Alfa 75: Wild wedge is Alfa’s last rear-driver
Alfa Romeo was one of the last non-German (meaning in this case Mercedes- Benz and BMW) automotive manufacturers to switch from rear-wheel drive to front-wheel drive for its mainstream models. The Alfa 75, which arrived in Australia in late 1986, was its last such car. But to understand the 75, you also have to understand its 90 sibling and the curious relationship between this pair and the Alfetta and Giulietta.
It sounds complicated because it is. Alfa Romeo launched its Alfetta sedan in Europe in 1972. The 1.8-litre twin overhead camshaft all-alloy four-cylinder engine was carried over from the famous 105-Series cars Alfetta but the new sedan featured a rear transaxle in the interests of achieving perfect 50:50 weight distribution. It also had rack and pinion steering, four-wheel disc brakes (inboard at the rear) and, like the 105 coupe it had been designed by Bertone.
The Alfetta was arguably one of the world's best sports sedans when it arrived here in 1974. It could sprint from zero to 100 km/h in 11 seconds and top 180 km/h. Few cars had such brilliantly direct steering. The Alfetta was a joy to drive and felt every millimetre the Italian thoroughbred it was, at least until the rust set in!
In 1980 the slightly smaller and more overtly sporty Giulietta sedan was introduced locally. It shared the Alfetta's mechanicals but had a more rakish wedge-shaped body with a shorter rear overhang. The Giulietta was marginally lighter but shared the same wheelbase and front and rear track as the Alfetta. These siblings set the template for the 90 and 75 models which replaced them respectively; indeed when you look at the 75 it looks like nothing so much as a re-imagined Giulietta.
The Alfetta and Giulietta both got the torquier (but less rev-happy 2.0-litre engine) and the former was given a more luxurious air to contrast with the strong sporting flavour of the Giulietta.
Finally, during 1985 the Alfetta – which by that stage was known as the GCL for Gold Cloverleaf, no less – was replaced by the Alfa 90. Alfa Romeo was short of cash and could not afford to develop a new floorpan for its midsize cars, so the product planners took a very clever approach with this car. Despite sharing the 1972 Alfetta's wheelbase, front and rear tracks as well as thinner door frames, the 90, whose design had been again entrusted to Bertone, looked bigger and certainly talked bigger thanks to the GTV6's operatic 2.5-litre V6 and a swag of luxury fittings. While Bertone seemed proud of his work, Alfa Romeo’s marketing team took care not to mention ‘Alfetta’ and ‘Alfa 90’ in the same paragraph.
The 90 had its work cut out in Australia. All its key rivals – BMW 525i, Mercedes 190E, Peugeot 505 GTI, Renault 25 GTX and Volvo 740 GL – were wider and more spacious. The 90 was more closely matched to the BMW 3-Series. Perhaps even more importantly, all (including, of course, the 3) were available with automatic transmission. The Italian tradition was different: in Italia two-pedal motoring was for cissies. It was pretty much the same thinking across continental Europe, although most pronounced in the homeland of Ferraris.
The Australian market – much closer to the US – was the other way. Long before 1985 ours had become a nation of Tri-Matic andTorqueflite. One Alfa dealer told me he could have sold four times as many 90s had an automatic gearbox been available. Some customers even ordered the car before realising the lack of same.
Less than 18 months later the 75 followed. It was given the designation ‘75’ to celebrate 75 years of Alfa Romeo production cars. But the 90 and 75 had so much in common that Alfa Romeo Australia 's marketing grew truly confused and confusing. Like the 90, the apparently (but in reality scarcely at all) smaller 75 used the charismatic V6 with a five-speed gearbox. Because sales of the 90 had been slow, the updated 90 Super was held up for some months. And so, the plusher 90 was actually cheaper at $36,909 in December 1986 than the newcomer ($37,475 plus $2345 for the air-conditioning which was standard in the 90).
The 75 was more user-friendly than the first 90. Instead of a heavy twin-plate clutch and very tall gear ratios, it used a single-plate clutch and gave 35 km/h per 1000 rpm in fifth instead of 40.9. But although this was a more congenial style of manual driving, buyers still wanted their automatic gearbox.
