Our Prime Find this week is a relative Youngtimer, having been built in 1992, but the model itself dates back to 1985. It’s a 1992 Alfa Romeo 75, but no ordinary example, as we shall see later.
Introduced in May of ’85, the model was named after the fact that it was launched in the 75th year of the company’s existence. Intended to supersede the Giulietta after its eight-year production run, it shared many of its predecessor’s components, but the body was very different. Where the Giulietta had been a fairly straightforward, squarish three-box saloon, the 75 had a more dramatic wedge-shaped profile, courtesy of the pen of in-house head of design, Emanno Cressoni.
Drive was to the rear wheels – in the event, the 75 was to be the company’s last RWD car – and the car’s weight distribution was an almost exact 50/50 front/rear, aided by having the standard 5-speed box located in the rear half of the car, although this impinged on luggage capacity. An innovation was the dash-mounted on- board computer, known as the Alfa Romeo Control, for monitoring the engine systems and alerting drivers of faults. Five different engines were available at launch – four-cylinder 1.6-, 1.8- and 2.0-litre engines, a 2.0-litre turbodiesel, with a fuel-injected 2.5-litre, 156bhp V6 topping the range, and the following year an even higher-performance 1.8-litre turbo version was added. Performance was raised to another level with the introduction in 1987 of a 3.0-litre V6 pushing out 185bhp, endowing the car with an impressive top speed of 134mph, or 216km/h.
American-spec cars had numerous differences from the European versions, principally to meet US safety and emissions regulations, including heavier bumpers, having the fuel tank located behind the rear seats, and side impact bars among others. They also had different upholstery styles and dashboard panels and came with more standard equipment than the European versions.
Performance improvements continued throughout the model’s life across the full engine range, and the 1.8-litre was given a significant power boost with the addition of a turbo in the Turbo Evoluzione Group A homologation special. Just 500 of these were made.
The 75’s strongest competition came, unsurprisingly, from Germany, in the form of BMW’s E30 and Mercedes 190 saloons, not forgetting the Audi 80, and in the UK, from the Austin Montego, Vauxhall Cavalier and Ford Sierra.
The alternatives…
As usual with RWD Alfa’s, the engines and chassis received high praise, but sadly, also as usual for Alfa’s of almost any decade since the late ‘60’s, its driving position, fit and finish – aspects that the German cars seemed to do so much better – were criticised. The German cars are also all more conservatively styled, the Alfa’s slightly awkward broken wedge is a matter of taste, but smooth and elegant it is not.
386,767 examples of the 75 were built, pretty good numbers for the Milan marque. While not numerous in the UK, more survive than I expected – there are 69 on the road, with another 287 SORN, with more than a third of these being the 3.0 6V, and I would assume there would be more in Italy.
Our Prime Find, however, is a particularly uncommon animal, being a 1992 75 1.8 Turbo QV, and it appears to be in exceptional condition, both inside and out, based on the photographs we have borrowed from Historics’ website – they are selling the car at their November 27th sale taking place at Mercedes-Benz World.
Interestingly, this will be the second time they have offered this car in just over a year, having sold it at their Ascot sale in September 2020, where it fetched £24,080 including commissions. Since then, the owner has added just 1,800 miles before putting it back on sale – one can only assume that he or she was unhappy with it in some way, or perhaps they just felt they weren’t using it enough.
Either way, it’s back on sale, and this time with a lower estimate range than last year – just £15,000 to £19,000, hence it’s appearance in our Prime Find feature this weekend, so the owner would appear to be prepared to take a not insignificant hit, though it remains to be seen if that will be the case.
This is an Italian limited-edition car, so left-hand-drive, and comes with Recaro seats, an IMSA spoiler and BBS alloys. Some £20,000 has been spent on it in recent years, and there is what is described as “a sizeable history file” to prove it. It wears a deep red coat of paint, with a black strip running the length of the car along its waistline, emphasising the car’s wedge profile. The interior is a mix of greys and black which I think go well together.
For me, the styling is too angular, and that alone would stop me buying one, but this is purely a subjective view, of course. It certainly looks very purposeful, with its bodykit and alloys, and it’s got the go to go with the show – despite being a mere 1.8-litres in capacity, the turbo boosts output to 163bhp compared to the standard injected 1.8’s 120bhp, a considerable increase, one that endows this Italian sports saloon with a top speed of 132mph (212kmh) and a 0-100km time of under eight seconds, not too shabby.
You can see the full lot entry here. It will be interesting to see what this Alfa Romeo goes for – I have a feeling it might do better than the auctioneers and the owner expect.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk