What goes on "backstage"? All through 2019, the Museo Alfa Romeo in Arese has been proposing a series of events to reveal that part of the historical Collection that is not permanently displayed but kept in the Museum storage rooms and therefore invisible to the public. Once a month, one of these 'objects' – cars, models, and much more – has starred in an event called Backstage: it was displayed for an entire weekend and presented to the public during an in-depth conference enriched with materials from the Documentation Centre. In addition, whenever possible, the Museum invited former Alfa Romeo employees to give their live testimony of the object in question, people who had personally worked on the project in its day, as well as experts or fans. The Backstage events were also the perfect occasion to set some of the vehicles that had been standing still for decades back in motion and – in some cases – to take them back to the track.
Throughout 2019, the Museum thus meticulously illustrated 12 chapters in Alfa Romeo's history by means of as many items which will now, at the end of the season, parade together in the Backstage Parade at the Museo Alfa Romeo in Arese.
From 7 December 2019 to 2 March 2020, the Museum will put the less known vehicles on show, like the white armoured
Alfa 6 which was specially prepared for Pope John Paul II's visit to Milan. Then there is the
164 Q4 transformed into a pick-up truck for the Firefighting Department located in Balocco, Alfa Romeo's experimental testing centre. Or the 1900 M 'Matta', which, in 1967, embarked on a journey with four Giulia Supers to cover 27 thousand kilometres crossing 24 countries to bring a message of peace with the Brotherhood and Peace Raid. And then there was the 'mother of all Giulias', i.e. the
temporary and camouflaged prototype of the Giulia, which bore the date 12 December 1959 on its grille. Or again the 'forerunner' of the Alfa, the
Darracq 8/10 HP produced in the Portello production plant which, in 1910, would become the A.L.F.A. workshops.
Exhibited at the Mo.Ma. in New York, the
New York Taxi conceived by Giorgetto Giugiaro on the platform of the Alfa Romeo F12 anticipated many of the future trends in automotive design. Then came the prototype of the Tipo 103, a futuristic project for a
vetturetta from the 1950s. The spotlights also shone on the
Wankel engine and the C.E.M. (Electronic Engine Control), an example of technological excellence from the early 1980s that placed Alfa Romeo in the frontline in terms of the application of electronic devices in the automotive industry. And again,
the 'section'ofthe Alfetta, which lays bare the functioning of every component, from the body to the suspensions, from the 'twin-shaft' engine to the gearbox and the entire transmission and braking system.
The exhibition comes to a close with some items that bear witness to Alfa Romeo's sensitivity and commitment, also beyond the automotive industry: the futuristic
prototype of a kitchen designed during the Second World War and never launched into production, and the series of authored sculptures entitled
'Alfa Romeo to its drivers', twenty Trophies made between 1963 and 1982 by the greatest Italian artists of the time.
The exhibition
Backstage Parade will remain open from 7 December 2019 to 2 March 2020, and will then leave room for the pieces of Alfa Romeo's historical Collection that will star in the 2020 Edition of Backstage.
The dates and topics of the events will be published on the Backstage section
