Props to Dino for being fluent in Italian, Japanese and English! Being able to translate on the fly for all of these garage, factory and museum tours for Larry and all of us!
Oh look it's the same company that makes my RAM. That blows up at 150,000 mi. Even though I changed the oil religiously, even before they said to change it, took it to the dealer for every oil change. Oh and the reason why the motor blew up was because lack of oiling. Go figure.
An american learning about Alfa Romeo’s - this is hilarious! 😊 My favourite car museum bar none, been there twice. But I’ve never been able to get into the vault! Thank You!!
The red 155 next to the 164 Procar is a 155 GTA, 2.0 16v turbo. 164 Procar was capable of 300+km/h and was almost a f1 car in a 164 shell. There is some footage on youtube about it. It sounds mental. That row with the 155GTA, 164 Procar and late 155 DTM would make a mighty fine setup for my dream garage.. The Carabo or louvre-car is based on a tipo 33 Stradale, it's a design study. There is only one. Imagine the price on it.. many multimillion cars in the museum there. Those pre-war 6c and 8c models were the top of the line what money could buy in those days. 180-200km/h was possible if you dared.. Amazing history if you look at it. Shame about the last 30 years they've been struggling to stay alive. Hope the future is good for them.
Awesome video, when I landed in Milan after seeing you guys in Tokyo I wanted to visit the museum but unfortunately I was too jet-lagged. By the way the red 155 touring car in the basement (34:54) is a GTA which uses the Delta Integrale drivetrain, it had a short but successful career.
39:06 First 4C press cars had those headlights and they got brutal critic from journalists. They changed them before customer delivered cars. 41:00 Wow, Alfa’s shooting brake is not the best, I love it still. :D
I think the small japanese cars just overtook the time period. If it wasnt a Z, and foreign, it wasnt gonna sell. At this point your talking old vets of loud noisy military equipment, and their seeds. Thats why the us loves its v8 noisy monsters.
34:38 If I were the driver for that car, had the series been made. I would have set up mannequin torsos, dressed up, in the back to look like a family. It would really mess with peoples heads
I love it! Slowly getting into Alfa Romeo's. Trying to learn everything I can about them. doing a lot of sim race builds. I love the sound of the engines.
@@connoisseuroftigolbitts The Maserati and Alfa Romeo Group owned by Fiat Group. The Maserati and Alfa Romeo group, under FIAT Group, started in 2005, when Maserati was split off from Ferrari. Ferrari was owned by Fiat from 1963 to 2014 not the other way around.
I love the multiple mechanical engineering departments a lot of European countries took, like Sweden and Husqvarna. Their museum in the aforementioned city has missile launchers to sewing machines, oh and some significant motorcycles.
The 2.4 ltr V8 engine for the Motreal was derived from Alphas 1967 33 Stradale (most beautiful car ever) which had a 2.0 quad cam cross plane V8. If you want to hear it it sounds amazing. Here it is starting up. ua-cam.com/video/0JXJr-jtit8/v-deo.html Great video Mr Chen
I'm not sure how you do it. My face would be stuck in a permanent smile from all the ridiculous spots you get to check out lol. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride.
Larry I love your factory, garage, and museum tour you can see your passion for all the cars. More videos like this. ;) And this museum has just become a must-see for me :)
Despite being a 90s kid and growing up with all the same video game JDM hero cars like the rest of my generation, the more I've gotten into cars and into the history the more I've fallen in love with classic Alfa's and Lancia's to the point that my dream garage would have an Aurelia B24S and an Alfaholic GTA-R with their timeless style. This museum was already on my bucket list and I can't wait to see the vault cars I'd probably never get to see otherwise, so thanks Larry and Dino.
I'd suggest to look into some of the other countries with car making history too, but I mean more like the strange experimental stuff going on. Even a sedate brand like Volvo has made some mindblowing stuff at times, like the 850 'T-röd' sort of things. It's just an example, but picture a partially carbon kevlar racecar Volvo 850 station wagon type thing with a huge turbocharger forcefeeding raw methanol mix to I think it was a 2.3l 5cylinder or something to get like 800+HP in it's "street trim". I don't know what adjectives to use but whacktastic is fairly on point. I'm a 90s kid too I guess, I grew up part in Italy, part in Sweden, and to round off I was married to a Japanese girl and have spent time there too, so I've seen a lot of funky things. Many JDM rocketships are virtually unknown outside Japan, some really sleeper like things, street legal basically racecars that were never exported...
