What is it about Italians and sports coupes? Why is their record of such cars so much better than most others, and so much stronger than their record on similarly sized saloons? Is it something in the pasta or the olive oil? Does Parmesan do something to the left side of the brain?
Alfa shows this more strongly than any other manufacturer. The Giulia Junior, Sprint and GT Veloce coupes were arguably the most desirable coupes derived from a saloon of the 1960s and early 1970s; I suggest their appeal has never been matched, but the Alfetta GT got close. Very, very close indeed.
The basis was the Alfetta platform, though cut down in wheelbase by four inches and length by a similar amount. The style, though, was completely different. Whilst the saloon’s style, to my eye at least, was well executed, it was fairly restrained and not shouting “Alfa” at you. The GT was much more striking, with a unique style designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Ital Design, and was one of the best looking, best remembered, most referenced styles of the 1970s.
My goodness, didn’t Giugiaro give value for money? The style was fully contemporary, with links to the Alfa Romeo Montreal, especially around the headlights, and to the Alfasud Sprint, and indeed other Giugiaro designs, such as the first VW Scirocco.
Early cars, from 1973 to 1976, came exclusively with the 1.8 litre engine with 122bhp – not bad for 1974. A 1.6GT came along in 1976 and a GTV 2000 in 1977, shadowing the saloon engines and formats. You sense that the 2 litre was really the least you should have bought, complete with a sound track only Alfa could offer.
There were some characteristics about the GT though. This was a hatchback, but no folding rear seats, so no real benefit. The interior of the GT was different from the saloon as well, not a trait always followed in such derivatives. The original dashboard and fascia was, to use a technical term, bonkers. “Bonkers” as is in only an Italian could pass it for production.
A rev counter directly in front of the driver. Not a bad idea for the image of the car and the ever present temptation to rev it. The other instruments, including such incidentals as the fuel gauge and speedometer, were in a separate binnacle in the centre of the dash, as easily seen by someone sitting in the rear as by the driver. Which is a great shame, as the dials themselves were beautifully styled. Oh, Alfa, only you…. Right hand drive cars had the speedometer in front of the driver, and the rev counter in the central pod.
If you had to work hard to forgive this, you were probably going to be more at home in a Ford Capri, BMW 320, VW Scirocco, Opel Manta or Ford RS2000. But Alfa had a new option coming to change your mind, which brings us to one of the more intriguing parts of Alfa’s recent history.
Is there any one component more important in a motor car than the motor? Does this apply to Alfa Romeo more than any other affordable brand? The Busso twin cam four, which we have seen here, defined the nature of these cars and other Alfas more than anything else. It maybe defined Alfa for 30 or more years. Aside from keeping the guy on the payroll, how do you top that? Ask him to design a V6.
Asking Giuseppe Busso to design an engine was a bit like asking Sir William Lyons to build a sports car. You were going to get a benchmark, that would endure. In 1981, Alfa Romeo installed Busso’s 2.5 litre V6 into the GTV, to create the GTV6 and arguably the most desirable car of its type in the world for many years, before or since. A strong claim, I know, but a credible one.
A new engine from Alfa Romeo was quite an event. Since the Busso’s twin cam four cylinder in 1954, there had only been two – the Alfasud’s flat 4 boxer engine and a six cylinder in line engine that had missed the mark in the early 1960s.
The V6 came with some solutions that differed from the norm, or what might have expected. It had push rod that exhaust valves form the overhead camshaft directly over the intake valves, thus there wa a single belt driven overhead cam for each bank of the engine. Power was 158bhp, 162lbft of torque at 4000 rpm, and it took the car to around 130mph.
Aside from the numbers, this is often cited as one of the most charismatic, if flawed, cars of the 1980s. Few people who have owned one will be ambivalent. Many, or most, will be complete believers, even if mall of them at some point will also say “But….”
The GTV6 lasted until 1987, by which time it was carrying too much black plastic cladding and big bumpers for some tastes.
All the V6 cars had a rather bulky bulge on the bonnet, to clear the air cleaner of the V6, which didn’t help visually, but there was a revised interior and (much calmer) dashboard. But without doubt, it was one of the most appealing, characterful, visually attractive (the early cars at least) and downright desirable cars of the 1970s and 1980s.To many, the GTV6 remains an all time great.
The Busso V6 had another, probably original purpose, and this is where we go into one of those diversionary threads that litter any true Alfa Romeo tale.
In 1974, Alfa Romeo had intended to launch a new, large saloon car, sitting above the Alfetta 2000 and the older 2000 Berlina, taking a slot closer to that of the old 2600 saloon, and comparable to perhaps a BMW 2800 or 3000 rather than a 520 or 525.
