Rejoice, Alfa Romeo fans! The time has come to look into the past and see for yourself all the key stones that have made Alfa Romeo become the legend it is. The following set of articles will cover all the major turning points in the development of the celebrated brand.
In the very beginning
As of now, the legendary brand of Alfa Romeo has passed over the verge of a century. That first 100 years of its history was marked by a great many of obstacles, racing victories, as well as several times when the company was on the brink of going bankrupt. Nonetheless, all this time, the Italian designers, madly in love with the cars they created, managed to produce some of the most unforgettable, and heart-throbbing legends, be it an Alfa Romeo Juliette or Alfa Montreal.
However, a careful look requires a serious examination of the history, chapter by chapter. In the beginning there was only Alfa, (no 
Romeo), when in 1906, a Frenchman and a true pioneer of automobile construction Alexandre Darracq decided to build a car factory in the South of Italy to produce low cost version of the French affordable car Darracq. 
However he was soon to find out that the hot-tempered Italian drivers would not buy his cheap carts equipped with 1600cc engines. On top of that, the affairs in the head office in France were totally getting out of hand. In the beginning of the 20th century the car market was already slowing down. As the result, towards the end of the year 1909 the branch of the Darracq factory, erected in the industrial suburb of Portello, in close vicinity to Milan, was sold to a group of local investors, who chose to call it ‘Anonima Lomarda Fabbrica Automobili’. The further abbreviation to ALFA, on the 24th of June 1910 is regarded as the benchmark, whom which the history of the brand starts its count.
It was now the time to produce something of their own and the first non-Darracq car manufactured by the company in 1910 happened 
to be the 24HP, designed by Guiseppe Merosi and his team. The name of 24 was derived from a rather strange designation of tax schedules, where the engine displacement was combined with horse powers. The thing which will later be called the “Alfa Romeo Spirit” was already present in that first car build from the ground up by Alfa engineers. This mid-size model 24HP had ground breaking single overhead camshaft, aluminum oil pan of the crankshaft, and the rpm could go as high as 2400rotation per minute- this was truly innovative. As the result the 1910 model was able to produce an impressive for the time 42 horse powers and top the speed of 100 km an hour. And not stopping on the achieved A.L.F.A. entered the world of motor racing, with two of their drivers Franchini and Ronzoni who competed in the 1911 on two 24 HP models.
To be continued…