By halfway in, I was thinking how much was missing from your understanding... and I mean so very much. You walked by cars that are worth $10 - $20 Million, or perhaps more, but then acted amazed by the mundane. A 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider was the most expensive pre-war car when it sold for nearly $20 million in 2016. The 33 Stadale and the prototype analysis cars are one-offs, priceless.
Maybe they don’t make it to the USA, because they were so unreliable? Kind of like fiat, but there designs are beautiful, maybe they should have gotten together with the Japanese.
I’m a huge JDM fan but also a huge Alfisti. Without a doubt most Japanese manufacturers took styling cues from the Italians. Also to note many of the well known Japanese technologies (like VTEC) were taken from Alfa Rome. Of course Honda made it more reliable but regardless many people do not give credit where it is due.
Think about it in 1971 would you rather have a Monte Carlo/ Mustang or pay more for one of these cool little unreliable cars...... and they weren't popular in America because they had links to the communist party, no relief $ after the wars. That said Alfa Romeos history is racing history!!!!❤
No lol that was fiat. Alfa Was Associated with Ferrari and Enzo raced for them etc. fiat was associated with communism. It never took off in USA simply because the company was falling apart. As was Ferrari and Porsche etc All the racing brands were breaking down. Alfa’s leadership wasn’t proactive like Ferrari. Ferrari make most of their money brand name. Maserati is no different dead brand
Can't believe you didn't show more of the 155. Originally they had straight exhaust pipes, but because the firing order of the v6 was very odd they went above the allowed decibel range. So Alfa Romeo installed the exhaust system that faced upwards. Unfortunately the rivals figured out that if you push a little from the back (push and shove was allowed back then) that you can restrict the exhaust gas coming out and make the car useless lol. My favourite Alfa tho by miles
The 164 Procar was Bernie Ecclestone trying to revive the Procar series that used to run with F1 at the end of 70s beginning of 80s with the BMW M1s prepared by Ron Dennis. Then Bernie changed his mind. Also, the 2 engined car, one for each wheel. That is an innovative way to do torque vectoring
maybe,they´re not the most reliable cars,but no one can make cars look that good and sound better than italians.Bertone,Pinninfarina,Ghia,Carrozzeria Touring,etc,etc.Also,we can speak too about their bikes,like the Ducati 916...thanks from Spain to Larry,Dino and the crew for this amazing piece¡
Super grateful to have seen an Alfa Romeo Montreal in person here in Adelaide (Australia), such a beautiful car. Wish I took more photos and videos of it. 02:43
It's all about the handling, I've had 5 Alfas starting with an Alfetta GT and ending with a GTV , had minimal mechanical issues and loads of fun on twisty roads.
Great video! I bought a 80's Alfa Milano as my first car in high school in 2001. It was a super cool car, handled amazingly but was so slow. I loved watching those 80's and 90's boxy touring cars race on tv growing up.
My Mum and Dad had an Alpha Sud when I was a kid and one of the last cars my Dad owned was an Alpha T Spark Coupe so thank you for sharing this video and bringing back so many memories for me.
Good grief there's some incredible stuff in there! I'm not in the US but I'd be fairly sure Alfa's popularity there dwindled because of a reputation for unreliability and general ownership difficulty. // Alfa Romeo isn't anything to Ferrari anymore, after Ferrari went independent. The Giulia QV's V6 might have lingering Ferrari DNA, but that's it. The 8C engine, techincally, came via Maserati and the 8C was built in Maserati's factory. // Cars are less unique now because 1) they're all related to eachother (AR is part of Stellantis and will share DNA with all sorts of other brands) and 2) because manufacturers are stiffly risk-averse to avoid more financial trouble than they already have. There's a video on the Italian rotary engine here: ua-cam.com/video/mNO69SD6n0g/v-deo.html
My fav Museum, so jealous you got to go to the part not open to the public. Saying the Alfa Romeo is a cheaper Ferrari is criminal ..... but I forgive you guys for showing the unobtanium storage.