This is the car that was originally intended to be the natural home of the Busso V6, and truly be Italy’s most prestigious saloon.
To the initial glance, the Alfa Romeo Alfa 6 2.5 (the official name, in fact, or Alfa Sei in Italian) looks like a long Alfetta. Indeed, elements of the Alfetta were shared, such as the doors and parts of the centre section, but mechanically there were significant differences and it was officially named Tipo 119, rather than Tipo 116, as were all the other cars we are looking at today.
The wheelbase was 4 inches longer, mostly ahead of the front bulkhead , and there was the V6 obviously, but a front mounted gearbox, supplied by ZF as Alfa’s gearbox was not going to cope with the torque, although the shift was no better than the Alfetta’s. There was an automatic option, again from ZF, with three speeds and which was the only option in several markets, including the UK. Suspension was by the familiar torsion bars and wishbones at the front, and de Dion and coil springs at the rear with inboard rear discs. Initially, the V6 was fitted with six Dell’Orto carburettors, and Alfa dealers reportedly kept a network of specialist tuners in business, setting them up.
The styling of the 6 was not comfortable. The use of the Alfetta doors dictated a relatively short centre section and glasshouse; the chosen Alfa style suggested the rather blocky front and rear ends, and the long overhangs didn’t help either. The delay from 1974 to 1979 added to the appearance issues, as fashion moved to the wedge format in that time, whilst the Peugeot 604 did the regular saloon (and evolution from the smaller 504) so much more elegantly and the Rover 3500 (SD1), Citroen CX and Lancia Gamma showed the options that that this part of the market would accept. Visually, it looked at least five years behind in 1979, and a bit gawky with it. By one count, the managing director’s chair at Alfa Romeo had changed occupant six times during its gestation.
But one thing the Peugeot or Rover could not offer, and nor could anything else, such as Citroen CX, Lancia Gamma, BMW 728, Volvo 264 or Mercedes-Benz 280, was the Busso V6 engine. This was the first saloon car airing of what many have considered the best V6 engine ever used in a saloon car, even if the car was not actually that fast. 0-60 was around 11 seconds, so this was a fast car, not a very fast car – significantly slower than a BMW 528 or Rover 3500 for example.
The interior was different, but with many style similarities, to the Alfetta. Similar instruments, running round clockwise from different points, but with needles pointing to each other at three o’clock and nine o’clock when cruising. It was fully equipped for the time, with electric windows, one electric mirror and optional air conditioning, and generous fabric upholstery and trim.
The car was facelifted in 1983, by Bertone. Big rectangular headlamps, bigger rear lights, revised vents and a revised interior. To the relief of Alfa service agents, the six carburettors were replaced by fuel injection. Sales responded…no, not really.
The reviews were not as positive as you’d hope for a 6 cylinder Busso engined Alfa. It seems that the car failed to many things as well you’d hope an Alfa (especially one with a development period that long) would, and the Alfa eccentricities were still there and even the Busso engine could not compensate. A road test in an enthusiasts” publication subtitled “Some redeeming features” says a lot.
The car died in 1986, having sold just 12,000 copies; some reports say less than 7,000. Just 128 were imported in to the UK. Seven were shipped to the US, and scrapped at the docks by the importer, who judged them “unsellable”. There was a 2 litre version of the V6 for the tax conscious in Italy, and even an outsourced diesel.
If you want a comparison for the Alfa 6, you could suggest the Austin 3 litre. A longer derivative of a mid market car, with a bigger, six cylinder engine, lofty ambitions and trimmed to match but with few real advantages.
But at least the Alfa outsold the Austin….and it had the Busso V6. Forgotten…may be not but easily overlooked.
By the time the 6 was retired, the Alfetta was long in the tooth too, and the Giulietta was approaching its maturity too. Both had been facelifted extensively, with plastic cladding playing fairly significant roles in both cars. But Alfa had a plan.
The 75 over here was the Milano, and the 3.0 was the Verde (due to the green cloverleaf badge on the back) which was the cream of the crop and becoming a modern classic. As you rightly observe, it was an impressive machine with one of the all-time great engines. The lesser Milanos all still had the 2.5 V6 and were available in Silver, Gold, and Platinum named trims if memory serves. No four cylinders for us, gas was too cheap.
I looked at Milanos several times in my car-buying “career” and still regret not pulling the trigger at least once. I found the styling to be interesting and appealing, the different-ness inside and out itself being much of the appeal but also of course the low nose, high tail wedge stance.
