Auto Italia, 2021, Part 4: The Alfas

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I've already confessed my ignorance of most things Lancia (please see https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2021/05/auto-italia-2021-part-3-lancias.html).  Whilst I don't profess a deep knowledge of Alfas, I was at least able to recognise and name with a fair degree of certainty most of the examples of the marque that I saw at Auto Italia in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, in the early autumn of 2021.


This is a Berlinetta, which is just as well, because berlinetta is Italian for sedan but Alfa Sedan lends no cachet to the model at all.  Neither does four-door, incidentally, which is probably why Maserati sedans go by the far sexier Italianesque moniker of Quattroporte!  Everything sounds better in Italian!  Even Scottish names, apparently.




As far as I can tell, this 105 series is probably a 1300 cc GT Junior.  I'm not sure where it fits within the 105 timeline - whether it's before or after the "step-nose" version -  but to my mind, it's by far the prettier of those two variants.   






It's always tricky writing about sensitive subjects, especially they involve some tragedy or another.  100% of my mates who have owned 16 valve 33s - which is only two, admittedly - have lost them to fire, one of them nearly taking out my brand new work vehicle as burning petrol spewed from its ruptured fuel lines and ran down the gutter, only to be extinguished  metres from a very difficult conversation with my boss.  The demise of the other - the much lamented, self-immolating favourite child of the Alfa Male - can be witnessed here, via the following link: https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2018/04/for-sale-alfa-33qv-no-rust-any-offer-be.html.




There were a lot of hugely desirable Alfas on display at Auto Italia:  numerous 105s, some GTVs, a Duetto, a sublime Montreal and a lovely Giulietta Spyder, to mention but a few.  However, it was this nifty Alfasud Giardinetta that really took my fancy, perhaps because I've never seen the wagon-version in the flesh before but also thanks to it being in such great nick.  It was ostensibly stock, other than wearing a tasty set of alloys and having been fitted with a classy Nardi steering wheel and a set of 147 / 156 type leather bucket seats.














Strange fact but true:  the sedan version of the 105 series - the Giulia, shown here - is supposedly more aerodynamic than its low-slung, sexy A-F GT and GTV siblings.  It doesn't seem possible but, somehow, it is.   



Yep!  This car is not as slippery as the boxy white one shown immediately above.




The GTV and GTV6 is another thing entirely!  Surely the sleek hatch version would have a better drag coefficient than the Giulietta?  You'd think so but maybe not ... .



Could this Giulietta be aerodynamically superior to the GTV6 shown above?  It seems improbable, but as precedent has shown ... . 



Why Alfa dropped the Duetto's svelte "boat tail" in favour of the chopped off cam-back of the subsequent Spyder line is a mystery that only their design team is ever likely to know.  It seems very, very odd to me, not that the later versions aren't nice but, seriously, are their derrieres as gorgeous as this version's?




Nice ar*e!


If you don't think that the Montreal is the most beautiful Alfa ever, please stop reading right now!  You are unworthy of setting eyes upon such beauty and I do not wish to ever sully the pages of my 'blog with your perverted sense of aesthetics!!














Step-nose or plain?  We all have our personal preferences!



Still to come:  Auto Italia, 2021, Part 5: Italian Cars that Aren't Fiats, Lancias or Alfas.

Also well worth a look:  Auto Italia, Parts 1, 2 and 3 (X1/9s, Fiats that aren't X1/9s, and Lancias, respectively).






U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

Photos by Alastair and Angus.





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