Alfa Romeo was an exceptional car company, run by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.
Some cars change the course of history silently, without much fanfare. Case in point: this one. Look at it, and you see nothing really new, nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. But that’s just it. Alfa’s three-box sports cars, or Berlinas, or TIs (Turismo Internazionale) set the template for a whole host of new-age cars. Companies like BMW just took the template and ran with it. And there were several others. And the genre still thrives today.
Blending family-oriented transport and sports-car performance into a single, semi-affordable but still fun package, Alfa Romeo’s winning formula is very widely applied today.
Originally conceived and engineered in an environment and era conducive to real free thought and innovation, these cars allowed both practicality and performance to coexist in the same package, thus democratising the performance car.
Driving one today is a real eye-opener. To begin with, the car does not feel as old as it really is – it was built in the early ’70s – and apart from the carburettors, the specification doesn’t feel ancient either. Under the hood is a 2,000cc twin-cam engine, fed by a pair of twin-choke Webers (one intake barrel for each cylinder) and a five-speed gearbox. The zinger of a twin-cam engine was widely considered to be the best four-cylinder in the world. Cars at the time didn’t even have single overhead cams – forget twin cams. And this one came with a five-speed gearbox, too! Alfa was actually the first carmaker to put a five-speed manual into production. Ferrari was next with the 275 GTB. The 2.0 engine in the Alfa delivers around 130hp, depending on the state of tune. The car could run up to 190kph if you kept your foot down, and it could sprint to 100kph in nine and something seconds. Many family cars don’t manage that today.
What makes the car you see here, Amit Sapre’s 2000, special is that even today, it drives in a manner that belies its age.
Driving it along the coastal road briskly, it easily kept up with many of the other modern classics, many of which were also being driven in a brisk manner. The torque from the engine came in nice and early, the engine was smooth, it was happy to rev, and it even had a delicious burble and a growl, depending on where you were in the power band. The real eye-opener, however, was the chassis. The steering was not only nicely weighted but also quick, direct and communicative. And though it rolled quite a bit, it also hung on gamely on the long off-ramps and on-ramps on the coastal road. I had to keep reminding myself that this car is 50 years old. And to think, most of us look at the more attractive coupés and spiders and ignore these more boxy shapes from Alfa. But it was the TIs and the Berlinas that made Alfa Romeo the hero brand it was. Power, performance, grip, handling and, of course, practicality.One car to do it all. Remember that the next time you see a fast sedan; it was Alfa Romeo that started it all.
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