Welcome to another edition of Fastback Friday. Looking through the Hemmings listings, I continue to look for the weird and the bizarre, and Alfa Romeo is right up there with weird and bizarre. So, I thought I would conduct a poll about which Fastback Alfa Romeo would you go with if you had the means to do so; The controversial Alfa Romeo Montreal, or the incredibly sexy Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.
Lets start with this 1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal Coupe said to be a life long California Resident, which is a bit odd because they were never officially sold in North America. Production for these visually arresting coupes started in late 1970. The engine is a 2593cc 90° dry-sump lubricated V8 engine with SPICA fuel injection that produced around 197 hp, coupled to a five-speed ZF gearbox and a limited-slip differential.
The Montreal production was split between three different facilities. The Chassis, sans engine and mechanicals was sent to the Bertone facility in Caselle to fit the body. After body fitmant, the car was shipped to another Bertone facility to be degreased, partly zinc coated, manually spray painted and have the interior fitted. It was then sent back to the Alfa facility to have the engine and mechanicals installed. Total number built was 3,197.
This car is being offered by the Beverly Hills Car Club, and there is very little in the way of description. Mileage is undisclosed, condition is described as good, and is mechanically solid. However, there are a lot of pictures, and the asking price for this very rare Alfa is $28,500. See the Dealership Listing here.
Here we have an incredibly rare Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, one of only 500 ever produced, one of only 84 cars produced for the US market. These cars were produced in the Maserati Production facility in Modena. The similarities between the 8C and the Montreal include the fact that they were both available with a V-8, and a limited-slip differential.
This car is finished in Competition Red over Red Leather/Carbon Fiber interior. It is reported to have only 1,450 miles, and is in excellent condition, and is offered by Exclusive Motorcars of Los Angeles. Asking price is undisclosed (I guess if you have to ask, you can’t afford it!), but you can see the dealer listing here.
[poll id=”80″]
Hooniverse Fastback Friday – New Alfa or Classic Alfa; Which would you choose?
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28 responses to “Hooniverse Fastback Friday – New Alfa or Classic Alfa; Which would you choose?”
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Hard as shit to choose.
The Montreal is one obscure beast…even as an Italian car fan I think I LIKE the Montreal more, but the Competizione is prboably worth enough to buy forty Competizioni.-
the Montreal's muscle-car-like design*
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I'd take the 8C. This has got to be the only time in a contest between 'new' and 'old' cars that I would take a new one. The 8C is just sex on wheels.
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"…condition is described as good, and is mechanically solid. " HA!
I like both, quite a bit, but the 8C is simply amazing. And it probably has a warranty too! Granted, for the price difference between the two, you would be better off with the Montreal. -
Hey, that's the Montreal that was for sale in Beverly Hills awhile ago. It was on eBay. I think the asking price was something like 25k(?). I'd take both, but the Montreal is a little easier to afford.
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I think you're right, if you can afford the 8C, the little extra to have pay to have a Montreal on your driveway must be like money for a beer to us mortals.
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As pretty as the 8C is (and I'm sure it drives better, objectively), I've always liked the Montreal. Plus, I like the idea of tooling around in an older Italian car, something with a good old shift-your-own and that classic charm. I'm also hopeful that a traditional (read: basic) manual transmission and generally older (read: hopefully simpler) technology would make the inevitable repairs either easier for DIY or cheaper. That price even sounds downright affordable for such a rare beast (so long as I remain blissfully ignorant of its running and maintenance costs….)
Besides all of which, NACA duct on the hood. -
I'd take the Montreal and the house in the background.
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I don't think the Montreal is all that good-looking. The basic shape is alright even though it was already old-fashioned by 1971. It's details like the headlight venetian blinds, non-functional NACA hood duct, and side vents that are a mess. The Alfa 33 V8 will be a maintenance and repair nightmare. It will require frequent and costly service, and parts are going to be scarce because the Montreal was never sold in North America. A live rear axle and modest performance for a supercar are further demerits. Oh yeah, it will rust too…
The 8C's price is said to be somewhere in the $170,000 to $230,000 range. That puts it around six to eight times the price of the Montreal. Considering the sensuous style, sophistication, performance, and the official backing of Alfa Romeo, I think that's a difference worth paying.-
If anyone knew how to make live axle cars handle–it was Alfa Romeo in this era. The suspension in the Montreal is based on the 105 series cars. How many complaints do you remember reading about their handling?
As far as the engine goes, these are cars that very serious people have obsessed over. I would expect that you can find info about every aspect of that engine, a great amount of what you would need for service and rebuild either readily available or remanufactured by the enthusiasts, and a network of specialists who could do it for you if you weren't up to it. None of it is likely to be more expensive than the 8C.
