Goodbye from Alfa Romeo Arese

[MARCANTONIO Sandro Giulio <sandrogiulio.marcantonio@domain.elided>]

Dear Friends and fellow Alfisti,

Today is my last day here at Alfa Romeo as Product Development manager. As
some of you know, I am part of the Fiat Group Fiat Grade program. We rotate
every 18 months, changing company, job title and country. My first job was
with Fiat Auto in Engineering where I spent one year in Suspension Systems
Development and 6 months in Alfa Romeo in Arese in Product Development. My
next placement will be in Valladolid Spain in Iveco in PRODUCTION of the
Turbo Daily Van.

Reading all the posts over the the past year and a half in Italy have made
me smile and also have made me angry. But the anger is only from the
ignorance that some of you have towards Alfa Romeo and Fiat Auto and its
structure in General. This is not your faults but the fault of just not
understanding how things work here in Arese and Italy and Fiat Auto on the
Inside. I have learned how this complex organism works and my findings are
not as complicated as you might think.

Alfa Romeo Arese is a company of people, Italian people. Me being 100%
italian by my parents being Italian Natives I also share this lineage. But,
being born in the U.S I also have the education background to be able to be
subjective about many things in life.  I love Alfa Romeo, in every way
imaginable. I love Alfa more than most other important things in my life. I
have always wondered why I love Alfa Romeo so much. Is it fate, chance, or
does it lie in some underlying feeling that can't be described or imitated
in any other setting.  Being here in Arese, the birthplace of the GT Junior,
Alfa Spider, Alfa 75, Alfa 164, Alfa GTV, I have initiated my formulation
for what Alfa Romeo Really means to me and why it means so much to me.

Alfa Romeo is not special to me because it is owned by an Italian company,
or 20% by an American Company. Alfa Romeo is not special to me because its
cars are built 100% from an italian chassis, or uses 100% italian
components, or 100% Italian designers. It goes deeper than that.

I love Alfa Romeo because of one thing and one thing only... The people of
Alfa Romeo, the people of Alfa Romeo Arese. From the secretaries to the
deliverymen, to the guys in the experimentation department cramming a V6
into a 147, to the product development guys writing up 15 page option lists
to Wolfgang Egger, the Austrian stylist who ooozes more Alfistaness than any
person I have ever met.  In the end I can say that these people are all my
friends, and after 6 monthsh of being here with these amazingly beautiful
people I have learned why my Alfa Milano 75 in America made me feel so good
when I shifted to 3rd to 4th at 120mph on a rural road in Colorado in the
Fall making the fallen leaves burst into happiness and take flight. 
This is what Alfa Romeo is all about... the people. It does not matter where
the platform is, who signs the checks, whose letterhead is on the letters.
As long as Alfa Romeo is here in Arese, our Alfa Romeo Passion is Safe. I
can tell you that the passion here for Alfa is FERVID still today. I have
talked to the engineers that designed the fuel tank for the Alfa Milano USA
Model, a gas tank which later found its way into the 1995 spider and GTV,
that were USA ready from the beginning. I spoke to the engineer who guided
bosch on the 164 stepper motor design, which told Bosch those plastic gears
were junk etc.. I have lived my Alfa Dream here in Arese, I have been on the
V6 factory floor dozens of times, spoken to the workers there, seen the GTA
motors being stacked onto huge pallets. I saw how the rear main seal is not
a gasket anymore, but a t9 loctite silicone sandwhich applied directly into
the area! WOW.

In the end, I know that for me, Alfa Romeo will always be Alfa Romeo, and I
will anxiously await the Alfa Return to the USA in the Future and I hope
that I will be a part of this wonderful organization again, and my sources
say I will be involved.

So, happy motoring. Don't critique the B.S. artist renderings of the new
157, that is not the new 157. The new 157 that I saw is absolutely
beautiful, as are ALL the new Alfa's. GM IS NOT IN THE DESIGN DEPARTMENT,
anybody that says that is a complete RETARD and should be shot on site.

Have a Nice weekend my friends. I will send my new address when I get to
Spain.

FORZA ALFA ROMEO!!! ALFA FOREVER.

Sincerely, your friend in Alfa

Sandro

marcants1977@domain.elided

Sandro Marcantonio 
Business Unit Alfa Romeo
Product Development Manager New Alfa Romeo Spider
Centro Tecnico Arese
V.le Luraghi - 20020 Arese ( Mi ) 
Tel.011-39-02 444 29423
Fax. 011-39-02 935 81221

Ing. Sandro Marcantonio 
Business Unit Alfa Romeo
Marketing Prodotto
Responsabile Modello Alfa Romeo 938
Centro Tecnico Arese
V.le Luraghi - 20020 Arese ( Mi ) 
Tel.02 444 029423
Fax. 02 935 81221
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