Category Archives: Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Gold

When considering Milanos for purchase, it would be a mistake to consider only the 3.0L Verde, when in reality its performance benefits over the rest of the range are modest. The Silver model is best for those seeking a car with the fewest standard features for a cool spartan feel. The Platinum is the only model aside from the Verde to feature an LSD, but includes the sometimes-problematic ABS system, as well as the leather / suede seats that do not usually age well. If you can live without the LSD, or would be open to swapping in an LSD transaxle yourself, the Gold has the excellent cloth seats and most of the electronic features of a Platinum, but uses a non-ABS braking system, which seems to be more robust.

This Milano Gold features Verde phone dial wheels and an Ansa exhaust, but seems stock otherwise. At just under 50k miles, it is one of the lower mile Milanos we've seen recently, and the asking price reflects that. With proper care, it is possible to preserve the current excellent condition, so we wouldn't worry too much about packing miles onto this one.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

2003 Alfa Romeo 156 GTA Selespeed

In theory, a vehicle like a BMW M3 should be very capable of managing the commute during the week while proving very capable on the track on weekends. The Nürburgring is littered with M3s driven down from England for that reason. We think that the Alfa Romeo 156 GTA, which saw itself lumped with cars like the BMW M3, aimed for something different. Its purpose was to emphasize the look and feel of something like a BMW M3 in a way that made for a more remarkable experience on the road, leaving plenty of on-track performance on the table.

Starting with the handsome 156, Alfa Romeo added 17" wheels, a lower suspension, and aggressive bodywork to get to GTA form. The engine is the 3.2L variant of the Busso V6 - the last to be produced in the Arese plant, not far from where this example is offered for sale. Suspension tuning is altered, with revised sway bars, springs and shocks. Like most in the 156 range, the front wheels are driven, and that limits the track appeal for many.

Our favorite detail on this example is the Selespeed automated manual transmission. While we have trouble warming up to any automatic, the automated manual has some allure. The Ferrari F1 systems, introduced on the F355, offered a way to experience F1 technology in a road car, clunky though they were; the Selespeed system offered up that Ferrari and F1 experience in a humble Alfa Romeo.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

1994 Alfa Romeo 33

We've heard a couple of harsh descriptions of the styling of our Alfa Romeo Milano from creative observers. The best - and sadly, most accurate - is probably "VW Jetta that has been rear-ended". Key on a Milano, though, and the design doesn't seem to have as much bearing on the experience as the sweet Busso V6 sound does.

We love the styling on the Milano, and are fans of Ermanno Cressoni's work on the Alfa Romeo 33 as well. That said, we can't imagine that most people align with us on the 33, so we are left wondering: how did the 33 win over so many people? Affordability is probably key here, but we've heard that the handling on the 33 is very entertaining. We have to wonder about that, because despite the low position of the engine, it does seem to lie entirely in front of the front axle - not ideal for directional changes.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo, Forbidden Fruit Fridays, Pininfarina

1992 Alfa Romeo 33 Sport wagon

Forbidden Fruit Fridays

While today the boxer 4-cylinder is the specialty of Subaru Imprezas and Porsche Boxters (heh), and most famously, it powered the Volkswagen Beetle throughout its long lifecycle, Alfa Romeo is also known for its experience with the engine configuration. Alfa Romeo got its start mass-producing the boxer engine with its Alfasud models, which were produced in Naples. The Alfasuds were succeeded by the 33, which went on to sell over one million examples. Today's Alfa Romeo 33 Sport Wagon, from the second restyling of the 33 model line, is a mundane but well-kept offering from the 33 range.

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Alfa Romeo, Bertone, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

1988 Alfa Romeo Milano with 67 GTV Body

"The best of both worlds," the seller states, referring to the combination of the torsion beam independent suspension front, DeDion axle rear transaxle chassis. We don't disagree, but we ourselves haven't chopped a GTV in half either.

We've seen a number of Alfetta GTVs - and the cooler Alfetta Sport Sedans - with Milano Verde 3.0L Busso V6 swaps. Those always seemed wild to us, merging the era of the early transaxle cars with the later V6 offering. Today's Milano skips a few steps and decades in its combination of the seller's favorite Alfa Romeo offerings. A shower thought before, presently a reality.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Fiat, Zagato

1992 Alfa Romeo SZ

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We have trouble keeping track of the various models, but it seems that Zagato has had a hand in a number of rare machines over the years. The examples that stick out to us are the various Aston Martin Zagatos, the Alfa Junior Zagato, Alfa 2600 Zagato, and the Lancia Sport Zagato. Then, of course, there is the Alfa Romeo SZ and RZ.

