THE SHIFT Stories from Car Culture
Alfa Romeo.
One of the most iconic, and at the same time, most debated, names in automotive history.
Rivers of words have been written about this emblem of Italian motoring culture.
But this time, I don't want to tell another story about Alfa Romeo.
I want to tell you what it means to be an Alfista.
From a very personal point of view.
Dante Guarnaccia. Alfista. Since 1977
It Runs In the Family
My passion for cars began long before me.
It probably goes back to the 1940s, when my grandfather, Pino Guarnaccia, worked at Fiat Mirafiori testing engines known as the Lampredi, named after their creator, engineer Aurelio Lampredi.
Those engines would later find their way into much of the Fiat Group's production of the era.
From there, automotive culture, and an almost visceral passion for cars, passed down through my family.
To my father, Alessandro.
And eventually to me.
Almost at a cellular level.
The Car That Changed Everything
In the early 2000s, my father bought a beautiful 1973 Alfa Romeo GT 2000 Veloce.
Red.
Yellow headlights.
The car had French homologation, from a time when cars in France used yellow headlamps.
I fell in love the moment I saw it. But above all, when I drove it.
That was when I understood that driving an Alfa Romeo, and particularly the GT, is an experience.
Every time, a different one.
It goes beyond performance, however impressive that performance may be.
It takes you into a world of sensations.
Scents, not smells.
Sounds, not noises.
An experience perfect in all its imperfection.
That was when I understood I would no longer simply be someone who loved cars.
I had become an Alfista.
To Belong
Being an Alfista, to me, has never meant simply loving automobiles.
It means recognising a character.
Feeling that certain cars can go beyond their function, beyond technical specifications, beyond the logic we normally use when choosing things.
When an Alfa Romeo gets inside you, it doesn't remain just a machine.
It becomes a language.
Almost a religion.
My passion came before knowledge. It began with a feeling, that difficult-to-explain perception that certain cars have a different presence.
You don't simply look at an Alfa.
You recognise it.
There is something in its proportions, the tension of its lines, the way it occupies the road, that makes it feel alive.
Even standing still, it often seems to be moving.
1973 Alfa Romeo GT 2000 Veloce
Alfista
Eventually, I understood the difference between appreciating Alfa Romeo and being an Alfista.
To appreciate is to admire. To be an Alfista is to belong.
To belong, somehow, to an idea of the automobile that puts emotion at its centre.
And, above all, to feel part of something shared by true Alfisti.
I remember the many meetings and drives with Biscioni Torino, a group of genuine Alfisti who share not simply a passion, but a way of life.
We shared some fantastic moments together.
And perhaps this sense of belonging exists precisely because Alfa Romeo has never been about perfection.
Quite the opposite.
Alfa Romeo has been beauty and disorder.
Genius and fragility.
Ambition and contradiction.
It has created wonderful cars. It has won, innovated and left its mark on design and motorsport.
But it has also known uncertainty, missed opportunities, industrial limitations and less brilliant periods.
Being an Alfista means accepting that too.
Not loving something sterilised and flawless.
But remaining faithful to a character.
And real characters always have their edges.
Three Alfas
If I had to choose the three Alfa Romeos that mean the most to me, I would choose the ones that, more than any others, explain why I love this marque.
Three cars. Three very different reasons.
Giulia GT Veloce.
Spider.
33 Stradale.
Giulia GT Veloce
Giulia GT Veloce
The first is the Giulia GT Veloce, the car I have owned since 2000.
For me, it represents the perfect balance between elegance, sportiness and immediacy.
It is one of those cars in which Alfa Romeo manages to feel complete without ever becoming cold.
Everything is there.
The right lines.
The right stance.
And driving pleasure at its centre.
The Giulia GT embodies the idea that a car can simultaneously be beautiful, serious, fast and deeply involving.
It is an incredibly rare synthesis.
Spider
The second is the Spider, which I have owned since 2018.
Because within that name lies something much bigger than the model itself.
There is an entire world.
Open air.
The road as an experience.
The pleasure of mechanics without filters.
The Spider is one of the purest expressions of Alfismo because it brings together style, freedom and an emotional lightness that only certain cars can give you.
It isn't simply a car to drive.
It's a way of being in the world.
I remember buying mine in February 2018 at Automotoretrò in Turin.
I simply sat behind the wheel.
And I was struck by love at first sight.
I haven't been able to separate myself from it since.
A true love story.
Alfa Spider
33 Stradale of 1967
The Absolute Dream
The third is the 33 Stradale.
Here, we enter the territory of the absolute dream.
For most people, it remains unattainable.
For me too.
But perhaps that is precisely what makes it so powerful.
The 33 Stradale represents Alfa Romeo at its highest, almost mythological level.
The point where engineering, design and courage meet in a form that feels almost impossible to repeat. It is one of those cars that doesn't simply make you desire it.
It reminds you how far a marque can go when it stops being afraid of being extraordinary.
Alfa Today
When I look at Alfa Romeo today, I see a marque suspended between memory and necessity.
On one side is an incredibly powerful emotional heritage. A name that still evokes something very precise.
On the other is a market increasingly pushing everything towards caution, uniformity and calculation.
So the real challenge isn't simply to produce competitive cars.
It is to continue producing recognisable cars.
Cars with an accent.
A point of view.
An identity.
Never Neutral
This is what Alfa Romeo must never lose: The courage not to be neutral.
An Alfa shouldn't have to please everyone in the same way.
It should have personality.
It should create a bond.
Discussion.
Memories.
It should leave something behind, even when it isn't perfect.
Because, in the end, being an Alfista means choosing a love that cannot be entirely explained by reason.
And perhaps precisely because of that, when the love is authentic, it lasts much longer.
As Gino Paoli put it: “Una lunga storia d'amore.”
A long love story.
Dante’s love stories. The GT Veloce, his wife Emy, and the Spider