Roger, this was a fantastic journey through this part of the Alfa range, and I’ve learned much I didn’t know about many of the cars that were never available here. The 90 looks a LOT like the E28 BMW from the low curbside angle shot of the brown car but much less so from a higher perspective. Some of the wacky interiors are absolutely charming and interesting and amazing that they made it to production in an ever increasingly homogenized world. While Alfas to this day remain exquisitely sporting machinery, but also as always are available in more pedestrian formats elsewhere, they definitely still retain character, sometimes frustrating, sometimes wild, but always marching to the beat of their own drum.
Thankfully it’s a holiday weekend here, and I plan to use part of it to re-read and enjoy many of the magazine reviews you included here.
Wow.The British “BMW” .the Truimph was dearer than the real one!. Audi was crazy ,crazy money.
We complain about new car prices today but just 3 years before this road test £5000 would have brought you the top of the range English Ford , the Granada 3.0 Ghia Auto not a mid range Cortina . The 1977 Cortina was just £2100!.
Quite the epic Alfa saga! Like Jim, there were details that had become lost in my memory banks, or were new to me.
I have decidedly mixed feelings about this generation of Alfa sedans. The original Alfetta is very appealing, but seeing those same out of date doors and certain other aspects of that rather crude boxy greenhouse all the way well into the 90s was disappointing. The Tipo 6 goes well beyond that word. Embarrassing.
But there’s a lot to like too, and a 75 with the 3.0 V6 undoubtedly would be a blast.
Thank you, Roger, for a brilliant read on an enchanting range of cars. The Alfetta range is indeed fascinating – fascinating and frustrating at the same time. They are Alfas through and through.
There are so many facets of these cars that leave me bewildered. They are brimming with unconventional solutions, that in most other companies, would never see the light of day.
Take for instance, the DeDion & rear transaxle setup. While undoubtedly brilliant in terms of weight distribution and minimizing the effects of unsprung mass, why this was deemed a prudent solution in a mass market sedan where space is at a premium, defies explanation. Perhaps standards were different once, but these cars were not exactly roomy for their size. Other saloons that employed a DeDion rear – most notably the Rover P6, suffered from similar packaging deficiencies. It’s hard not to question the functional benefits here, especially when considering that the live axles cars that the Alfetta effectively replaced were not lacking in handling prowess.
Another missed opportunity appears to be lack of a hatchback in the Giuletta variant. Though the styling motifs help to distinguish between the Alfetta and Giuletta, Alfa failed to fully exploit the abridged Kammback tail of the latter, which is perfectly shaped to accommodate a fifth door. Having a hatchback in the range would have gone quite aways in justifying two distinct variants of essentially the same car. It appears Alfa recognized as such, and fixed this with the 75 & 90.
One last thought. Whenever the Alfetta is brought up, I can’t help but think of the one used as a prop in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. For those who have forgotten, the Alfetta makes a brief cameo appearance as Cameron’s ride, his character brilliantly played by Alan Ruck. The movie never mentions the Alfa by name – the only reference made is when Ferris brands it ‘a shitbox’. But as a prop, it’s inclusion is nothing short of brilliant. It’s the exact type of car a wealthy, car-crazed father would buy for a neglected teenage son.
Completely agree with your comments, Eric. I think the Giulietta with a fifth door would have previewed the early Saab 9000. Their dimensions and styling were quite similar.
Any mention of the Alfetta also brings me back to that early scene in Ferris Beueler’s Day Off with Cameron sitting in his example urging himself to leave the house. I’d be stoked if my daughter’s first car would be an Alfa but that’s unlikely in this day and age.
thank you
Thanks so much, Roger, for the extensive survey of Alfa Romeo saloon cars during the 1970s and 1980s! It was murky to me why would Alfa Romeo have three or four different models based on same chassis and how different they were from each other. This article really clears up a lot for me.
I was very familiar with Alfa Romeo due to my family owning the 1971 1750A Berlina for a number of years. My parents almost considered replacing our 1750A Berlina with either Alfetta or VW Jetta in the late 1970s. They decided against it due to my brother needing a car for driving to the high school and after school job. When it was my turn at 16, my parents gave me the 1750A with a stipulation that I was to maintain the car at my own expense.
Road & Track did a road test of Alfetta with automatic gearbox in the 1979 or 1980. The magazine complained about Alfetta’s baulky automatic gearbox. My experience with 1750A was that adding one more gear would be a strong improvement.
What an enjoyable read. Great post Roger, thanks!
What a great piece. I wrote up a CC on it some years ago but it was nowhere near as thorough as this one. The 75 is one of my favorite cars. I had a 2.0 TS and it was utterly glorious, but…
My conclusion was then as now that they should just not be your primary car. Mine was and it was frustrating.
I dream daily of a 75 3.0 as a second car.
