Why The Best Car In Its Class Failed - Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint

hello everybody Welcome to number 27 I'm Jack and today I am here with this wonderful Alpha sud Sprint now these are cars that in my view should have set the trend for front-wheel drive cars for years to come it didn't we're going to find out why today I'm also going to take it out see if the handling is as legendary as it is made out to be talk about why it wasn't despite being a class leader it wasn't as successful as it should have been and that will also give me a chance to correct one of the most widely believed myths about Alfa Romeo and these cars in particular thank you to bidding Classics for sponsoring today's video check out this online auction for classic cars with no buyers fee so for me the should should have been the template that all future front-wheel drive cars followed because the design was so clever the packaging is incredible even on this which is the coupe version tell you a bit more about that in a moment you can comfortably sit for adults it's front-wheel drive has four disc brakes it has five speeds but more importantly it differs from what became the dominant design because it doesn't have a transverse Engine with the gearbox underneath this has a flat 4 Engine with the gearbox behind it and it allows it to drive and handle much better than anything of the time crucial to all that is the use of that flat 4 engine just look at how low that engine is in the engine bay I mean you know the cylinder heads are almost sort of the same height as the center line of the wheels that allows as you can see here a really low Bonnet line which gives great aerodynamics but more importantly brilliant handling it's clearly a really clever design so why was it that despite all its advantages this didn't become the dominant layout for front-wheel drive cars well we'll talk about that a bit more in a minute I think it has to do with the italian-ness of this car when it first came out the suit was a revelation it was a little family car four people in Comfort but it handled and drove brilliantly so it's really really well received that wasn't to last but the one area I suppose where there should maybe lacked a little bit was just in the wow factor it was a pretty tidy little design but of course Alpha wanted something with a little bit more appeal and that's where the Sprint came in so chassis wise it's pretty much identical to the soot it used a similar range of engines but this was a whole new design by jujaro the same guy who designed the Mark 1 golf the Maserati Ghibli I don't need to go on and it is a fantastic really tidy design its main competitor at the time was the Volkswagen Scirocco In 1980 this cost about 5150 pounds the Scirocco cost 200 pounds more a Ford Capri 2 liter was actually 200 pounds cheaper but both were much more successful than this although arguably they weren't as good well not even arguably in the case of the Capri and handling and so on and engine wise this was way ahead the Scirocco had 110 horsepower it's had a little bit more power but it didn't handle it wasn't as fun to drive as as this and yet if you look at production figures they only sold they only produced about 130 000 sprints and in roughly the same time period so 1976 1974 I think for the Scirocco when that came out to the late 80s he made over 800 000 of the first series sciroccos and that is just crazy why did that car outsell this almost eight to one when really in most ways this was a better car let's take it for a drive and we'll find out [Music] there was a few engine options with this but I'm not going to go into massive detail but there was 1.2 1.3 1.5 1.7 this is a 1.5 and the 1.5s came in standard trim I.E this one with a single carb and the veloce trim standard trim was 85 and the the double was maybe 95 in any case it only weighs 915 kilograms so it's not going to be a speed monster but that's not what these cars are all about this one has got what I think looks like a really genuine 37 000 miles it is a unicorn you can tell by the state of the interior and everything it is right I think it had been stored for many years and Warren who owns it actually got a really good buy it just so lovely and so original being told apparently the steel wheels aren't quite original uh they look fairly original to me but anyway what we all want to know about is how it drives and then go back to talk about this issue that prevented this from being an era changing car it's typically Italian legs are quite folded up and maybe because I'm Italian I'm used to it the wheel is big and really dished forward as well but it's one of those cars that at least for me I naturally feel quite at home and the Vella seats which in this car are in fantastic condition they look comfortable and they are but more surprising is that because you sink into them a little bit and the vella's quite grippy they actually do a good job of holding you in place as well you don't slide around even though the bolsters don't look like they're particularly deep there's no talk steer to speak of and of course there's not a lot of power but it's also helped because having that gearbox Central like that means that the drive shafts are equal length so it's much less likely to talk still the throttle's really Progressive the clutch is quite light the gear change is lovely it's really precise it's another benefit of having that layout with the boxer at the front and then the gearbox coming almost underneath the car is that there's hardly any sort of travel for the distance to get to the gearbox it's got a really good slick gear change quite long but nice all the same let's rev it a little bit on this Junction so so that little engine pushing its little heart out it is 85 I remember now that this is supposed to be pushing out at the crank that feels about right so it's not quick but you have to really drive it and that makes it fun even on this road even with other cars around I say that and then I've got someone who's literally driving a snail's pace and overtaking it will not be easy see if I managed to slingshot my way past these guys whoa overtaking is a bit of an adventure but he's going so slowly that yes no she right let's go again and the suspension is compliant this is a really bumpy road so it is important that you have a car that can deal with those bumps and oh my God this feels so much better than many cars of that time I think it's you know having that more advanced suspension so it's got struts at the front and it's got like a watt linkage at the back but it's so well set up it's really well damped the steering is lovely and light and crisp but it's really really happy to turn and although you're in what seems like a Sleek little coupe the driving position