeo e Cia' and had amassed adequate extra finances to be able to  branch out taking over locomotive and carriage factories in a number of locations in Italy. These were assimilated under the ALFA name.

Car production at the original ALFA factory in Portello resumed at the end of the war in 1920 with the development of the ALFA 24, now renamed the 20'30 Torpedo. At the same time the Company name was changed to incorporate the name of the new owners and became 'Alfa-Romeo'. The pre-war successes in motorsport quickly returned, which helped with the funding to perpetuate production of successful road and racing cars throughout the 1920s.

It was during this period that Enzo Ferrari was the Alfa-Romeo works driver. Enzo had started with a small workshop manufacturing metal parts for local car companies, and this led him to becoming a test driver for the CMN car construction company testing cars on completion of manufacture. He was subsequently promoted to become their racing driver. In 1920 he left CMN to join ALFA's competition department as racing driver. There he did very well for a couple of years but due to a number of deaths of his friends and fellow racing drivers, he retired from driving in 1929 and took over ALFA racing team management naming it 'Scuderia Ferrari'. ALFA continued its involvement with cars and backing until funds became a problem in 1933. Enzo decided however to carry on on his own running his Scuderia, but in the late 1930s it was the Germans who had the upper hand in motor car development.  In the following few years Ferrari battled on on his own the might of the German dominance of Auto-Union and Mercedes. In 1937 Scuderia Ferrari was dissolved and Enzo returned to the Alfa's racing team, now named "Alfa Corse". A year or so later, after a disagreement with Alfa's managing director, Enzo left ALFA again in 1939 and founded Auto-Avio Costruzioni, a company supplying parts to other racing teams. With the outbreak of World War II, Ferrari's factory was forced to undertake war production for Mussolini's fascist government. Following Allied bombing of his factory, Ferrari relocated from Modena to Maranello. At the end of the war, Ferrari decided to start making his own cars bearing his name, and founded Ferrari SpA in 1947. 20 years of independence ensued but by 1969 Ferrari was beginning the merger with Fiat having also had unsuccessful similar talks with Ford. By the 1980s Ferrari was fully owned by Fiat.


Enzo Ferrari as 1918 Alfa-Romeo Works Driver 

Going back to ALFA, in 1920, the bank behind Nicolo Romeo e Cia' went bankrupt requiring the government to step in to help the companies affected, which included Alfa-Romeo. Part of the restructuring measures in 1928 was that the railway activities were separated off, which made Nicolo Romeo resign in 1928. By the 1930s the political landscape was changing dramatically in Italy with the rise of Mussolini and the Fascists. Nationalisation of industry was taking over as indeed was the case for government takeover of Alfa-Romeo. It was rather paradoxically that during this period going towards the Second World War that Alfa-Romeo automobiles were widely hailed as the finest racing and sports cars in the world. But it was the Second world war that put an end to the glory days when in 1944 the Alfa-Romeo factory was destroyed by heavy bombing, temporarily ending production.

Fast forwarding, Alfa Romeo did not come out of the war well but continued operating under Italian Government control making some very interesting cars including the Giulietta, Giulia, Alfasud and Alfetta. The Italian Government sold Alfa-Romeo to the Fiat Group in 1986 where it has remained since. The Fiat Group has in the meantime had a number of subsequent mergers and changes to currently being Stellantis Europe, - part of Stellantis, comprising the Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group (PSA).

Our Veterans Expert Ariejan Bos subsequently commented that the original picture image is too blurry and too poor in resolution for a proper positive identification. He feels that some allowance should be made for a possible divergence in identification. He thought that some of the features of the car including the circular roundel are possibly reminiscent of a 1912/13 Benz. The smaller Benz has a similar arrangement of forked axle ends but the 8-18PS and 8-20PS models have a much larger rad shell than is the case for the larger Benz. In the former case the Benz emblem would have a much lower position on the shell than it has on the mystery car. Unfortunately, the roundel emblem on the mystery photo is too blurry to see if it is Benz or ALFA, and he knows from experience that with this resolution it is impossible to determine whether it is the one or the other. Only on this item do we disagree. I find it exceedingly difficult to convince myself that the roundel of the car can be Benz. To me the letters just do not align right correctly within the roundel, not even with the Russian version of the roundel. While the other letters are debatable, the letter N in Benz which corresponds to F in Alfa do not look to me to compatible with the Benz shape but they do look more like the Alfa Shape. The shape of the bottom of the N on the mystery car has a space that should not be there because the three lines of the N should be in it. It almost looks if the Z is one letter too early?