The car out in the garage is my fifth Alfa and second Milano. I’ve seldom had any complaints about the ergonomics, finding the car easy to drive for hours at a time, in common with most of my Alfas. At the moment it’s on a long sabbatical because it needs a whole lot of refurbishing, and it’s been on a non-op status for almost a year now. Great timing, since my favorite shop is under new ownership and – surprise! – doubled hourly rates, but it’s also a much cleaner and better organized one. The former shop boss is however the current one, and he’s the guy who knows how to get better emissions numbers out of that V6 than the best I’ve gotten for my 18-year younger Subaru Forester!
I see other cars I’d love to have on this and other car-centric news and auction sites, and if I found a good older Alfa sedan I could afford I might go for it. As for the current ones, my wife has a ’17 Giulia she loves, and when we get back into long trips I’ll be driving it and enjoying the experience … except in urban traffic. That’s the car with ergonomic problems, starting with not being able to see the car’s boundaries.
It was back in 1986. My car then (Renault 18i) was getting long in the tooth. The wife had gone to bed and I was reading a news magazine. I turned the page and there it was, a two page spread advertising the new ALFA Milano sedan. Once I saw the price (reasonable) I took the ad, and presented it to the wife saying here’s my next car. She liked it too. After a bit of a wait we were driving the first one delivered in PDX. Of course it was red.
Polarizing looks? Sure, but I loved it. Ergonomics? The window switches on the ceiling reminded me of an old Avanti. And just to prove she was an ALFA the oil pressure sender was defective, showing 0 psi.
The perennial question from others was Who makes that? Just part of the fun. The handling was best described in two words “Yes Boss”. The engine was a work of art. Never mind the leaky cam belt tensioner, water pump, and short lived belt. I was driving an ALFA, my dream car, and all was good.
Until one day I was out on a country road when around the corner came some kid in a Datsun. He fishtailed out one way, corrected, then fishtailed the other way, caught some air (so I’m told) and hit me in an offset front end collision.
You know, time really does seem to slow down. The car was a mess, the front collapsed and the cabin had good for the time integrity. I ended up loosing my spleen, breaking five ribs (probably from being restrained by the seat belt – still better than going through the windshield). Ten days in the hospital, but I had a full recovery.
My lawyer had gone to school with the local ALFA dealer, and I had a good relationship with the shop, so they just took another one and parked it aside for when I was ready. I think it was the salesman easiest sale ever. He took us out to lunch!
That began my relationship with ALFAs. I totaled another when I T-boned a stop sign runner. Got rear ended twice sitting stopped at red lights. Picked up a lightly used 164, and drove ’em until they had left the US market and parts became a problem.
The wife and I now drive electric, but will always smile and remember when we were driving real sports sedans.
Alfas…. I’be owned five myself, although all Spiders. My current is a lovely 1971 Spider.
This is just something hard to explain about why they’re such a pleasure. Certainly they are not perfect, but perhaps that’s part of the allure…. They’re just so damn nice, except for… (X)
And so you get sucked in Always Looking For Another
You know the next one will be perfect; you get it and it almost is, expect for (X) but you love it anyhow….
There´s so much to say about these cars. What isn´t often mentioned is the incredible seating. I´ve sat in the Alfa 75, the Alfetta and also the Giulia and Giulietta. Another time I got to try a 2000 Berline. All of them have the most cossetting and supportive seats which make the most of the small size of the cars. No, they aren´t roomy but you feel so comfortable and well-positioned in these cars. They really knew what the were doing with the upholstery, the geometry and the foam fillers. Plus the seats looked great. The meaning of this that you feel well-situated in relation to the car which feels like an extension of you rather than a shell and perch inside it. It´s quite a remarkable achievement.
Small note: An Alfa 6 did make it passed the docks. I saw one near an Alfa dealer in 87 or 88 just south of Phil’s. Airport.
Typical excellence, Mr Carr, both in relaying not just the wherefore but also the why.
Do you notice that every single road test of this chassis from ’72 to the last 3 litre 75 says the same things? The gearchange is less than ideal: the steering seems a bit slow: it understeers a bit much: the driving position is a bit off: it’s not too roomy. I do like the collective interestingness of all these cars, but I’ll be cold – the faults should really not have been these from the beginning if the engineering was said to be so good, and without question, all should have been fixed as time went on. In this country, these were always expensive cars, and again, I’ll be mean: the visual (and plastic-related) build quality of the ’80’s and ’90’s Alfetta versions could not be taken seriously. Anecdotally, the actual build quality (short-life timing belts, leaks, electrical fritzes, etc) was not about to worry Stuttgart either.
