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Driven: 1973 Alfa Romeo Montreal; Yesterday's tomorrow
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You can have it either way with the Alfa Romeo Montreal: You can hate it for what it isn’t, or you can love it for what it is.
There are people who don’t like the car. Listen to the critics. They don’t like the way it looks. The vents behind the doors are too fussy, and besides, only the top three are functional. The NACA-shaped hood scoop is a phony, the wheels look like something off a Corvette, and the flip-down headlight semi-covers, well, they just don’t like them.
The critics don’t like the chassis either. Under the swoopy Bertone bodywork, the Montreal is, except for a few minor changes, relatively humble Alfa 1750/2000, live axle and all.
And there was the delay getting the car into production. The Alfa Montreal was virtually five years old before the first production units were delivered to customers.
It all actually began with Expo ’67 in Montreal. Alfa Romeo was selected, for whatever reason, to prepare an exhibit representing “Man’s Highest Aspiration in the Automotive Field.”
Now if one were to give that assignment to most engineers, one might receive some futuristic transportation module made of recycled tofu, probably powered with grass clippings and good wishes and hybrid somewhere in its name. What Alfa produced, however, was a traditional show car. The difference lies in the translation—not of words, but of spirit. If it was not man’s Highest Aspiration, certainly it was the highest aspiration of Alfisti, a conventional Alfa with a pretty if bizarre Bertone body.
When Expo ’67 closed, leaving its grounds to become a future venue for Formula One cars, the Alfa Montreal left for Europe and the auto show grind. The favorable response that the car received must have prompted Alfa Romeo into production, and the involved process of converting a show car into a real was begun.
Bertone’s designers went back to the drawing board. They massaged the body, subtly modifying the shape. Real bumpers were added, and the half-covers of the show car were changed. The production got covers that folded over the headlights.The sexy body, if on a common production floor plan, would not hide a typical Alfa four-cylinder under the hood. Instead, there would be a V-8. It was a by-product of Alfa Romeo’s full scale return to racing with the fabulous Alfa Romeo T33 prototype racers, a glorious 90-degree double overhead cam eight-cylinder engine that was enlarged from 2.0 liters for racing to 2.5 liters for sports car use. As such things usually go, little was carried over from the racing engine in identical form.
Still the specifications were formidable. The aluminum block and head had double overhead cams with two valves per cylinder. A single distributor with two sets of points, each for an independent ignition system for four cylinders each.
Spica, an Alfa subsidiary, supplied the timed mechanical fuel injection unit—or more accurately, units. The system had two four-cylinder pumps driven by a toothed belt. Oddly enough, the engine’s water pump was chain driven. The Montreal’s V-8 did get the racing engine’s exotic and expensive 12.8-quart dry sump lubrication system.
With a conservative 9.0:1 compression ratio, the engine developed 230bhp at 6500 rpm, and 199 lbs-ft of torque at 4750 rpm. That’s just shy of one and one half horsepower per cubic inch, quite impressive for the time.
The Montreal got a sturdier, cooled rear differential and, to uphold Alfa’s reputation for braking, large four-wheel ventilated disc brakes.
What the Alfa Romeo Montreal didn’t get was a high-zoot independent rear suspension system. Instead, the standard Giulia live axle with lower trailing links and upper A-frame was slipped under the rear. It is ironic that most of the critical fingers pointed at the Montreal were for that axle which, oddly enough, had garnered praise from those same fingers when it was mounted to lesser Alfas.
The Montreal made is production debut at the 1970 Geneva show, only to have some of its thunder stolen by the Maserati-engined Citroen SM. Then strikes and work slowdowns delayed, redelayed and redelayed again delivery of the first Montreals to customers until late 1971. In the public mind, the poor car was five years old at its birth.
Production of the Montreal ceased in 1975. Plans to export it to the United States evaporated in the face of the regulatory frenzy going on in this country at the time. In total, some 3,925 Alfa Romeo Montreals were made.
Driving is the true measure of any car, and the first thing any Alfisti will notice upon entering the car is the sumptuousness of the interior, befitting the Montreal’s top-of-the-line status. Not that other Alfas—at least those of circa 1970—are econobox bare.
It’s just that the Montreal is not quite so sportingly Spartan. Instead of the simple round dials on the dash, for example, the Montreal has two large cylindrical pods. Within these, the round tach and speedometer dominate, tangent to the top of the cylinder. The lesser gauges are fitted into the crescents below the two big dials.
The Alfisti will also be surprised by the replacement of the usual dog-leg Alfa shifter with a gear changer in the “normal” position, thanks to the ZF gearbox. It had a "racing" shift pattern, too, with first to the left and back (because first was never used on the track it was placed out of the way).
The engine starts with a healthy V-8 roar and accelerates easily, but as soon as our foot comes off the accelerator to put shoe leather to the brake pedal, the engine dies. It’s the fault of the Spica fuel injection. And though the problem moderates after the engine warms, there will always be some engine roughness as the engine makes the transition from idle and run circuitry. Incidentally, the pedals are too far apart to permit heel-and-toeing to keep the engine running. Quite unusual for an Alfa.
But 230 horsepower in what was a then heavy 2,800 pound chassis yielded one small complaint. First gear is tall and it takes some clutch slipping to get it off the line with any speed. But from there it’s all bellow and blast all the way to a top speed of around 140 mph. It’s the kind of power that makes passing fun rather than a chore. Don’t you just love to watch them get small in your mirrors?
Handling on a smooth road is delightful, especially with rear drive and an extra dose of power. But rough roads display the shortcomings of a live rear axle. One must make steering corrections bump to bump, and it can really keep one busy. On the other hand, a quick mental calculation from the metric speedometer indicates that the rough road was just taken at 80 mph and well, then the axle’s behavior doesn’t seem quite so bad.The only place the Montreal doesn’t belong is in urban traffic, ironic for a car named after a city. The Spica injection, racing patter gearbox and tall first gear can make one hate the car.
But get it out on the road, any road, from back road to Interstate highway, and it’s impossible to not fall in love with Alfa Romeo’s show car come to life. It may be yesterday’s car of tomorrow, but it is one that can be loved forever.
Special thanks to Reiner Kissel. Photos by John Matras; © John Matras Media LLC.
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