"Alfissimo!"

“Alfissimo!” by David Owen. 311 pp., 10″ 7 ,1/2″ (OsPrey Publishing Ltd., 12-14, Long Acre, London WC2E 9LP. £12.95). A great deal of very sound information was already available about the history and technicalities of the older Alfa Romeo cars. Which is perhaps why David Owen has slanted his new book towards the later versions of this very great and commendable Italian make. He deals with the 1900, Giulietta, Giulia, Alfetta, and the “new” Giulietta cars, one of the last-named of which I am currently greatly enjoying over the Christmas snows. This, then, is another large Osprey tome about a classic range of Italian motor-cars, by an author who first noticed the Alfa Romeo make in 1960, followed this by sampling a replica Zagato 1750, and who became an enthusiast when using a Duetto two-seater for ten years and an incredibly reliable 130,000 miles, after which it set itself on fire in its garage and was burnt out. Now the author is replacing this Alfa Romeo with an Alfetta GTV 2000, which may or may not prove the current story that there is a mint of money to be made by writing almost any motoring book.

This one is packed with picture and tent about the four-cylinder twin-cam thoroughbreds, with the inevitable colour-centre-section, and plenty of Alfa Romeos in the full heat of competition-participation. There is also a comparison between modern Alfa Romeo rivals, from Audi 100S to Rover 2300, etc.