That V6, though! It meets every single over-cooked claim of the most rabid Alfisiti. It’s quite possible one could endure the rest of Alfetta-dom just to use it in a RWD chassis, so good does it sound. And it has a delicious name for being one of those engines where you can loaf using 2,000rpm, speed using 4,000 and get arrested at 6,000, your choice, all of them good. Even today, an engine that’s a delight to use at any speed is rare, and I can’t think of one that sounds as good. Pavorotti? The Six Tenors, more like.
One last comment about the possibilities of the Alfetta set-up. In Oz, at Mt Panorama, Bathurst, the World F1 Champion Alan jones raced 2.5 V6 GTV’s against the local 5 and 5.8 litre cars, and highly-turboed Nissans. Incredibly, the little car was frequently close not to class victories but to outright wins. Sure, a great driver,but despite the roadtester’s lamentations, there’s no doubt that that basic chassis could be set up to do very good things.
Anyway, the sound, as it did so, ah, that was from the gods.
The Alfa also won the BTCC in the hands of the legendary Andy Rouse. But only after Rover were kicked out.
On BL could win a title, only to have it fall off.
Interesting to contrast that with Gavin Green´s breathless praise of the 75 in Car Magazine in 1986. On the plus side, it´s a finely written article with geat photography. On the downside, the report is a stack of misrepresentations if the car was merely a sloppy gearchange, slow steering, understeer and iffy build.
I could never get past the odd upward kink at the tail. I wish that I had, in my youth, a less practical approach to new cars, at least in my single years. But that German vibe appealed to me because I was going to keep my first car forever. Alas, that lasted about 2 years. The 85 GTI was fun, but there was some really sensuous stuff out at the time that I passed over.
A wonderful romp through Alfaland, sir.
Thank you, Roger! In 1986 I decided it was time for my first new car, after a used Fiat 124 sedan, and an 1975 Opel Sportwagon. The Milano had just arrived in California, so I took one for a test drive. Remember being surprised that the salesman did not come along, one reason it was a memorable drive. I was very tempted, but noted the small trunk and lack of folding rear seats, plus concerns about reliability, parts/service. Those practical considerations led me to a VW GTI. But just 3 years later I did acquire a 1979 Alfa Spider for a fun car, which I enjoyed for about 5 years, until moving to Canada curtailed its useful driving season.
When the Milano came out, it looked to me like an alternate-universe Mk2 Jetta.
Late to the comments here, Roger, but thanks for an incredibly deep dive into these cars. As the (brief) owner of a 1975 Alfetta Berlina, in a dark blue that I don’t think was commonly pictured, I’d say it was a flawed car with some very good points. On the other hand, despite obviously being a four door sedan, it was pretty much as sporting as my 1974 Spider, and far more practical. As one who came of age in the 105/115 Guilia and GTV era, the increasing use of plastic trim and cladding in the later Alfa’s unfortunately turned me off the newer cars, and in hindsight they don’t look any better than Pontiac’s Aztek or Chevy’s Avalanche. Sad. I recently saw my first 4C Spider and it was quite nice.
I had a chance to sit in an Alfetta Berlina. AR really had a hard time getting injection moulding to work for them. The dashboard is not remotely as well done as something from … well, most other manufacturers Opel and Ford were able to do it, it wasn´t just a special thing at Mercedes. That said, I didn´t mind the Alfetta´s rather Soviet IP. Sitting inside it felt like being in a really neatly sized car. It was like having a well-cut suit on, or my favourite sports jacket which is (by chance) so well suited to my size that I don´t feel like I even have a jacket on. It moves with me and I expect the Alfetta is a really agile, light-feeling car.
Beautiful cars when new. Fast and luxurious, really something special.
Unfortunately, they didn’t last much longer than about 5 years in our climate.
The parents of a friend of mine owned a scrapyard and in the early-mid 80’s you would generally find a row of completely rusted out 3-6 year old Alfas there (the Alfasud was the most notorious ruster). Those cars usually had large rust holes everywhere, even in the strangest places (middle of roofs, hoods and doors). Very bad quality steel and virtually no rust proofing. If you see an original unrestored Alfa from this era today, 90% chance it’s a French or Italian import.
As the comments attest, Alfas get inti you. I hope that came through in the post.
Thanks for all the feedback and memories.
Late to this party, but I do have to thank you for this superb post, Roger.
The early cars (Alfettas) looked gorgeous, but didn’t age too well… And I’m not sure why they nearly always looked as if they were sitting too high on their tyres, especially on the back end, kind of like a Citroen 2CV. The design adds to the overall impression.
But those interior shots, oh my! Even the Giulietta has me all flustered.