Last summer I visited both Ferrari museums Modena, Lamborghini museum and factory Bologna, Ducati, BMW Munchen museum, Mercedes Stuttgart museum, Porsche Stuttgart museum and Pagani. Alfa Romeo museum in Milano was the most impressive.
I haven't watched the full video yet, but I swear to God Larry, if you don't capture and dedicate a full at least 5 minutes to the 33 Stradale, I'm going to snap 😵💫😤😅 literally one of, if not thee most gorgeous Italian cars ever produced in history, period, and I do mean period, regardless of Lamborghini, Ferrari, Alfa, Lancia, whoever, the 33 Stradale is absolutely stunning.... you better have captured it (and no, not the remake, the original, hopefully the magnesium bodied one)
Alfa in terms of design and heritage is the biggest car brand in the world. Even Ferrari pales in comparison. Even BMW said they just copied the concept of Alfa. And added refined/reliable German engineering to it.
Montreal "made for the US market?" I'm afraid not. Any Alfista knows it was a grey-market car that was never destined for North America, despite being introduced at Expo '67 in Montreal.
The Monteal 2.6ltr was a detuned 3ltr F1 engine and with the right exhaust sounded like a screaming formula 1 car. If you owned a Sud you had to become a mechanic and learn how to adjust the hand brake or you would need to get it seviced every month. Their Tippo 158/9 won 47 races from 54 starts!!! When they released the 155 gta race car apparently the plan wash to drive it accross the stage of a famous historic exhibition hall, the car had a stutter on start up and ripped up a period carpet worth thousands of dollars!!! The stories go on for ever, such a rich history and so many are my favorites.
By 1938 electric starters were available. The slot is somewhat vestigial, but also for emergencies. A Triumph TR3 also has that grill opening. I have no idea why you would crank start vs. push start!?
Why didn't the Montreal didn't succeed in the US? It cost more than a 911 back in that time. Group C cars were RHD because most turns in the old Le Mans were right turns, so it provided a lateral biased weight distribution and a better view angle for the drivers.
Alfa's not popular in the US? Who cares! Most yanks have their heads so far up their butts, they think Canada is overseas... Good on you Mr Chen, for going global! Alfa has an amazing history, and they made, and still make, some really great cars. I really appreciate you showing this museum in such detail.
Also I don't know who this guy is in the white glasses, but I sure know what he looks like now since you constantly show his face while he's the one looking at the cars... Also you being surprised at how "small" an engine is or how big is kind of weird. Im sure you know that for example if an engine is listed as a "5 litre" it's just the metric volume it, ingestes/ sucks/force fed, air per circumference. You can easily change that with different pistons, rods and/ or cylinder head etc
Glad youre finally discovering (and helping other Americans as well) the wonderful world of Italian cars, Larry...theres a reason they are so popular in Japan amongst the cognoscenti ;) many of your favorite Japanese cars were directly inspired by Italian cars that came first
Alfaholics are based in Clevedon and in the summer I'm lucky enough to see glimpes of all sorts of interesting Alfas on the roads locally. Always raises a smile ☺
My grandpa had a Alfa Romeo in Oregon in the 80's. When he passed my mom got it. My sister and I used it as a play car and filled it up with water in the gas tank. We were like 5 and six. My mom was so mad. Do not remember model but it kinda looked like a 80"s bmw.
Props to Dino for being fluent in Italian, Japanese and English! Being able to translate on the fly for all of these garage, factory and museum tours for Larry and all of us!
stop touching everything !!!
Not too crazy about modern Alphas, but the 70s Alphas are very easy on the eyes. That Montreal is to die for.
Thanks for taking us along even if you are exhausted. The museum has some interesting history in it.
The beautiful Carabo looks like a classic anime car to me.
Poor reliability drove Alfa Romeo out of the US market. It still seems to be the issue even nowadays.
Much love for the Wankel!
11:32 lemme get that aero glizzy, fam
How does that twin turbo 1.5 f1 engine get boost when it has ITB's ?
