Alfa Romeo will celebrate 99th birthday with Goodwood spectacular

A year shy of the Italian sporting marque’s 100th birthday, Alfa Romeo will be preparing for next year’s centenary with a historic hill climb by the 8C Spider convertible at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK.

Also on show will be the 1924 P2 Gran Premio, which won the first World Championship in 1925 driven by Gastone Brilli-Peri, the 8C 2300 tipo Le Mans, which was purchased by Sir Henry Birkin in 1931, the 6C 3000 CM driven to second place by Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1953 Mille Miglia, and the 33 TT 12, which brought the 1975 World Manufacturer’s title to Alfa Romeo.

Two Alfa Romeo concept cars will also make an appearance and are to enter the Cartier Style et Luxe in the “Serious Wedge – Studies in Angular Sports Car Design 1965-1980” category. Both of the concepts, incidentally, were designed by Bertone.

One of the concepts, the 1968 Alfa Carabo concept marks a revolutionary stage in supercar design, with its hydropneumatic-powered gull-wing doors and multi-coloured one way glass windows. The other concept is the 1978 Najavo, which represents a concerted effort for a new aerodynamics focussed direction in sporty coupe design.

While this year Alfa Romeo is looking to its past heritage, next year for its centenary the automaker is expected to release a high-performance ‘GTA’ version of its stunning 8C Competizione supercar. For more information check out our previous story by clicking here.