1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal Fastback Coupe

Alfa Romeo built two identical prototypes for the 1967 1967 International and Universal Exposition, held in Montreal. The coachwork duties had been assigned to Bertone, and the project was spearheaded by Marcelo Gandini, a young designer whose resume included the Lamborghini Miura. The design was inspired by some of the same cues that made the Miura so innovative. It was wide and low with a shark-like nose extending through a curved fender and shoulder haunches into a truncated tail. There were stacked horizontal vents on the C-pillar and unique headlight 'blinds.'

After the prototypes received strong customer interest, Alfa decided to develop a production version, which continued to be based on the 105 Series chassis, as with the Expo show cars. The production car engine, however, was different. Instead of the 105's standard twin-cam inline-four, Alfa engineers selected a competition-pedigreed V-8 from the Tipo 33 prototype race car. It had an aluminum alloy construction, dual overhead-cam actuation, and a dry-sump lubrication system. The potent engine installed in the aerodynamic body gave the Montreal a top speed of nearly 140 mph.

Between 1971 and 1975, approximately 3,925 examples of the Montreal were built.

This particular example was built in late 1972 but was first registered in France in 1974. It remained in a large collection in France until 2000, when it was imported stateside to California in 2002 and subsequently acquired by Steven Bonney in 2005 with only 26,000 original kilometers. In 2007, it was sold to Roy Dryer, who retained it for another six years, at which point it was acquired by a French individual in the Bay Area. In 2014, it was acquired by the former owner, a resident of Michigan.

This Montreal is in highly original condition and is finished in the Metallic Gold paint it wore when it left Bertone in 1972. Currently it has less than 80,000 kilometers on its odometer.

By Daniel Vaughan | May 2017