Start with what the Alfa Romeo P1 is: a 2-seater with 1990 , built from 1923 to 1924, the vintage years, when coachbuilders still shaped most of what was sold. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Giuseppe Merosi.
The story
Alfa Romeo P1 or Alfa Romeo Tipo P1 was the first Grand Prix car made by Alfa Romeo. Produced in 1923, the car had a 2.0 L straight-6 engine and it produced 95 bhp (71 kW) at 5000 rpms. The bore and stroke were 65mm and 100mm, respectively. Three cars were entered in the Italian GP at Monza in 1923, for Antonio Ascari, Giuseppe Campari and Ugo Sivocci.
When Sivocci was practicing for the GP in September 1923 he crashed and was killed. Alfa Romeo withdrew from the competition and development of the car was stopped. In 1924 a new version with Roots-compressor was made and became the P1 Compressore 1924. In 1923 Vittorio Jano was hired to Alfa Romeo to design new car and P2 was born.
What is underneath
The engine is 1990 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 850 kg. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the Alfa Romeo line-up the Alfa Romeo P1 has a clear place: it handed the line to the Alfa Romeo P2. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Renault KJ, the Renault KZ, the Triumph 10/20. Nearby in the Alfa Romeo catalogue sit the A.L.F.A 12 HP and the A.L.F.A 15 HP.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Alfa Romeo P1 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.