Yes Larry , Alfa’s have been in North America for awhile, thats what Dustin Hoffman drove in the movie “The Graduate “
did your views go down by this video larry? wow. alfa mesuem... couldn't get much worse i dont think.
Jeremy "the orangutan" Clarkson has a huge hard on from this vlog about Alfa Romeo because of Larry😅
I'm surprised they didn't call one of them a vulva.
Watching this channel helps calm me down. Must be the vibes ✌🏽
It's safe to say that the grill looks like a vagina
Oh look it's the same company that makes my RAM. That blows up at 150,000 mi. Even though I changed the oil religiously, even before they said to change it, took it to the dealer for every oil change.
Oh and the reason why the motor blew up was because lack of oiling. Go figure.
A lot of old cars had electric starters with crank handle as a backup
Imagine Alfa with production rotary engines 🤯
Let's see in 71 I'd be dropping my hard earned money on a Datsun 240Z, Datsun 510 and a nice bungalow😅😎
That was fun👍
Alfa Romeo.
20:35 Who's still have this 155 TI DTM car in GT7
I want to see the Montreal at the next Montreal Grand Prix lol
That opening made you look like every uncle asleep at a family party. 😂
An american learning about Alfa Romeo’s - this is hilarious! 😊
My favourite car museum bar none, been there twice. But I’ve never been able to get into the vault! Thank You!!
The alfa sud brakes meant it had less unsprung weight
I think a lot of cars back in the day did have electric starters, but kept the crank port at the front incase the starter motor failed.
The red 155 next to the 164 Procar is a 155 GTA, 2.0 16v turbo. 164 Procar was capable of 300+km/h and was almost a f1 car in a 164 shell. There is some footage on youtube about it. It sounds mental.
That row with the 155GTA, 164 Procar and late 155 DTM would make a mighty fine setup for my dream garage..
The Carabo or louvre-car is based on a tipo 33 Stradale, it's a design study. There is only one. Imagine the price on it.. many multimillion cars in the museum there. Those pre-war 6c and 8c models were the top of the line what money could buy in those days. 180-200km/h was possible if you dared..
Amazing history if you look at it. Shame about the last 30 years they've been struggling to stay alive. Hope the future is good for them.
Love love this!
Those lines of an Alfa! It's amazing.
Everyone knows the alfa sud 😮
Hat off to Larry Chen top bloke top job fantastic uploads 😊 cheers Larry all the best mate
Awesome video, when I landed in Milan after seeing you guys in Tokyo I wanted to visit the museum but unfortunately I was too jet-lagged.
By the way the red 155 touring car in the basement (34:54) is a GTA which uses the Delta Integrale drivetrain, it had a short but successful career.
24:45 - As James May would say, I'm getting a fizzy feeling in my pants.
39:06 First 4C press cars had those headlights and they got brutal critic from journalists. They changed them before customer delivered cars.
41:00 Wow, Alfa’s shooting brake is not the best, I love it still. :D
I think the small japanese cars just overtook the time period. If it wasnt a Z, and foreign, it wasnt gonna sell. At this point your talking old vets of loud noisy military equipment, and their seeds. Thats why the us loves its v8 noisy monsters.
And to add, they said screw it, sell cars to race
They onwed by the Chrysler group of North America its a dodge ....
Ferrari's first V12 in his first car was a 1.5L V12 designed by Colombo...the 125 S is in the Peterson, in the basement...everyone should see it
34:38
If I were the driver for that car, had the series been made. I would have set up mannequin torsos, dressed up, in the back to look like a family. It would really mess with peoples heads
That 2 motor alfa is so cool. I wonder if you detuned one of them, how well it would do on smaller ovals back then.
Imagine pulling up in that thing in 1913. Wow.
I love it! Slowly getting into Alfa Romeo's. Trying to learn everything I can about them. doing a lot of sim race builds. I love the sound of the engines.
It's crazy how 90% of these are in this game called Top Drives. If i hadn't played that game, i wouldn't know 3/4ths of these cars.
