The main responsibility for engineering the 158 was given to Gioacchino Colombo. The car's name refers to its 1.5-litre engine and eight cylinders. The voiturette class was for racing cars with 1.5-litre engines, similar to the Formula Two class in relation to Formula One today. Alfa's 3-litre racing cars in 1938 and 1939 were the Tipo 308, 312, and 316. The 158 debuted with the works Alfa Corse team at the Coppa Ciano Junior in August 1938 at Livorno, Italy, where Emilio Villoresi took the car's first victory.
The 158 has a 1.5-litre straight-8 supercharged engine, which produced around 200 bhp (150 kW) at 7000 rpm with the help of a single-stage Roots blower. After World War II, the engine was developed further to produce 254 bhp (189 kW) in 1946. In 1947, the Alfetta was put back into service, and the engine was modified again to produce over 300 bhp (220 kW) and was denoted as Tipo 158/47. The 159, a further updated version, had a reworked rear suspension, with the old swing axle replaced with a De-Dion axle, and the engine produced around 420 bhp (313 kW) at 9600 rpm.
The Alfa Romeo 158 won every race in which it competed during the 1950 season of Formula One, with talented drivers such as Giuseppe "Nino" Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio. At the end of the 1950 season, the 159 was produced, which was used for the 1951 season. The 159 had a top speed of 305 kilometres per hour (190 mph) and weighed 710 kilograms (1,570 lb). However, the car had extremely poor fuel economy, achieving 1.5 miles per imperial gallon (190 litres per 100 kilometres; 1.2 miles per US gallon). The 1951 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the first Formula One Grand Prix not won by an Alfa, primarily because Fangio and Farina both had to stop twice to refuel their cars.
After an unsuccessful bid by Alfa Romeo to obtain government assistance to meet development costs, the team announced their retirement from Grand Prix racing at the end of 1951. This, combined with problems for other Formula One teams, led to a decree by the FIA that all Grand Prix races counting towards the World Championship of Drivers in 1952 and 1953 would be for cars complying with Formula Two rather than Formula One.
The 158/159 Alfetta remains one of the most successful cars in the history of Formula One, having won every race it entered in 1950 and winning 4 out of 7 races in 1951. The car's legacy is a testament to its exceptional design and engineering, which allowed it to dominate the early years of Formula One.
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