Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3

It’s a bit of a euphemism to say that cars have personalities… of course they don’t. Inanimate objects—and some politicians—have no human qualities at all. But some cars have a way of affecting the individual that opens a door to seeing a “personality” in there. All of you out there know which cars hit you particularly hard, which ones are special, which have a special appeal and are “your sort of machine.”

I am particularly prone to seeing Alfa Romeos in a special light, mainly from a long association with them, and more recently as a result of finishing work on one Alfa book and starting another. Alfa enthusiasts, like Ferrari, Ford or Lotus followers, spend a certain amount of time in fantasy land, dreaming of the cars they would own if the fairy godmother appeared, or dad’s company got sold or the lottery number came up. For Alfa people, the dreams include some pretty diverse examples: the 2900B, the P3, the more recent concept Nuvola, perhaps a 1990 SZ, a ’60s SZ, or the Alfa Museum’s Disco Volante coupe. It’s all relative and some Alfa dreamers would go for a clean, non-rusted start-every-time GTV-6 or very latest GT sneaked into the USA without anyone knowing.