Alfa 8c engine developed by both Ferrari & Maserati (F136 YC V8) and 4.7L version was used in Maserati Quattroporte/GranTurismo models
I thought ferrari owned maserarti and fiat
@@connoisseuroftigolbitts The Maserati and Alfa Romeo Group owned by Fiat Group. The Maserati and Alfa Romeo group, under FIAT Group, started in 2005, when Maserati was split off from Ferrari. Ferrari was owned by Fiat from 1963 to 2014 not the other way around.
@@drunkdenny ahh thank you
I love the multiple mechanical engineering departments a lot of European countries took, like Sweden and Husqvarna. Their museum in the aforementioned city has missile launchers to sewing machines, oh and some significant motorcycles.
The 2.4 ltr V8 engine for the Motreal was derived from Alphas 1967 33 Stradale (most beautiful car ever) which had a 2.0 quad cam cross plane V8. If you want to hear it it sounds amazing. Here it is starting up. ua-cam.com/video/0JXJr-jtit8/v-deo.html
Great video Mr Chen
Montreal was 2.6 Crosspläne crank 200bhp. Tipo 33 Stradale had 2.0 flatplane v8 230bhp.
The Carabo looks like a Vector
I'm not sure how you do it. My face would be stuck in a permanent smile from all the ridiculous spots you get to check out lol. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride.
You can't be a true petrolhead until you've owned an Alfa Romeo - Jeremy Clarkson
Everybody needs an Alfa Romeo in their life :)
This one was special, and that is saying something, as all of your productions are insanely cool
Larry I love your factory, garage, and museum tour you can see your passion for all the cars. More videos like this. ;) And this museum has just become a must-see for me :)
Museum was cool.
Storage space was insane.
Could spend days in there.
The 155 was my favorite race car in gran turismo 2
Alfa Romeo museum is on my to do list for this year!
Despite being a 90s kid and growing up with all the same video game JDM hero cars like the rest of my generation, the more I've gotten into cars and into the history the more I've fallen in love with classic Alfa's and Lancia's to the point that my dream garage would have an Aurelia B24S and an Alfaholic GTA-R with their timeless style. This museum was already on my bucket list and I can't wait to see the vault cars I'd probably never get to see otherwise, so thanks Larry and Dino.
B20GT Outlaw for me
It was a dream come true for me to visit the Nissan DNA museum , it will probably be a bigger dream to visit the alfa museum.
I'd suggest to look into some of the other countries with car making history too, but I mean more like the strange experimental stuff going on. Even a sedate brand like Volvo has made some mindblowing stuff at times, like the 850 'T-röd' sort of things. It's just an example, but picture a partially carbon kevlar racecar Volvo 850 station wagon type thing with a huge turbocharger forcefeeding raw methanol mix to I think it was a 2.3l 5cylinder or something to get like 800+HP in it's "street trim". I don't know what adjectives to use but whacktastic is fairly on point. I'm a 90s kid too I guess, I grew up part in Italy, part in Sweden, and to round off I was married to a Japanese girl and have spent time there too, so I've seen a lot of funky things. Many JDM rocketships are virtually unknown outside Japan, some really sleeper like things, street legal basically racecars that were never exported...
By halfway in, I was thinking how much was missing from your understanding... and I mean so very much.
You walked by cars that are worth $10 - $20 Million, or perhaps more, but then acted amazed by the mundane. A
1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider was the most expensive pre-war car when it sold for nearly $20 million in 2016. The 33 Stadale and the prototype analysis cars are one-offs, priceless.
Love the Group C car and the 164!! The 164 can do over 360kmh in a road legal car from the 90s, what a machine!!
Lots of the race cars are RHD because circuits in Europe are clockwise, so you sit in the inside of corners. Easier to place the car on the apex
Maybe they don’t make it to the USA, because they were so unreliable? Kind of like fiat, but there designs are beautiful, maybe they should have gotten together with the Japanese.
I’m a huge JDM fan but also a huge Alfisti. Without a doubt most Japanese manufacturers took styling cues from the Italians.
Also to note many of the well known Japanese technologies (like VTEC) were taken from Alfa Rome.
Of course Honda made it more reliable but regardless many people do not give credit where it is due.
