Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva
Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva front view
Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva rear 3/4 view
Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva
Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva Interior
The 2000 Sportiva Coupe was developed in the early 1950s and was intended to go into limited production. It was designed to be a racing car with the 1953 touring car rules in mind.
The cars stunning lines were penned by Bertone and they hardly look dated today, the 8C Competizione definitely bears more than a little similarity to it.
Starting at the front, the Alfa Romeo Grill with the whisker's, the cowled in headlamps, the crease line from the top of the front wheel back to the door handle, the steeply raked windscreen the powerful haunch above the rear wheels all shout that this is a high performance, powerful car. There were however only two Coupe's ever produced and these came out in 1954.
The car was based on 1900 running gear, the engine being rebored, while the stroke remained at 88 mm the bore was taken out to 85 mm from 82.55mm this gave a capacity of 1997.4cc, the compression ratio was increased to 9:1 and the mixture was fed in through twin side-draft carburettors and this gave the engine 138 bhp at 6500 rpm, enough to give the Sportiva a top speed of 137 mph.
The body was also significantly lighter than the 1900, weighing in at 915 Kg compared with 1100 Kgs of the 1900 which also significantly improved the performance. Drive was through a single-plate clutch to the 1900's four-speed gearbox and from here it went on to a differential with the ratio of 8/37.
Suspension was by coil springs and telescopic hydraulic shock absorbers all round, at the front there were double unequal-length wishbones while at the rear there is a De Dion tube which is remarkably similar to the Alfetta/75 of later years which is located at the rear by a watts linkage.
Braking was handled by beautiful aluminium finned drum brakes in typical Alfa Romeo style, interestingly the rear drums are mounted inboard to reduce unsprung weight.
Unfortunately, the project had to be abandoned because of the pressure of mass-producing the Giulietta, however, it is possible to see the car in the flesh at the Alfa Romeo museum or just admire the pictures here.
JP
Related Links: Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione