There are two rightful premises: the first is that Andrea Vecchi did a splendid job of reconstruction and an "alfista act of faith" to make us fall in love with the Arna. The second is that after all the writer is convinced that the engine is one of the unsolved mysteries of the universe!

Good morning,

I'm Laura Defendi and I've collaborated with the Fratelli Cozzi Museum since its inception. It has been, and continues to be, an honour to live this experience in a suggestive place, rich in emotions and history. It was the history of the cars on display and what they represent in terms of society, culture, industrial archaeology, design that won my curiosity. The meeting dedicated to the Arna held last May 13, masterfully conducted by Andrea Vecchi, has been for me the fruit of many reflections and has opened a chasm of deepening to which I hope to dedicate myself soon.

Allow me, however, a semi-serious article dedicated to the Arna, which has caused so much discussion, rekindling a debate that, I like to think, continues from that distant 1983.

Let's see what I've learned... Arna stands for Alfa Romeo Nissan Autoveicoli, and so far the game is easy.

I learned that the mechanics are Alfa Romeo, but the stamped plates are Nissan's and that, as Jeremy Clarkson says, the idea of putting together Japanese style and Italian quality was not to be discarded, but that if they had done it the other way around, the aesthetic result would have benefited. And yet there's something that still doesn't add up.

I don't recall the long queue of comments received in the social networks where, between defenders and detractors, Arna has always been the centre of attention. I don't get back those beloved 80s that now seem a golden interlude between two periods of strong economic crisis. Between an I like Chopin and a True Italian, with a Karma Chameleon that resounded from our car radios (maybe mounted on the Arna with some handmade connections), Italy licked the wounds of the fierce economic crisis of the 70s and for a moment dreamed of redemption.

When I go down to the Museum and caress the Gobbone with my eyes and say that it was a car for a few, and in a few steps I find myself in the 70s of the Alfa Sud giardinetta, in the history of Pomigliano d'Arco, the strikes, the "work in the south", at that moment I feel that maybe I too would have liked to have the dream of redemption. Maybe I too would have succumbed to that "and you are immediately alfista", reassured by the miles guaranteed by that Alfa engine that, after all, well hidden and poorly decorated, was still a Boxer!

And then Andrea Vecchi is right, you know the competitors of the time?

Andrea Vecchi, President of Alfa Club Milano, passionate Alfa Romeo expert.