1980 Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint Veloce

A survivor from the deep south of Italy

The Alfasud was Alfa Romeo’s boldest gamble: an all-new small car built at an all-new factory at Pomigliano d’Arco, just outside Naples — the first Alfa Romeo ever built in the Italian south, and the reason for the name (Alfa + Sud, “Alfa South”). It was as much a social project as a motor car: a government scheme to bring industry and jobs to the Mezzogiorno and stem the flow of young southerners heading north for work.

Giorgetto Giugiaro gave it a crisp, clever shape. The Austrian engineer Rudolf Hruska gave it a flat-four “boxer” engine, front-wheel drive and feathery weight. The result drove brilliantly — road testers of the day raved about the handling — yet the cars became infamous for one thing: rust. Most of them quietly dissolved.

Legend blames cheap “Soviet steel.” The truth is more human, and more interesting. The steel was perfectly ordinary Italian stock — the same Alfa used on its cars up north. What really doomed the bodyshells was the brand-new factory itself: a young, largely rural workforce new to car-making (men who, the story goes, would still disappear at harvest time), relentless strikes and absenteeism that left primed, unpainted bodies standing out in the open between stoppages, and quality control that hadn’t yet found its feet. The cars rusted before they were ever finished.

Which is exactly why a genuine, solid, numbers-matching survivor like this one is such a rare thing to find — let alone in Montana.

Not to be confused with the ordinary Alfasud

This is the Sprint — the pretty Giugiaro coupé, a distinct model from the humbler Alfasud saloon — and in Veloce trim it’s the one enthusiasts want: the top of the range, with the twin twin-choke carburettor 1.5-litre boxer, higher compression and 95bhp. It revs hard, changes direction like a far more expensive car, and makes a wonderful flat-four warble doing it. Neither the saloon nor this Sprint was ever a common sight on American roads, which makes it all the more of an occasion when one turns up.

Provenance

Delivered new to the French market on 18 March 1980, it’s a left-hand-drive car — ideal for use here. I bought it in England and had it shipped over from the UK last year. It has covered fewer than 60,000 miles from new, and its history is documented by an Alfa Romeo Classiche Certificate of Origin — the marque’s own heritage department, at Arese, confirming its build on 14 February 1980, first delivery to France, its matching chassis number (ZAS902A5005067544) and its original colour, Procida Blue. That kind of factory-documented provenance is exactly what separates a cherished survivor from the rest. A true connoisseur’s classic, and a joy to drive on a Montana back road.

Further reading: Alfasud · Alfa Sprint · Debunking the “Russian steel” myth