Born of a Marcello Gandini-penned concept car developed for Expo 67 held in Canada, the production Alfa Romeo Montreal remains one of the most memorable and distinctive offerings from the Italian car maker’s golden era of 1970s design and engineering.
In the late-1960s, Alfa Romeo was a major presence in sports car racing with its open Tipo 33. In 2.0, 2.5, and ultimately 3.0-litre capacities, the Carlo Chiti-designed V8 engine propelled the T33 towards class and sometimes outright victories between 1968 and 1971 in the fiercely fought playground of Ferrari and Porsche.
Meanwhile, the Lamborghini Miura of 1966 had revolutionised street supercar style. Alfa Romeo began to figure it had the history, the racing heritage, and in Marcello Gandini – author of the Miura, and employee of Bertone, Alfa’s regular design house – the designer, to dabble with a supercar of its own.
The impetus was Expo 67, the World’s Fair staged over six months in Montreal, Canada. Gandini penned in just six months a classic long-bonneted, Kamm-tailed concept coupe for Italy’s pavilion.
Beyond the show car’s louvred headlight covers, there was more than a hint of Miura to its shape. Horizontal C-pillar slats suggested that the prototype, of which two were built and displayed, was mid-engined. It was in fact a front-engined, 2+2-seater, based on Alfa’s four-cylinder, 105-series Giulia.
Public response to the unnamed ‘Montreal’ concept – and to Alfa’s gorgeous, T33-based Stradale supercar, shown that September – encouraged production. But the Giulia’s DOHC 1.6-litre would give way to a 2.5-litre, street version of the T33 quad-cam V8; a decision possibly sparked by rival Fiat’s Ferrari V6-powered Dino coupe.
The production Montreal was shown in Geneva in 1970, but customer deliveries would be delayed until 1971. Chronic Alfaholics can spot the original Montreal ’67 prototypes by their seven side slats, while the little-changed production car had six. Beyond the race-derived V8, the Montreal borrowed heavily of the running gear and interior of the 105-series Giulia coupes.
The Montreal was a compact 2+2-seater package, sharing the 105-series’ wheelbase of 2350mm for an overall length of 4220mm. Wider tracks helped to accommodate the V8 engine, but the front wishbones with coil springs and rear live axle with locating arms and coils were 105 carryovers. Kerb weight was a trim 1270kg.
The 2593cc, 90-degree V8 shared key stats with the T33 racer, including all-alloy construction, quad cams and dry sump, but few parts were interchangeable. Spica mechanical injection helped deliver outputs of 149kW at 6500rpm and 235Nm at 4750rpm. A five-speed ZF manual stirred it from 0-100km/h in an impressive 7.5 seconds, before heading on to a top speed of 220km/h.
The impressive sophistication and performance of the V8 rather outstripped those of the chassis. Bertone assembled the production cars at its Grugliasco plant, concurrently with the Lamborghini Miura and Fiat Dino Coupe. The fact that the engines, chassis, and bodies were all built in different plants and trucked back and forth for assembly further contributed to the Montreal retailing for the equivalent of two GTV 2000 coupes.
Production had scarcely gathered momentum when the 1973 OPEC oil crisis hit. In 1974 came the four-cylinder Alfetta GT which, to many, offered comparable style (courtesy of Giorgetto Giugiaro) and greater practicality. The Montreal limped along until 1977, with just 3925 examples ever built. Fewer than 200 of those were in right-hand drive, 44 of which came to Australia.
The Montreal never exploited its cousin T33’s racing career. A lone US Trans-Am Montreal developed in 1972 by Alfa hot-shop Autodelta for Bobcor Racing proved unreliable and unstable. Autodelta later mooted the production of a Montreal-engined Alfetta GTV8 homologation race and rally car, but this died on the vine with the end of the V8’s production.
We would wait another 30 years for another Alfa Romeo V8 coupe to match the Montreal’s style, in the glorious 8C Competizione and Spider of 2007.