isn't quite that low so it really does feel like you're driving a normal sud which is no bad thing it is just beautiful and on those skinny tires it has more grip than you ever think it should do it does lean a little bit but not disastrously so and it makes it in a way a little bit more fun in some ways because you're kind of working with the car when it's moving around like that it's a little bit of lean is okay as long as it's not uncontrolled lean it's got such a distinctive personality that flat for that boxer engine in a way it kind of reminds me a little bit just only a little bit of some of the air called Fiat twins the two CVS in a totally different way way more power way smoother way revia but it's got that thrummy feel to it and this thing just honestly so good round the corners that I don't know it's just brilliant I think perhaps it's because it's an older car you don't expect that much from it but I can understand why at the time people people must have been absolutely blown away by this you can imagine driving something equivalent at the time say an Allegro and then you could not get that down this road in any shape or form at the same speeds that you can this and it's just beautiful that engine is so smooth 5000 RPM just keep it there and it feels so happy at those at those revs you do have to keep the revs up so it clings on even on that really tight left-hander it really does cling on now I can see it looks like there's no petrol which is slightly worrying but I think perhaps it's the sprightly cornering and the old gauge which is responsible for that okay time to do the second pull on the way back now there is one thing about these not to 60 even for the velocity version which I think has another 10 horsepower it's only about 10 seconds so look it's not quick but it's a joy pedaling it really is breaks up I don't know how good they'd be in terms of fade and stuff but the pedal's firm which is reassuring and they feel okay they feel pretty good to be quite honest for the time they were supposed to be very much class leading discs or round in a car which is so light oh just Chuck it in it it's brilliant it's brilliant it's brilliant and it thoroughly encourages you to do it as well it's kind of telling you go on go on push me through this corner carry a bit more Corner speed oh it's beautiful it's beautiful [Music] car is absolute proof that you do not need to have power to have fun what a beautiful thing throttle response so once it gets going it's good throttle response isn't quite as immediate and crisp as I was expecting I think that's because this is the single carb version so it sits above the engine and it has some really long intakes I believe that the twin carb versions are a little bit snappier as well as having a bit more power the interior is quite Charming now but I have to say you can feel the sort of Alpha cost cutting it does feel pretty fragile one of the incredible things is that trying to work out the heater controls you basically wouldn't be able to so the heater the fan control is on this lever here you've got the the horn and you've got the wipers but if you pull it down then it starts the fans for the heating why not have it here for example where all the rest of the heating controls are that's just mental Alpha of the time Italian crazy Italians I don't know why on Earth they did that but ergonomically it is terrible so look this car is absolutely brilliant it's got space it's well packaged okay maybe the interior quality isn't up to much but it deserved to do incredibly well and this and the search should really have changed front drivers it's it drives so much better than any front driver of the time and yet they didn't this wasn't hugely successful as I said the Scirocco which had the traditional transverse layout did way better whilst being a car which is in no way nowhere near as good to drive as this is and as most of you suspect the reason is rust what you don't realize is why that rust happened so the traditional story is the soot was hampered by a terrible reputation from rusting on the forecourt you get it home after a week rust would come through and that is absolutely true and it also affected this affected this version the Sprint but a big fallacy and one that I believed even when I did the last video on the should that I I drove is that that was caused by the Italians using recycled Russian Steel and that is absolutely no true you know there's no truth to that whatsoever that story came about because Fiat sold the tooling for the Fiat 124 to Russia or to the Soviet Union at the time for some reason it seems mainly the British flesh got this story that in exchange for that tooling the Russians paid with steel that isn't true they paid in oil where this Factory was which was in in Naples basically by the coast of Italy there was also a massive steel factory at the time the biggest steel factory in Europe it was government owned as was Alfa Romeo there's absolutely no way that fear would have bought would have taken steel from the Russians or the Italians would have taken steel when they already had over capacity and they had a factory a plant right next to this Factory so I have done a whole video on this and I'll put a link at the end but to cut it short the reasons why these rusted so terribly badly nothing to do with Russian steel it was because they were built so badly so that new Factory in Naples it was starved by peasants who'd never built cars before they also just took time off whenever they felt like it because they had to pay bribes to get those jobs and because when they had to harvest their olives or whatever well they just wouldn't turn up at work they were the usual problems with sort of the unions in the 70s as well which meant that there were frequent strikes anyway so bodies were left out in the open they were badly built they were left sort of half done in the ovens and they started to rust even before they arrived it is really sobering and interesting to think that for me this layout could have really had a huge impact on car production and it didn't just because these particular cars which were so amazing in every other way they were just they were just so terribly built and it is a shame because it is trust me the Sprint is amazing it is a great great little car thank you all so much for watching if you have a classic car that you would likely to do a review on then please do get in touch either on Instagram or by email if you haven't subscribed please do and thank you all so much for watching and I really look forward to seeing you for the next video

Channel: Number 27

Views: 148,191

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Id: GHdQajio250

Length: 16min 40sec (1000 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2023