Alfa Romeo Giulietta 750/101 Berlina

The Giulietta family saloon

The Giulietta Berlina was the four-door saloon within the first-generation Giulietta 750/101 family. Introduced at the Turin Motor Show in April 1955, it followed the Sprint coupé of 1954. Alfa Romeo’s contemporary product strategy paired everyday practicality with the sporting character already demonstrated by the coupé. Alfa Romeo’s anniversary history describes that sequence.

This record covers the standard Berlina, sometimes called the Normale. The more powerful TI is discussed as a related derivative, with its specifications kept separate.

Design and manufacture

Alfa Romeo’s Ufficio Stile developed the saloon’s design, incorporating front-end features that connected it visually with the Sprint. Production took place at Portello in Milan, Italy. The Giulietta programme helped transform that plant through new assembly lines and reorganised manufacturing processes, extending the move towards volume production begun with the 1900. Its historical importance lies in combining Alfa Romeo’s engineering identity with a family car aimed at a broader customer base. Stellantis Heritage’s Berlina history.

Engine and chassis

The Alfa Romeo Museum documents a Berlina specification with a longitudinal 1,290 cc four-cylinder engine, light-alloy block and cylinder head, chain-driven twin overhead camshafts and a single-choke carburettor. A four-speed manual gearbox transmitted power to the rear wheels.

The body used pressed-steel unitary construction. Front suspension employed wishbones and coil springs; the rear used a live axle located by trailing arms and an upper triangular element. Hydraulic drum brakes operated at all four wheels. This museum specification establishes the basic mechanical layout without treating one output or performance figure as universal across the production run. Alfa Romeo Museum technical record.

Development and the TI distinction

The TI joined the saloon range in 1957. Its name stood for Turismo Internazionale and identified the more powerful sporting derivative, rather than a new body style or generation.

Alfa Romeo’s 2014 retrospective describes an autumn 1959 revision associated with the 101 designation, including changes to the front trim, rear lamps and dashboard. A further update followed in 1961. These dates describe development events, rather than universal market-specific model years. The same history discusses Colli estate conversions separately; those coachbuilt cars are outside this standard saloon record. Alfa Romeo’s development chronology.

Type codes and market identification

Centerline’s identification guide lists the early standard Berlina as 750C and the later standard saloon as 101.00. It separately identifies the Berlina TI as 101.11 and its USA version as 101.13. These distinctions matter when matching an individual car to technical documentation: a TI or export specification should not be assigned automatically to the standard Berlina.

The guide also warns that 1959 was a transition period across the Giulietta range. Registration year alone is therefore insufficient to establish a car’s exact mechanical specification. Centerline model-identification guide.

Production chronology and its limits

The 1955 introduction is well established, but published end dates require care. The Alfa Romeo Museum gives 1955–1964 for its Giulietta saloon production entry. The Registro Italiano Alfa Romeo describes three saloon series: 1955–1959, 1959–1961 and 1961–1965, while noting that the standard Berlina left the catalogue before the TI.

These accounts do not establish a single unambiguous final production date for the standard Berlina alone. This record therefore retains the distinction between the broader saloon family’s chronology and the standard variant’s withdrawal, and does not assign family-wide production totals to the Normale.

Alfa Romeo Giulietta First Generation (750/101)

Explore the parent generation within the Alfa Romeo Giulietta model line.