Tag Archives: Alfa Romeo

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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Alfa Romeo, Bertone

1972 Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina

The Berlina was introduced in 1968, 6 years into the Giulia's run. It was offered alongside its short-wheelbase sibling until 1977. Mechanically very similar, the Berlina sports more staid styling in comparison to the creases and bulges on the Giulia. All things equal, we'd take a Giulia over a Berlina anyway, but the reality is that a good Berlina fetches far less money than a Gulia in similar shape.

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Alfa Romeo

1972 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super 1.3

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Every once in a while we get to visit a certain group of Alfas that has morphed from a personal fleet into a personal collection lately. Ok, it's a collection of Alfas and a few Dinos - Coupe and Spiders, though those always seem to have an engine out and in some level of rebuilding. With a lot of examples of Alfas to take in, we always gravitate toward the Verde Pino Giulia Super parked close to the garage exit.

The old Alfisti could walk you through the model-year changes among the various Giulia offerings with impressive attention to detail. But, as Milano drivers, we know little of the history surrounding the earlier sedans. Super models featured standard features such as Weber carbs, disc brakes at all four corners, and a sporty steering wheel.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

1987 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde

We watched a vey positive video review of an e30 BMW M3 yesterday, and it got us thinking about how our Milano Verde compares to our past 1991 BMW 318is. The 318is isn't quite an M3, lacking very much in power compared to the real deal, and missing the suspension and chassis modifications. But, as a reasonably powerful e30 with the lighter 4-cylinder, the comparison is somewhat valid.

Compared to the e30, our Verde always feels more special - from the sound, to the steering wheel angle, to the lower quality interior, to the way it rolls in corners (by design) - driving the Milano brings such a sense of occasion. We don't doubt that e30 M3s drive better and are worthy of $40k these days, but it's certainly nice that Milanos and Milano Verdes, which are arguably more fun to drive, are still priced somewhat realistically.

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Alfa Romeo

1997 Alfa Romeo 155

It happens to us all the time - one minute, we are minding our own business on our way in to work, and the next we are being chased down by bad actors, forced off the highway and into a fast-paced pursuit through residential areas. We are about to lose the bad guys when we wash out in a turn as we apply the throttle just a moment too soon - FWD strikes again.

Joking aside, our point is that on most drives, we don't push our car to the point where the driven wheels really matter. We might accelerate at 8/10 while entering the highway, might rev match a couple of unnecessary downshifts, and probably will skip braking on a couple of turns, but we never approach the limits of adhesion on most drives. So, for us, a FWD car is never something to shy away from.

Today's Alfa Romeo 155 brings Fiat development cash in the form of the Tipo-based Type Three Fiat platform. We have never driven one and can't attest to the performance of the platform, but we would imagine that Alfa Romeo chassis engineers optimized what they were given, much in the way that they made the 164 perform like a true Alfa Romeo. The vestigial 2.5L Busso V6 is a bonus here, so while the interior and controls have Fiat written all over them, the soundtrack will be unmistakably Alfa Romeo.

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Alfa Romeo, Italdesign

1977 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GtV

We love type 116 Alfas. Driving them, working on them - all of it. And, we've had our Milano Verde out a little bit lately, enough to notice that the transaxle has been moving up and down too much to apply the throttle smoothly. Thankfully, we had an upper transmission mount sitting on the shelf. With the rear of the car up on jack stands, we were able to quickly drop the transaxle a couple of inches, yank the old mount out with a socket and a 3-arm puller, and hammer the new mount in. The result? A much smoother driveline without the clunks associated with throttle application that we had been experiencing. We are so used to month-long projects that any chance to make a large improvement in 30 minutes is always welcome.

With type 116, or transaxle cars, there is really little that can't be quickly remedied in the garage. What takes more time is rust repair - and this example doesn't need much of that. On an Alfetta, said to be manufactured from a defective alloy of steel, finding a rust-free example is becoming increasingly challenging.

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1988 Alfa Romeo Spider Quadrifoglio

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The Alfa Romeo Spider was getting long in the tooth even before the Mazda Miata crashed the scene in 1989. While the Miata offered a glimpse into the world of 1990s automotive styling, the Series 3 Spider was moored to its mid-60s origins, with little more than bumpers, taillights, and minor bodywork to distinguish it from earlier models. Little surprise, then, that the Miata glided right past the Spider and replaced it in North America.

Today's example comes from the makers of Corsa steel wheels, another fitting ode to the past. In the past 15 years, the clean look of a well-proportioned steel wheel has become just as acceptable to many enthusiasts as the alloy wheels that were offered as upgrades from the factory. A good example of this is the use of Volkswagen Corrado steelies on many MK1 and MK2 Volkswagens. Corsa seems to have decided that this trend will stick around, and offer what seem to be thoughtfully sized steel wheels for a number of cool enthusiast cars. We have no affiliation with the brand whatsoever, but thought that the anochronistic steel wheels fit the throwback Spider theme pretty well.

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Alfa Romeo, Bertone, Gandini

1985 Alfa Romeo 90 2.5i Quadrifoglio Oro

We make a trip to rural Illinois every summer, usually in the Milano Verde or the Maserati, to see our friend Andrew and check in on his German cars. Invariably the Milano and Andrew's 1991 BMW 535i are lined up to see who has the edge on acceleration. Even after building up a hot 3.0L Busso V6 with higher compression pistons, hotter cams, and ported heads, we have failed to keep up with the Bimmer.

Today's Alfa 90, or Novanta, would be a closer competitor to our friend's 5-series in terms of passenger space, but would stand an even worse chance of embarrassing the 5er in a straight line. Clean lines come courtesy of Marcello Gandini at Bertone, and the underpinnings - torsion beam front suspension, rear-mounted transaxle and DeDion rear suspension - are largely shared with the Giulietta, just like in the Milano / 75. The Quadrioglio Oro models like this one share their 2.5L Busso V6 with the Milano too.

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Alfa Romeo, Pininfarina

1959 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider

Alfa Romeo broke into the mainstream with its 1900 offering, which couple a unibody construction and a modern twin cam engine with modern production methods. The resulting sales propped up the brand sales enough to allow for the development of even more affordable options. The resulting car was the Giulietta series, which proved to be the most attainable Alfa Romeo to that point.

Early Giulietta fell into the 750 series, while later examples belonged to the 101 series. The transition came sometime between 1958-1959, and since we are not experts, we'll leave it at that. We can say that this 1959 model can safely be classified as a 101 car due to its small fixed window on the door, which accompanied the longer wheelbase 101 series. The 1300cc engine is also a 101 series unit, with a block-mounted fuel pump and the enlarged camshaft and crankshaft diameters that would allow for larger displacement engine variants down the road.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo, Italdesign

1984 Alfa Romeo GTV-6 3.0L swap

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The North American market never saw a 3.0L V6 version of the Alfa Romeo GTV-6, but across the Atlantic, South African customers were offered the opportunity to purchase one of 212 3.0L GTV-6s which were manufactured in the name of homologation for the racing circuit. That offering was a result of a collaboration between Autodelta and Alfa Romeo South America.

The more common version of the GTV-6 3.0L is made possible by an engine swap from an Alfa Milano Verde, or more commonly, the Alfa 164. In comparison to the South American 3.0L V6, the Verde/164 engine features a slightly longer stroke, coming in at 72.6mm vs. the 72.0mm stroke in the 3.0 SA; cylinder bores are a common 93.0mm. The South African engine made use of 6 single Dell'Orto carburetors, whereas the engine-swapped examples usually feature fuel injection.

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