The 90 was superseded by the 90 Super early in 1987 but that car didn't have long to live. It was replaced by the big, beautiful, Pininfarina-designed front-drive 164 in 1989. The 75 still had a little road left, but not much.
Where the 90 was neatly tailored and sober in appearance, the 75 had a rakish demeanour. Where the supposed luxury model represented a clever reskin of the boxy Alfetta, the 75 was quite obviously the successor to the wedgey Giulietta. Opinions differ but most observers at the time thought it was might now be termed Over The Top (OTT). But it was a brave in-house design by Alfa Romeo's Ermanno Cressani, the stylist responsible for the handsome if thoroughly flawed successor to the Alfasud, the 33.
In my view, the 75's extreme wedge has aged better and the car now seems like an interesting expression of the outlandish 1980s, like a power-dressing disco inhabitant. Its proportions were arguably better than the 90's. With its shorter front and rear overhangs, lower overall height and superior aerodynamics (0.34 to 0.36), the 75 looked more purposeful.
It can almost be judged a flawed masterpiece. The interior was comfortable with durable fabric trim and conventional instruments in place of the first 90's garish digitalia (two speedos – digital numerals and diagonal bar graph – not in agreement with each other's readouts plus parallel graph tachometer and bar graphs for fuel, temperature and oil pressure). The 75’s boot with its very high loading lip was roomy, as was the 90’s. But neither car offered any pretence to being a five-seater.
The automatic transmission, a lacklustre and outdated ZF three-speed unit duly arrived later in 1987. You might have expected it to be offered in the 90 Super but, no, it was only available on the 75. Then in 1988 came the better balanced four-cylinder Twin Spark variant, using an updated version of the venerable 2.0-litre engine. Of course, the use of the heavier V6 engine instead of the Alfetta's and Giulietta's Four upset the original car's perfect weight distribution.
In many respects the Twin Spark was actually the best of all 75s and certainly offered the best weight distribution due to its lighter engine. It was not perhaps quite as quick as one would have liked but the engine was willing and delivered strong lowdown torque. During 1988 the 2.5-litre model was superseded by a 3.0-litre car. Then the 164 engine which used Motronic rather than Bosch L-Jetronic injection was plumbed into the 75 and this ultimate variant was known as the Potenziata. But as far as Alfa Romeo was concerned the future was front-drive and the 164 replaced all the transaxle cars.
The 75 aged quite quickly. Because it was still so closely based on the 1972 Alfetta, it was already dated in its essential body architecture. Parked alongside the beautifully styled 164 luxury sedan, the rear-drive model looked almost like a spaceship from a much earlier period of history.
I must, in conclusion, admit to my own addiction (now probably cured) for these transaxle Alfa Romeos. I have owned two Alfetta 1.8 sedans, a 2.0-litre Sportiva (basically an Alfetta with stripes), two 2.0-litre GTVs, three GTV6s (four if you count the car I owned twice and in which I placed 47th outright in the inaugural (1992) Targa Tasmania and no fewer than six Alfa 90s (one of them a Super). When I finally contemplated a used 2.5-litre 75 in 2001, sanity prevailed and I bought a 1990 Honda Legend coupe instead.
History rolls on. I started racing my (1974 1.8-litre) Alfetta sedan in 1987 when the 75 was brand new and, of course, Colin Bond was in the red works car, which despite his brilliance never seemed to achieve the desired results. When it arrived, Bond told me that his racer was meant to have 300 horsepower, but it felt more like 200! Now, these decades later, I note that the Twin Spark has achieved some prominence in club racing circles.
The Alfa Romeo 75 was a quirky car when new and now seems almost weirdly quaint. But it was then and certainly is now a machine for the true Alfisti or Alfanatic. This is one of the comparatively few 1980s cars that is likely to sustain an enduring fan base. It will never be as collectible as the Peugeot 205 GTi, but you can write it in the same sentence! And if I had my 2001 choice again, I’d take the 75 (a car which collectors covet) rather than the Legend coupe which has failed to become one, good though it was.
