The Alfa Romeo Alfasud and its brother Caimano
09/14/2018
Everyone knows the nippy Italian from Alfa Romeo from the seventies called Alfasud. However, its possible brother Caimano is much less well known.
No wonder, because it was only a concept car built on the basis of the Sud. It is a one-off and, like the Alfasud itself, comes from the "Italdesign" design studio.
The car was created purely as a show car, without any planned series production, just as an advertising medium for its brother. The floor assembly, with engine and gearbox, came from the Sud, but the wheelbase was shortened by around 20 centimetres.
The (drivable!) concept vehicle was powered by an extremely flat 1.3 liter, 86 hp boxer engine, which made the low design of the Caimano possible in the first place.
For entry and exit, the Plexiglas dome was folded forward, as in the Chevrolet Corvair Testudo, also designed by Giugiaro. Instead of side windows, there was only one closable air hole each on the right and left. The B-pillar served as a roll bar and had a spoiler that could be adjusted in four stages.
The dashboard was specially designed with fixed pointers. The entire display would have rotated around its own axis like a roller to show the relevant values.
Whether you like the car or not is up to you, but studies are there to show possibilities. In any case, it still looks futuristic even more than 40 years after its creation in the Alfa Romeo museum.
We published a comprehensive contemporary report on the Caimano with many historical pictures around five years ago.
