Alfa Romeo 1750 Berlinetta

Alfa Romeo 1750 Berlinetta was a prototype conceived for Alfa Romeo Centro Stile as a proposed successor to the Alfa Romeo Giulia GT. It used the mechanics of the new 1750 model beneath a new berlinetta body. SIRP built the prototype as its first design project. Giorgetto Giugiaro founded SIRP, which later evolved into Italdesign. The project combined Alfa Romeo’s new 1750 mechanical basis with a body proposal prepared for the company’s design centre.

The Berlinetta followed the Giulia GT in the development brief, but it remained a prototype rather than a production model. SIRP developed the car for Alfa Romeo Centro Stile, with the 1750 mechanical package forming its technical basis. Giugiaro’s new firm therefore undertook an Alfa Romeo design commission at the beginning of its history, before SIRP developed into Italdesign. The car was intended to bring a new body design to the 1750 model’s mechanical platform.

Only one prototype was produced. It was not shown at public exhibitions, and Alfa Romeo did not place the design into series production. The prototype was considered too advanced for production at the time. Its history remained tied to the Centro Stile proposal, the 1750 mechanical basis and the single completed example, rather than to a production programme. The car did not become the production successor to the Giulia GT envisaged by the original proposal.

Six years after the Berlinetta project, Alfa Romeo introduced the Alfetta GT in 1974. The Alfetta GT used design cues and concepts developed for the prototype. It brought ideas explored by the earlier SIRP project into a later Alfa Romeo production model. Subsequent models also drew inspiration from the design concepts developed for the Berlinetta. The prototype remained the sole completed example of the Alfa Romeo 1750 Berlinetta.

SIRP’s work on the prototype preceded its evolution into Italdesign. Giorgetto Giugiaro founded the company that carried out the Berlinetta project, while Alfa Romeo Centro Stile provided the commission. The car’s proposed role was defined by the Giulia GT succession brief and the new 1750 mechanical package. No further Berlinetta examples were produced beyond the single prototype.