Go onto a major car manufacturer website and head for the configurator. Chances are that anything other a fairly default and often very plain colour will now be a chargeable extra. VW charge extra for anything other than off white (sorry, Ascot Grey) on a Polo, Toyota want extra for anything other than a white Corolla and Nissan want a minimum of £250 for any paint on a Qashqai. Alfa Romeo charge more for a Tonale, Giulia or Stelvio that is not red, or Rosso Alfa, and even now, something over half of Alfas are red. But not everyone goes for the same, so, from the UK’s National Alfa Day at the disused but preserved RAF Bicester, let’s take a gentle stroll through the selection of cars that went into the paintshop with a special order tag.
CC has a healthy respect for the Alfasud, such that we need to do it full justice one day as perhaps the best, or at least one of the best, compact saloon cars of its era. This is a 1978 1.3 litre car, known as the 5M, for 5 marce or five gears.
Or perhaps something similar in white?
This is a 1976 Ti, with the 1186cc version of the boxer engine.
How does white work on a Tipo 105 Spider? With the black interior, it perhaps holds it own with the Rosso Alfa car next to it.
This is a 1967 1.6 litre Spider, with the earlier boat tail and a striking dark red interior.
A 1979 Spider 2000, in black with a classic tan interior. I still find it hard to compute that cars like this are probably worth no more than a contemporary MGB roadster on the UK market.
Green or red? Kamm tail or boat tail? One of each?
Zoe yellow was a popular choice for those looking to diverge from Rosso Alfa on a Tipo 916 Spider. Safety in numbers in case the paint police came?
This is a 1955 Giulietta Sprint, fitted with a later 1.6 litre engine and what the Government calls “blue” paint.
Bertone at their best? Discuss.
We cannot ignore Tipo 105 Giulia Sprint coupes. You just can’t. Bertone and Giugiaro at their best?
And together for a compare and contrast.
Based on the Giulia Sprint, but with a very different engine and body, was the Alfa Romeo Montreal.
This is a 1974 car, in a very striking green.
So striking and memorable that this colour is still available now on the new Tonale, and is named Montreal Green.
Concept car for the road? Well, almost.
The Giulia Sprint was a derivative of the Giulia saloon – this is a 1.3 litre example, somehow registered as built in 2002.
It is a 1970-72 (I think) Giulia Super 1300.
The Giulia was allowed to evolve into the 1968 1750 Berlina – a stretch in wheelbase and a reskin removing many of the character lines of the Giulia. The engine grew to that evocative (to Alfisti at least) size of 1779cc.
Later cars went to a full 2 litres as the 2000; both engines served the later Alfetta, 75 Milano and Giulietta well too.
Now, something quite different – a 1956 Alfa Romeo 1900 saloon.
First introduced in 1950, this was Alfa’s first monocoque construction car and its first production line built car – perhaps the first modern era Alfa. Also in the mix were twin overhead camshafts
Styling was in house by Orazio Puliga, and whilst fully contemporary was clearly Alfa with the clear scudetto.
There’s almost a touch of Volvo 121 Amazon about the rear quarter.
The 1900 was also the first left hand drive Alfa.
And another large saloon – a 1984 Alfa Romeo Alfa 6 2.0.
The Alfa 6 was a (slightly distant) derivative of the Alfetta, but lacked the rear transaxle and added the glorious Busso V6. This example is an Italian market 2 litre version, rather than the 2.5 litre offered everywhere else, designed to avoid taxation limits.
Quite a find – there are only 6 Alfa 6 registered in the UK and only one currently on the road.
And, finally something not only not red but perhaps not a real Alfa to many – an Alfa Romeo Arna. The Arna was a joint venture between Alfa and Nissan, and was effectively an Alfasud drive train in the body of a contemporary Nissan Cherry (N12 series Pulsar), built in the Alfasud factory near Naples.
It was also offered as the Nissan Cherry Europe, which fared little better. Just to prove there’s never been a dull moment in Alfa’s history.
Tipo Spyder came in pale blue metallic like my cousins example actually anything but resale red looks nice.
I will never understand the mindset of the designer who hacked the beautiful butt off the Spider and said “There, that looks much better!”
Well, for what it’s worth I liked the Kamm tail as soon as I saw it, having never liked the boat tail especially when compared to the Giulia coupe. But over the last few years, perhaps influenced by CC, I have come to appreciate the original. And either in chrome bumper form is hugely better than the spoilered and rubber-clad final versions.
Yes, it seemed much more modern at the time and kept the design competitive. It doesn’t matter now, of course. They both look good in their own way.
I’ve never seen most of these cars in person. Imagine, an Alfa with a column gearshift!
Early Giulias came with a column shift and bench seat.
Agreed.
Oh my! So much to see and love, it’s like being in a candy store (unlike the “tutti rosso” post, which was like being in the ketchup aisle).
My pick of the litter would be the black 1900 berlina, if for no other reason than it’s the most significant car in Alfa’s post-war history. They managed to pull off what the French blue-bloods (Delahaye, Hotchkiss, Talbot…) failed to do in those crucial years and evolve from a chassis-making operation to a true mass-market carmaker.
Kudos to Alfa (and a handful of others, such as R-R in the UK) for knowing when to evolve. And thank you, Roger, for giving us all this eye candy!
Ketchup aisle! ROFL!
What a lovely variety of colours. I especially like the blues, greens and blue-greens. Is the gold on those 916 Spiders a matt finish? despite the sunny day, I don’t see any shine on them. Odd.
To me, the rear roofline and slope of the trunk (but not the rear fenders) of the 1900 looks rather like dear old Auntie Rover (ducks for cover). Yeah, I know it’s the period style, but the Rover immediately came to mind. 🙂
Depends what you were brought up with. I get Peugeot 403 vibes from that 1900… But it’s both more interesting to look at than the 403 and prettier than the somewhat staid and fussy Auntie.
The Zoe yellow is very yellow, and not gold, and not a matt finish. The very bright and high sun on the day and dried up grass was doing some odd things to colours in some shots.
It’s actually pretty close to the yellow you might have on your Dino 246
There is something about the Alfasud that immediately appealed to me when I saw many of them on the streets of Milan in 1984. My rental was an awful Fiat Uno 1100, that leaked when it rained and could not keep up with traffic on the Autostrade.
I always loved the look of the Alfasud and as I recall, they were supposed to be a joy to drive. Of course, the flipside of the Alfasud reputation was that they were the most rot-prone car ever made. If you ever saw one in the 80s, the bodywork was in absolute tatters, and they sadly disappeared from the roads in very short order.