Think about it in 1971 would you rather have a Monte Carlo/ Mustang or pay more for one of these cool little unreliable cars...... and they weren't popular in America because they had links to the communist party, no relief $ after the wars. That said Alfa Romeos history is racing history!!!!❤
Operation Gladio domestic repercussions.
No lol that was fiat. Alfa Was Associated with Ferrari and Enzo raced for them etc. fiat was associated with communism. It never took off in USA simply because the company was falling apart. As was Ferrari and Porsche etc
All the racing brands were breaking down. Alfa’s leadership wasn’t proactive like Ferrari. Ferrari make most of their money brand name. Maserati is no different dead brand
Appreciate videos like this 👍
Can't believe you didn't show more of the 155. Originally they had straight exhaust pipes, but because the firing order of the v6 was very odd they went above the allowed decibel range.
So Alfa Romeo installed the exhaust system that faced upwards.
Unfortunately the rivals figured out that if you push a little from the back (push and shove was allowed back then) that you can restrict the exhaust gas coming out and make the car useless lol.
My favourite Alfa tho by miles
The 164 Procar was Bernie Ecclestone trying to revive the Procar series that used to run with F1 at the end of 70s beginning of 80s with the BMW M1s prepared by Ron Dennis. Then Bernie changed his mind.
Also, the 2 engined car, one for each wheel. That is an innovative way to do torque vectoring
maybe,they´re not the most reliable cars,but no one can make cars look that good and sound better than italians.Bertone,Pinninfarina,Ghia,Carrozzeria Touring,etc,etc.Also,we can speak too about their bikes,like the Ducati 916...thanks from Spain to Larry,Dino and the crew for this amazing piece¡
Any video game nostalgia that's come to mind with the DTM Alfa Romeo. Gran Turismo 4 is the one. Winning the European Event La Fiesta Italiano.
Thank you for video brother 💙🔥🤘🏿
1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Lungo Spider - $19,800,000
The most expensive Alfa Romeo
41:08 Giant gen 1 Fiat Panda. (It took viagra just like in the fiat 500X commercial) ^___^;
Inboard rear disc brakes were all the rage on the Jaguar's, the hot rods nearly every custom car in the 60s...
Super grateful to have seen an Alfa Romeo Montreal in person here in Adelaide (Australia), such a beautiful car. Wish I took more photos and videos of it. 02:43
It's all about the handling, I've had 5 Alfas starting with an Alfetta GT and ending with a GTV , had minimal mechanical issues and loads of fun on twisty roads.
Alpha Romeo have produced some of the most beautiful cars in the world and some of the most outrageous. Thank you Larry for the tour 😁👍🏻
Alfa 🙄
LOL! HAHAHAHAHAH ARE YOU SERIOUS ?
Alpha Romereo
Those 155 v6 engines sound sooo good. Yeah they are the best sounding v6.
Great video! I bought a 80's Alfa Milano as my first car in high school in 2001. It was a super cool car, handled amazingly but was so slow. I loved watching those 80's and 90's boxy touring cars race on tv growing up.
Man the 164 is brutal just the meat on them tires alone🤤
My Mum and Dad had an Alpha Sud when I was a kid and one of the last cars my Dad owned was an Alpha T Spark Coupe so thank you for sharing this video and bringing back so many memories for me.
I bet that 2.1 ltr twin turbo sounds amazing. 640 hp. BALLS
@LarryChenPhoto sounded like you where going to say what are thoooooose!!!! when you saw the rims lmao... they where cool
GREAT Vlog !! .......Simply SUPERB !! ............. Bless You & You're Team ........PEACE
Good grief there's some incredible stuff in there! I'm not in the US but I'd be fairly sure Alfa's popularity there dwindled because of a reputation for unreliability and general ownership difficulty. // Alfa Romeo isn't anything to Ferrari anymore, after Ferrari went independent. The Giulia QV's V6 might have lingering Ferrari DNA, but that's it. The 8C engine, techincally, came via Maserati and the 8C was built in Maserati's factory. // Cars are less unique now because 1) they're all related to eachother (AR is part of Stellantis and will share DNA with all sorts of other brands) and 2) because manufacturers are stiffly risk-averse to avoid more financial trouble than they already have.
