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Alfa Romeo range-topping sports car confirmed for 2023 debut

Alfa Romeo's on-again, off-again range-topping sports car is back in the pipeline. Company boss Jean-Philippe Imparato confirmed that a two-door flagship is on track to make its debut in 2023 as a concept whose exterior design will draw inspiration from historic models. "You will see something in that field in terms of sportiness in the first half of 2023. We use one word to define the brand, and it's 'sportiness,'" the executive told British magazine Autocar. He's previously voiced his support for bringing back the dormant GTV and Duetto nameplates. Imparato added that the yet-unnamed model will borrow styling cues from the Tipo 33, though he didn't specify which version of the car he has in mind. Alfa raced several evolutions of the Tipo 33 from 1966 to 1977, and it sold 18 units of a Franco Scaglione-designed supercar with a mid-mounted engine called 33 Stradale (pictured) between 1967 and 1969. We're guessing it's the latter that will provide inspiration. Numerous points remain up in the air, like what will power the car. "For the moment, I have two scenarios: full ICE or full EV," he revealed to Autocar. Regardless, the model "will be very exciting, very selective, and very expensive." It sounds like production will be limited. We're about four months away from 2023, so we won't have to wait long to discover the concept that Alfa Romeo is working on. Executives have toyed with the idea of adding a sportier model to the range for several years, but they have never pulled the trigger. Imparato explained in 2021 that the brand wouldn't release another two-door car until it increased its sales in more mainstream segments of the market. What's changed since then is unclear; the Tonale unveiled in February 2022 is the only new Alfa Romeo released since. (A Dodge Hornet badge-engineered version of the Tonale was revealed this week.) Traveling further back, in 2018 former Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) boss Sergio Marchionne announced that the 8C and GTV names would make a comeback on a pair of coupes. The former was presented as having a carbon fiber chassis and 700 horsepower thanks to a gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain built around a mid-mounted turbocharged V6. The latter was also planned as a hybrid, but it would have offered drivers 600 horsepower, and a sketch made it look like a two-door version of the Giulia sedan. Both cars were canned by 2019. Related video:

Alfa Romeo celebrates 110th anniversary with 79-page e-book

For its 110th anniversary, Alfa Romeo wanted to host a summer bash at its renovated Museo Storica Alfa Romeo in Arese, Italy. Coronavirus nixed that, so part of the Plan B syllabus is a 79-page e-book that plucks all sorts of fascinating details from even before the automaker's birth as A.L.F.A., which stood for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, and the fecund history since. The work can be considered more than a dive into Alfa Romeo history because of Alfa Romeo's reach for much of its existence. The 1914 Aerodinamica by Castagna built on an Alfa Romeo 40/60 HP chassis predates Buckminster Fuller's Dynmaxion by 20 years. Enzo Ferrari raced for Alfa Romeo or with Alfra Romeo support for 19 years, the driver's seat also occupied by legends like Juan Manuel Fangio, Tazio Nuvolari, and Alberto Ascari. Nuvolari drove the Bimotore — a car with one V8 in front of the cockpit, another V8 behind — to a top speed of 209 miles per hour in 1934, and raced the car alongside Louis Chiron, the same Frenchman Bugatti would later name a car after. Alfa Romeo's tech prowess impressed famed tinkerer Henry Ford so much that in 1939 Ford said, "When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat." And it's hard to believe Ian Fleming hadn't heard of the 1900 C52 Disco Volante concept from 1952 when conjuring a name for Emilio Largo's motor yacht for his 1961 book, "Thunderball." There's plenty of Alfa-centric trivia, too, like an employee coming up with the idea for the automaker's logo while waiting for a train, the origin of the quadrifoglio, intended as a good luck charm for all the three drivers in the 1923 Targa Florio but only paying off for one, and how Nicola Romeo inscribed his name in history. The stories carry up to the present day Giulia GTA and coming Tonale crossover, with a cameo by FCA design chief Ralph Gilles to boot. The book is a quick read, so check it out, or just scroll through lots of photos documenting 110 years of Italian automotive history. Related Video:    

Future Classic: Alfa Romeo Milano

While the glory that was Alfa Romeo may be in the past on this side of the Atlantic, there still remains evidence of Italianate greatness on used car lots and in new car showrooms: stunning sports cars of graceful lines (if unreliable electronics), colorful sport utility vehicles of modest power and functionality, and a smattering of older sedans — or, “family saloons” — that, in 2023, might be called classic. Take, for example, the Alfa Milano. Why is the Alfa Romeo Milano a future classic? Launched on May 17, 1985, the car was born as the Alfa 75 in Italy, named to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the companyÂ’s founding in Milan. Unlike many Alfas of jaw-dropping beauty, the angular, pseudo-boxy Milano wedge, as it was called in America, was primarily about the engine. Sold between June 1986 and August 1989, the Milano was initially offered in three trim levels: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each level was equipped with more and more goodies, with the Platinum stocked with leather, a sunroof, ABS brakes, and a limited-slip differential. All of these models had a 2.5-liter, SOHC version of the Busso V6, producing 154 horsepower. It was nicknamed after its creator, Giuseppe Busso.  ItÂ’s worth noting that smaller engines were offered in Europe, and during the carÂ’s lifecycle there, they were replaced by a novel "Twin Spark" four-cylinder unit, which featured two spark plugs per cylinder, allowing for more efficiency and power. Initially, Milano was designed to compete with a new-ish class of European sports sedans like the Mercedes-Benz 190 and the BMW 3 Series. Under the Milano's skin was a modest rear-wheel-drive chassis with bits borrowed from AlfaÂ’s motorsports heritage: torsion bars and shock absorbers up front and a De Dion tube with shocks and coil springs in the rear (the De Dion "Dead Axle" setup was chosen as it reduced the unsprung weight in comparison to a live rear axle). In its day, the Milano was boarderline-quirky in an Italian way, battling an often deserved reputation for questionable reliability but undeniably handsome (in rosso Alfa, of course) and a joy to drive on challenging roads with its gutsy six and rear-wheel-drive platform. What is the best example of the Alfa Romeo Milano?