While Zagato played a role in building the SZ, the vehicle was actually styled in a joint effort between Zagato, Fiat, and Alfa. Utilizing CAD software and Fiat's wind tunnel, the team achieved an impressive 0.30 Cd, which led to a top speed of 152mph when all (or most) of the Busso V6's 210bhp were invited to the party.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

2001 Alfa Romeo 166

We've been flooding the readers with Alfa Romeo sedans lately, so we'll let the flood continue with this flood / water damage title 2001 Alfa Romeo 166. When Alfa Romeo departed the US market, US customers were due for a successor to the 1991-1995 Alfa Romeo 164. Had things turned out differently, this is what we would have received.

When it comes to Alfa sedans, we like to think of the Milano as essentially a 1970s car with a lot of plastic attached to it to pass for an 80s car. Take a look underneath a Milano, and you can see that the component assemblies were not very well-integrated. If you take a look underneath a 164, you'll see an increase in complexity and a number of improvements in the name of reducing variation between vehicles. Looking at the 166, we see the current age of automotive assembly - most of the fluid and electrical connectors, the minor clips and the formed routings all look like they could be from a car today.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

1987 Alfa Romeo Milano Platinum

When it comes to Alfa Romeo Milanos, the masses - i.e. those who do not count themselves among the Alfisti - generally remember the model by its kinked up belt line and Alfa V6. A few might be familiar with the torsion bar front and DeDion rear suspension setup, and the rear transaxle with inboard rear brakes. And some may even know the Verde model to be the top of the range.

Today's Alfa Romeo Milano Platinum sits right below the Verde in the Milano model range. I might disappoint the AlfaBB with my description here, but I believe that the Platinum is basically a Verde as far as options go, though mechanically there are some changes. The Platinums have smaller diameter torsion bars and sway bars, and forgo the 3.0L V6 in favor of the classic 2.5L. The transaxle is a 4.10 final drive in place of a 3.55 in the Verde, but the Platinum is the only Milano model, outside of the Verde, that offered a limited slip differential.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde

We know this car well. After posting on the AlfaBB about the mechanical work we had done on our personal hot-rodded Milano Verde, we got a call from a Lancia enthusiast who wanted to see the same level of sorting - minus the performance upgrades - performed on his Verde. He had purchased a Milano Verde in the hopes that the alloy V6 and DeDion rear suspension would remind him of his prized Aurelia. After spending a year enjoying the results of our work on the car, he's decided to downsize, but not due to any fault of the Milano platform - word is, with a relatively small garage, the Milano doesn't play well with its Lancia Appia stablemate, and the current owner needs to remedy the tight packing.

This car is from Chicago, so any hopes of dry, California provenance are immediately squashed. And yet, as the owner of a dry, California Milano, I am personally very tempted - but prevented by all limitations imaginable - to buy this very car. See, after the owner spent $15,000 in maintenance, over $9,000 of which went to parts alone, the car is absolutely sorted. It's even been accused of having a Germanic competence completely unexpected in an Italian sedan. Having driven this thing from Chicago to Detroit in order to prepare it for sale, I would tend to agree with that assessment.

Rust, for the most part, has been remedied. The spare tire well, wheel arches, and driver front jack point were all professionally repaired with fresh metal by the same man who did the bodywork on Ralph Gilles' personal Giulia GTV-R (the R is for Ralph). The surface rust under the trunk was all wire-wheeled and treated with POR-15 before being undercoated. You will find minor rust in the the passenger door arch and underneath the passenger taillight - typical Milano spots - but overall the car rust is under control and the car is in no danger of rotting away.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo, Pininfarina

1995 Alfa Romeo GTV

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We first saw a modern Alfa Romeo GTV in 2006, which was right at the conclusion of a period of daring designs from many of the European brands. Citroen was offering the wild C6 sedan, Fiat had offered the Barchetta and Multipla, and the Smart Roadsters were common on European streets.

In the mid-2000s, designers got around to taming these more radical designs, slicing creases into the smooth bodywork to bring them up to date. The GTV became the Brera, and though that car has a number of satisfying details, we have to award the GTV the prize for chutzpah. A favorite detail of ours is the fact that when the hood is lifted, the headlamps are revealed to be contained within a single housing that the hood had previously separated. The Kamm tail with a 164-style light strip and the sharp body line from front to rear are equally strong styling statements.

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