Exotic Cars Around the World

The Alfa Romeo Montreal – From Concept to Production Bertone’s pen produced the original prototype that was introduced at Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada. Combining race car thrills with the essentials of a daily driver, the Montreal's V8-cylinder engine (borrowed from the 33) produced 200 HP and top speeds of 137 mph Return of the Alfetta Alfetta inherited its name from – and shares its De Dion suspension system with – Alfa Romeo's Formula 1® world champion, the Alfa Romeo 159, also known as Alfetta (“Little Alfa”). It was a stylish, complex sports sedan. Front engine and rear gearbox gave the Alfetta perfect weight distribution – a feature that would set a precedent for the competition. Many different coupe and sedan versions appeared until 1984, and engine sizes included 1.6, 1.8, 2000 and 2500 6-cylinder The Alfa Romeo “bug” In 1974 Rudolf Hruska was appointed head designer at Alfa Romeo but it was the great Orazio Satta Puliga who expressed it best. Before...

Once motor sports resumed after the Second World War, Alfa Romeo proved to be the car to beat in Grand Prix events. The introduction of the new formula ( Formula One ) for single-seat racing cars provided an ideal setting for Alfa Romeo's Tipo  158 Alfetta , adapted from a pre-war voiturette, and  Giuseppe Farina  won the first Formula One World Championship in 1950 in the 158.  Juan Manuel Fangio  secured Alfa's second consecutive championship in 1951. Alfa Romeo production between 1998 and 2016 [11] Year Cars 1998 197,680 1999 208,336 2000 206,836 2001 213,638 2002 187,437 2003 182,469 2004 162,179 2005 130,815 2006 157,794 2007 151,898 2008 103,097 2009 103,687 2010 119,451 2011 130,535 2012 101,000 [12] 2013 74,000 2014 58,948 [2] 2015 56,688 [2] 2016 66,155 [2] In 1952, Alfa Romeo experimented with its first front-wheel drive compact car, "Project 13-61". [13]  It had the same transverse-mounted, forward-motor...

Nicola Romeo   28 April 1876 –  Magreglio , 15 August 1938) was an Italian engineer and entrepreneur. Romeo graduated with a degree in engineering from the Politecnico di Napoli (nowadays  Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II ) in 1899. After that, he worked for a couple of years abroad and completed a second bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in  Liège ,  Belgium . In 1911 he returned to Italy and created "Ing. Nicola Romeo e Co.". The company manufactured machines and equipment for the mining industry. As the company became successful he wished to expand and acquired a majority of  Milan -based car manufacturing company A.L.F.A. (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili) in 1915. Only three years later, in 1918, Romeo owned the whole company. A.L.F.A. was renamed to "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili Romeo". The first car carrying the  Alfa Romeo  badge was the 1921 Torpedo 20/30 HP. The company gained a good reput...

In August 1915, the company came under the direction of Neapolitan entrepreneur  Nicola Romeo , who converted the factory to produce military hardware for the Italian and Allied war efforts. Munitions, aircraft engines and other components, compressors, and generators based on the company's existing car engines were produced in a vastly enlarged factory during the war. After the war, Romeo invested his war profits in acquiring locomotive and railway carriage plants in Saronno (Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno), Rome (Officine Meccaniche di Roma), and Naples (Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali), which were added to his A.L.F.A. ownership. Car production had not been considered at first, but resumed in 1919 since parts for the completion of 105 cars had remained at the A.L.F.A. factory since 1915. [6]  In 1920, the name of the company was changed to Alfa Romeo with the  Torpedo 20-30 HP  the first car to be so badged. [9]  Their first success came in 19...

The Birth of a Legend The origins of Alfa Romeo date back to The Società Italiana Automobili Darracq, founded in 1906 and located at 95, Strada del Portello, Milan, Italy. When economic hardship hit in 1909, company shares were acquired by the organization's managing director, Italian aristocrat Ugo Stella. On June 24, 1910, Stella relaunched and renamed his plant Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili – A.L.F.A. or “Alfa”. Alfa's First Merosi-Designed Vehicle, the 24HP Alfa’s young technical director, Giuseppe Merosi, was an ambitious young man who started out selling bicycles. Soon after, Merosi was designing cars and motorcycles for Fiat and Bianchi. At Alfa, Merosi designed the first vehicle to come off the new production line at Portello in Milan, Italy. The 24HP featured a single block 4.1-liter engine, single drive shaft and reached a top speed of 62 mph I have been blogging about cars for awhile now and have read hundreds of things on cars and chatted...

