Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva Coupé

Vehicle Overview

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.