There's a video on the Italian rotary engine here: ua-cam.com/video/mNO69SD6n0g/v-deo.html
My fav Museum, so jealous you got to go to the part not open to the public. Saying the Alfa Romeo is a cheaper Ferrari is criminal ..... but I forgive you guys for showing the unobtanium storage.
Epic! I'll never get to travel there, so thank you a ton!
Some of the most important and beautiful looking cars in the world ❤
That edit at the end encapsulates everything I love about cars without saying a word
The stories that come with so many of these cars are really what makes them special. Love this episode.
Last summer I visited both Ferrari museums Modena, Lamborghini museum and factory Bologna, Ducati, BMW Munchen museum, Mercedes Stuttgart museum, Porsche Stuttgart museum and Pagani. Alfa Romeo museum in Milano was the most impressive.
I haven't watched the full video yet, but I swear to God Larry, if you don't capture and dedicate a full at least 5 minutes to the 33 Stradale, I'm going to snap 😵💫😤😅 literally one of, if not thee most gorgeous Italian cars ever produced in history, period, and I do mean period, regardless of Lamborghini, Ferrari, Alfa, Lancia, whoever, the 33 Stradale is absolutely stunning.... you better have captured it (and no, not the remake, the original, hopefully the magnesium bodied one)
Alfa in terms of design and heritage is the biggest car brand in the world.
Even Ferrari pales in comparison.
Even BMW said they just copied the concept of Alfa. And added refined/reliable German engineering to it.
Larry is living my dream, being immersed in cars and talking the culture is dreamworthy
Montreal "made for the US market?" I'm afraid not. Any Alfista knows it was a grey-market car that was never destined for North America, despite being introduced at Expo '67 in Montreal.
The Monteal 2.6ltr was a detuned 3ltr F1 engine and with the right exhaust sounded like a screaming formula 1 car.
If you owned a Sud you had to become a mechanic and learn how to adjust the hand brake or you would need to get it seviced every month.
Their Tippo 158/9 won 47 races from 54 starts!!!
When they released the 155 gta race car apparently the plan wash to drive it accross the stage of a famous historic exhibition hall, the car had a stutter on start up and ripped up a period carpet worth thousands of dollars!!!
The stories go on for ever, such a rich history and so many are my favorites.
By 1938 electric starters were available. The slot is somewhat vestigial, but also for emergencies. A Triumph TR3 also has that grill opening. I have no idea why you would crank start vs. push start!?
Why didn't the Montreal didn't succeed in the US? It cost more than a 911 back in that time. Group C cars were RHD because most turns in the old Le Mans were right turns, so it provided a lateral biased weight distribution and a better view angle for the drivers.
Alfa's not popular in the US? Who cares! Most yanks have their heads so far up their butts, they think Canada is overseas... Good on you Mr Chen, for going global! Alfa has an amazing history, and they made, and still make, some really great cars. I really appreciate you showing this museum in such detail.
Also I don't know who this guy is in the white glasses, but I sure know what he looks like now since you constantly show his face while he's the one looking at the cars...
Also you being surprised at how "small" an engine is or how big is kind of weird.
Im sure you know that for example if an engine is listed as a "5 litre" it's just the metric volume it, ingestes/ sucks/force fed, air per circumference.
You can easily change that with different pistons, rods and/ or cylinder head etc
Glad youre finally discovering (and helping other Americans as well) the wonderful world of Italian cars, Larry...theres a reason they are so popular in Japan amongst the cognoscenti ;) many of your favorite Japanese cars were directly inspired by Italian cars that came first
Alfaholics are based in Clevedon and in the summer I'm lucky enough to see glimpes of all sorts of interesting Alfas on the roads locally. Always raises a smile ☺
My grandpa had a Alfa Romeo in Oregon in the 80's. When he passed my mom got it. My sister and I used it as a play car and filled it up with water in the gas tank. We were like 5 and six. My mom was so mad. Do not remember model but it kinda looked like a 80"s bmw.
"We're so jetlagged flying from LA to Milan."
* chuckles in Australian *