Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva Coupé

The Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva was intended to be produced in limited volumes for Alfa Romeo’s more sporting clientele, and to be used as a high-speed grand tourer or for racing in the sport class. The car never made it into series production: only four were built, a spider version (also known as Alfa Romeo 1900 Sportiva Spider) and three 2-seat coupés. Both bodies were designed by Franco Scaglione at Bertone. Today a metallic silver coupé and a red spider are part of the Alfa Romeo Museum collection. Some traits of the coupé—such as the wrap-around rear window and rear end treatment—were later seen on the mass-produced Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint, also by Bertone. Like the earlier Disco Volante, the Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva uses a tubular space frame chassis covered by an all-aluminium body, and a front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. Front suspension was by double wishbones, while at the rear there was a De Dion axle. Brakes were diagonally finned drums, the rears mounted inboard. The engine was a dual overhead camshaft 1997.4 cc (bore 85 mm, stroke 88 mm) inline-four, with a cast iron block, aluminium cylinder head, and hemispherical combustion chambers. Fed by two twin-choke side-draft Weber carburettors, it produced 138 PS (101 kW; 136 hp) at 6,500 rpm, giving the car a top speed of 220 km/h (137 mph). The transmission was a 5-speed gearbox.