Alfa Romeo - Page 2

The English made the mc f1 pretty well.

It did, but 100 cars does not an industry make. For proof of what I'm saying regarding the British car industry, I direct you to Rover.

Jon.

no doubt
rover. jaguar. aston. rolls. bentley. even the damn mini...

I can't believe they let Rolls go. I mean even Bentley didn't have the Cache of the Empire like RR. Damn Shame.

Jon.

Why? Royce hasn't had a new engine in the last half-century, and they realized 40 years ago that they could never top the French in suspension design so they just bought it. Then again, even the Germans realized that the French were their betters in suspension design; until very recently Mercedes flagship limos and coupes used suspension designs adapted from midrange Citroëns, so maybe that's no shame. Still, if cachet is a crude pushrod V8 sprung on hand-me-down Citroën hydropneumatic spheres then it's probably better in the hands of krauts. Or even Chris Bangle!

Bangle did not design the new RR; he merely supervised (even tough it looks like the man responsible merely copied Bangles style). Regarding the engine, it's the same 6.75L V8 still used in the Bentley Arnage (although the Bentley has a model, the T with Twin-Turbos, for good measure).

What makes a RR special is not the technical design, rather the pure opulence of the car. The quality of the Connolly leather (wait, no Connolly no longer exists)...lets try again:

The quality of the leather, the hand finishing of the wood trim, the use of real metal parts, all contribute to the beauty and ethereal quality of the car.

Jon.

I'm suprised that no posted this yet. I've been reading in various auto magazines for the past few months that Alfa Romeo is coming back to the States. The car its self will retail for around $40,000 I think. I'll look it up later.

Oh yes, and how!

They've been coming back for years, but never actually make it. With the GM-Fiat divorce now it's even less likely. Besides, even if they do come back now they'd only bring the ugly Spider and the Brera-lite GTV. Americans wouldn't get the only Alfa worth a damn today, the 147. (I love the way the 155 Sportwagon looks, but it drives like an SUV. The 147 drives like a great hot-hatch, better than any VW and almost up to Peugeot standards.) And even then, who's to know if its replacement will be any good, anyway?

I think with Fiat's troubles, bringing Alfa to the US (at this time anyways) would be a mistake. First they should solidify their share of the upper market with Maserati (which is not doing all that well) and then concentrate on the more down-market cars.

Jon.

That's going to be a hard sell in the US. Let me rephrase that: it's going to be a hard sell in the US until gas prices reach $5.00 a gallon, then it will be an easy sell.

Jon.

We rented a (big - sat 5 comfortably) Alpha for our trip down to Apulia. Don't know model - it seemed quite deluxe, but also had a stickshift( ) - I thought it was a very nice ride, speedy & responsive. In Rome whenever you see an 'official' motorcade speeding through, there are usually a bunch of Alphas in the mix. The police brass are always AR's....

Same here.

When I was a kid, my best friend's dad had a '58 (silver) and a '60 (red) roadster. I can still remember the smell of leather and oil. They were beautiful. The '58 looked something like this one: