Superstition becomes super performance ...
The history of the Quadrifoglio dates back to the 1923 Targa Florio, one of the oldest and most famous racing events of all time – a dangerous and thrilling open road endurance race held in the Mountains of Sicily.
Leading up to the 1923 racing season, Ugo Sivocci – an incredibly superstitious driver – was a perennial second-place finisher, more often than not behind one of his Alfa teammates. So going into the Targa Florio race, and in an effort to banish his bad luck, the superstitious Sivocci decided to paint a four-leaf clover on the side of his 1923 Targa Florio RL. Sure enough, in his first race with the green four-leaf clover, or Quadrifoglio, on his car Sivocci won.
However, a few weeks after the Targa Florio victory, Sivocci was testing a new Alfa car at the legendary Monza race track. There had been no time to paint Ugo’s good luck symbol on the car and tragically he crashed and lost his life – and a legend was born.
The four leaf clover on Sivocci’s car was encased in a square box, while all future clovers were encased in a triangle, with the missing point symbolizing the loss of Ugo Sivocci.
From that day forward, the four-leaf clover became the symbol of all Alfa Romeo race cars and later the mark of Alfa’s high performance street vehicles.
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