Red flags are raised for me by the height of the rear suspension and the hideous wheels.
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Montreal, easy victory in my book. Sure, reliability and power have improved dramatically since the seventies, but industrial design has absolutely, definitively declined. We could make the same comparison with the old and new Stratos– the new one looks unearthly awesome next to almost any other new car, but next to its inspiration and predecessor it looks like an overweight, hastily-drawn cartoon.
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The Montreal in desert camo is very pleasing to the eye.
The 8C, however, is hotter than the sun.
If only the 8C had a proper manual gearbox.
I'd take the 8C, drive it for a while, sell it, then buy a Pantera. -
The 8C would probably be better to drive, but as a piece of sculpture, the Montreal wins, hands down. Stylistically, the 8C does nothing for me.
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You can have the Montreal for the price of the first service on the 8C.
I'll take both.-
You can double the price of the Montreal after *its* first service.
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It's telling that the only place I've ever seen a Montreal in the flesh is in the shop.
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If I can touch them they're real.
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If forced to choose it would be the 8C, but both are very nice looking cars. Then again, so are all Alfas. The issue I have always had with Alfas though is that while their performance has never provided a good bang for the buck they are murderously expensive to maintain and run. The Montreal likely will suffer from rust issues if it ever leaves the arid climate of SoCal due to the crappy Russian steel they were built from but then again it likely will not run long enough to get out of the garage either. The 8c is very expensive but not really all that good as a car either. It has all the bits and pieces it needs to be great but on the track it simply isn't. Thus both are more works of art rather than cars. Either one is much nicer to be seen in than the Metro I drive every day now but I honestly don't think I would choose to drive either of them every day over my Geo. I simply could not afford the upkeep to drive them the 35k miles a year I would need them to go. So, if I ever need garage art I will probably buy an Alfa. For anything else though, give me a Metro or a B13 Sentra.
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I don't want either of these, but I'd love to have a Muira or a Stratos. As for an exotic Alfa? How about a 33 Stradale? http://autocrunch.com/alfa-romeo-33-stradale-auto…
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Pretty much a vintage 8C, huh? Heritage styling cues are very obvious.
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The Montreal. I can remember these quite well, as there was a red one in town when I was in high school. It was serviced at the local import garage, which had a ridiculous level of wrenching talent that moonlighted as IMSA GT/SCCA Trans-Am crew on weekends. Which is probably what it took to keep it on the road.
Let's face it, neither the Montreal nor the 8C is ever going to be practical. And once you get into cars worth a quarter mil, you are simply never going to hang it out there. At least I wouldn't; I don't think I could ever summon that level of entitlement. I think I would get at least as much enjoyment out of the Montreal on that basis. Given that the price of the average (nice) GTV is well into the 20s these days, it appears to be a steal. Cheap enough that you might not fret too much by tweaking the too-tall-by-four-inches stance.
Besides, I think it just looks better. But damn, that color. -
I may get lynched for saying this, but the 8C has always elicited a heartfelt "meh" from me. It's not as pretty as a Ferrari, as sophisticated-looking as a Maserati, or as bat-shit as a Lambo. From where I stand, at least, It's sort of the Toyota Camry of Italian supercars.
On the other hand, the only fault I can find with the Montreal is that it looks much better in red, and it gets a pass on that because it has Kanye sunglesses on its headlights. I'd take the old one, no question. -
Yes, but it's among the coolest-looking fake hood scoops I've seen.
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It's there because the original concept car didn't have the V-8. I think it's a fair compromise to keep the hood lower visually. And it just looks nice.
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[youtube rwjN1i77eQ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwjN1i77eQ4 youtube]
I'll just leave this here. -
The 8C is the only modern Alfa I'd even consider in a new-vs-old battle, so… both!
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The Montreal was originally designed as a "Car of the Future" for the Montreal World's Fair. That ALONE would have been enough to put it over the 8C for me, even if it wasn't as dead sexy as it is. That sort of optimism toward the future is sorely missed in this world.
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This is probably a little late to weigh in, but here goes. I would choose the Montreal. Why?
Number one, the 8C is missing an essential element: the shift lever. That means that it is probably like all modern Ferraris, electro-mechanical transmission.
Number two, the styling of the 8C, while excellent, is inconsistent front to back. The front is highly aggressive and snarly, but the back seems to say to the car that you just passed, "whoa, I passed you without breaking or catching fire like my cousins from Modena."
Given sufficient funds to afford either one, including Italian car maintenance, I would still rather have the Montreal. Its a bit more interesting to me.
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