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The biography of Elvira Ruocco
(by Elvira Ruocco)
Chapter 5
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The last day at the Portello
That morning of the
February 8, 1974, my last working day at the Portello site, was
very sad. I knew I was leaving an environment that had nearly
become like a second family.
I would have been no longer able to make my “raids” to nose
into the workshop and ask questions to my colleagues to know
more on a particular car or on an engine revving at the dyno.
I would have missed their little attentions, like to find a
chocolate on my desk in the morning, or the passage at the
Bullona bus stop when, in order to complete an urgent work, I
stayed overtime.
Giuseppe Busso with the 33
In that period, everybody was often talking about the 33 Sport
Prototipi, whose studies were initiated in Alfa Romeo during
dawn 1964 by the team of Giuseppe Busso and carried on by
Autodelta. In Alfa Romeo there was a great revival of interest
for the sport activities, such that it was completed in 1972 the
building, started ten years before, of an experimental track in
Balocco (in the Vercelli county), aimed at executing tests on
either production and racing cars.
I remember that the beginnings of the 33, although promising,
were not winning, as in 1972 in the middle of the season, Alfa
withdrew from the competitions because of the supremacy of the
Ferrari squadron, which won ten out of ten races, but it made up
in the following years in a crescendo which was worth of the
conquest of the World Championship for Makes in 1975 with the 33
TT12, with seven victories out of eight races, and in 1977 with
the 33 SC12, which dominated each of the eight races valid for
the Championship.
During that year just begun, may things would have happened in
Alfa. In addition to the Luraghi’s leaving and to the Orazio
Satta’s death occurred in march, new models were presented in
june: the Giulia Nuova Super in the 1.3 and 1.6 cubic capacity,
the GT Junior and the Spider, both in the 1.3 and 1.6 versions,
and the Alfetta GT 1.8. On the April 25th, three 33s ranked at
the first three places at the 1000 km of Monza.
The Alfa won several national championships and, for fifth
consecutive times, the King’s Cup. The Alfasud was appointed
car of the year in Scandinavia.
My sons in front of our Alfasud
But let us come back to my last working day at Portello. Since
the morning, there had been people coming and going in the
office inviting me to drink the last coffee together and asking
me news about the new job which I would have had to carry on in
Arese. To tell the truth, I knew a little, and it did not either
matter a lot, I felt that nothing could have been so interesting
and stimulating as the time passed at the Portello, that was
flown away.
I did ask that transfer since I used to come home too late in
the evening. I arrived to the Saronno station at 6:45 pm and I
also had to walk for half a long hour before I reached it. I
used to find my two children tired and nervous after a whole day
spent at the nursery-school; they often fell asleep before
dinner. The well-being of my sons counted more than a satisfying
job.
With this conviction, I put all my things in a small bag and
freed all the drawers of the desk. I knew that I would not have
been replaced soon and, thus, I tried to finish the last pending
matters. When the break bell rang, we rushed to have lunch and
then we met in the workshop for a last salute with a toast. I
waited with anxiety for the exit bell and, loaded with small
parcels and souvenirs, consented to the last lift to the train
station. I arrived there on a 1750 Spider Veloce.
To the next!
Elvira Ruocco
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All the multimedia materials and the texts present in this page cannot be reproduced in any way
without the explicit permit of authors and/or owners of the contents. In particular, this applies
with reference to texts and pictures of Ms. Elvira Ruocco
and of the Alfa Romeo Historic Archive
who explicitly authorized the AlfaSport Club for publication.
Translation by Fabio Grandi
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