Between 1994 and 2001, under the leadership of  Bernd Pischetsrieder , BMW owned the  British   Rover Group , having bought it from  British Aerospace . This brought the active  Rover ,  Mini  and  Land Rover  brands as well as rights to many dormant marques such as  Austin ,  Morris ,  Riley ,  Triumph  and  Wolseley  under BMW ownership. The venture was not successful. Already struggling after years of industrial disputes, Rover had a poor reputation but in trying to improve its image it would become a rival to the BMW market segment. BMW found it difficult to reposition the English automaker alongside its own products and the Rover division was faced with endless changes in its marketing strategy. In the six years under BMW, Rover was positioned as a premium automaker, a mass-market automaker, a division of BMW and an independent unit. A five-part  BBC  documentary,  When Rover Met BMW ...

By 1959, BMW was in debt and losing money. [71]  The Isetta was selling well but with small profit margins. [72]  Their 501-based luxury sedans were not selling well enough to be profitable and were becoming increasingly outdated. [73]  Their 503 coupé and 507 roadster were too expensive to be profitable. [73]  Their  600 , a four-seater based on the Isetta, was selling poorly. [68]  The motorcycle market imploded in the mid-1950s with increased affluence turning Germans away from motorcycles and toward cars. [74]  BMW had sold their Allach plant to  MAN  in 1954. [75]   American Motors  and the  Rootes Group  had both tried to acquire BMW. [76] At BMW's  annual general meeting  on 9 December 1959, Dr. Hans Feith, chairman of BMW's  supervisory board , proposed a merger with  Daimler-Benz . The dealers and small shareholders opposed this suggestion and rallied around a counter-proposal by Dr. Fri...

BMW AG was heavily bombed towards the end of the war, reducing most of the company's production facilities to rubble. In fact, by the end of the war, the  Munich plant was completely destroyed. [37]  BMW sites in eastern Germany ( Eisenach-Dürrerhof ,  Wandlitz-Basdorf  and  Zühlsdorf ) were seized by the  Soviets . After the war the Munich factory took some time to restart production in any volume. BMW was banned from manufacturing motor vehicles by the Allies. During this ban, BMW used basic secondhand and salvaged equipment to make pots and pans, later expanding to other kitchen supplies and bicycles. Permission to manufacture motorcycles was granted to BMW by United States authorities in 1947, and production of the  R24  began in 1948. [38] In the east, the company's factory at Eisenach was taken over by the Soviet Awtowelo group. [38] [39]  Production of the R35 motorcycle was restarted in 1945, [39]  with the  321 ...

Documentary- History of BMW Racing! This is a 42 minute documentary about the history of BMW racing..very interesting.  The numerous countries, influences, how they integrated the racing vehicles to be consumer vehicles.  Some great live footage from the time era's.

By the 50s, BMW re-entered the automobile field and introduced the 501, the first post-war BMW. By 1954, the most famous vehicle of all time, the BMW 502 V8 super made its debut, which allowed the company to enhance its reputation worldwide. In 1956, BMW introduced a muscle 507 car, which made the company the largest money earner at that time. BMW did have some dark times during the war and it hindered its movements to the United States but once it did, they would begin to take over numerous other franchises.   http://www.autosmithcar.com/

BMW AG originated with three other manufacturing companies,  Rapp Motorenwerke  and  Bayerische Flugzeugwerke  (BFw) in  Bavaria , and  Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach  in  Thuringia . The company is now known as BMW or Bayerische Motoren Werke. Aircraft engine manufacturer Rapp Motorenwerke became  Bayerische Motorenwerke  in 1916. The engine manufacturer, which built proprietary industrial engines after  World War I , was then bought by the owner of BFw who then merged BFw into BMW and moved the engine works onto BFw's premises. BFw's motorcycle sideline was improved upon by BMW and became an integral part of their business. BMW became an automobile manufacturer in 1929 when it purchased Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, which, at the time, built  Austin Sevens  under licence under the  Dixi  marque. [1]  BMW's team of engineers progressively developed their cars from small Seven-based cars into six-cylinder luxury cars...

The new owner, Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited, had among its board members Lord Cole (a former chairman of Unilever), Sir  Arnold Weinstock  (managing director of GEC), Hugh Conway (managing director Rolls-Royce Gas Turbines), Dr  Stanley Hooker  (Rolls-Royce Bristol), Sir  William Cook  (an adviser to the Minister of Defence), Sir St. John Elstub (managing director of  Imperial Metal Industries ), and  Sir Charles Elworthy  (former Chief of Defence Staff). [19] Lockheed and Rolls-Royce take-off [ edit ] The new aircraft with its three RB211 engines left USA for the first time and arrived in Paris on 1 June 1971. [20]  At Palmdale California the L-1011 received its US Federal Aviation Administration's certificate of airworthiness on 14 April 1972, nine months late. On the day the chairman of Lockeed said ". . . we know that in airline service it (RB211) will prove itself to be one of the leading power plants in aviation history". [21] ...