What Is the Greatest Italian Car of All Time?

Great is a difficult concept; greatest is so difficult as to be futile. But, I could not hold back from such a truly great question. I have thought about it at length. By choosing ‘greatest’, my choice is not the most beautiful (the Miura , the Ghibli SS, 33 stradale, or the 250 GTL). In fact, choosing the most beautiful would be an even harder exercise. It’s not the fastest. It’s no the most successful in racing. But, it has elements of all these things to achieve a conceptual whole that represents everything that Italian motoring has been. A composite of Italy’s best automotive achievements, including the practicality and appeal to not only appeal but to be enjoyed by lesser mortals without the assets of the Visconti, Agnelli or Marcello Mastroiannis. There can only be one contender. The first series Alfa Romeo Giulia – particularly in the 1969-1970 Super denomination. There’s a reason why Marchionne revived the Giulia name to launch the Alfa Romeo renaissance, doing it so brilliantly. Many Italian families have enjoyed a Giulia. They’ve seen it defend them from criminals as a police car (loved by the police officers who drove them). They’ve seen it race and win against much bigger cars (look at the record of the Giulia Ti Super). The Giulia had an engine that Ferrari could not have offered in a better or more sophisticated version. It had a five speed transmission and four wheel disc brakes, when much more expensive sports cars offered neither. It was a car whose driver could take the entire family out for a ling vacation trip from Italy to the northernmost tip of Europe (Nordkapp in Norway) and back (I know something about it, my father had three Giulias), still allowing for the occasional performance rode around a mountain or coastal road (Amalfi coast in a Giulia, been there done that). It was unbelievably aerodynamic – CX 0.33 or less. In short, as an Italian, the Giulia is the car that expressed the best of Italian technology, art and knowhow. It was a symbol of Italy’s post war optimism and unbelievable emergence from disaster. It told the world that we’re as good as the best. It gave me and give me pride. It’s as much as symbol of what Italy has done for the world as the Sistine Chapel, the Roman Forum or the Aqueducts that line the Roman roads that connected Rome to the World. Leonardo da Vinci, had he been alive at the time, would have driven a Giulia.