Alfa Sprint 6C - today you would lick your fingers for it
At the 69th Paris Motor Show, Alfa Romeo presented an Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint 6C, developed together with Autodelta, which had the GTV6 engine installed in front of the rear axle and drove the rear wheels via a ZF transaxle. The car was intended for Group B.
The Automobil Revue wrote in its Salon report at the time :
"An unusual-looking Alfa Romeo Alfasud caused quite a stir, which incidentally is only separated from the Porsche stand by a carpeted road. Beneath the bodywork is pure sportiness and the signature of Autodelta. The 990 kg Alfa Romeo Sprint 6C is powered by the 160 hp 2.5-liter V6 engine located in the middle and driven via the rear wheels. Although the rear seats and part of the luggage compartment are lost, the Sprint is unlikely to be used for vacation trips. "
The magazine "auto motor und sport" also commented on the newcomer:
"At the Paris Motor Show, Alfa Romeo presented a mid-engined version of the Alfasud Sprint. At least 200 of these sports models will be built for homologation in Group B. The six-cylinder engine in the Sprint comes from the GTV model and produces 160 hp. Drive is to the rear wheels."
This actually seemed to be a promising recipe, as Lancia showed with the 037 Rally that this could work. However, the Lancia was probably built a little more uncompromisingly.
But after just two prototypes, Alfa Romeo abandoned the plans, driven by financial problems, but probably also because of the rapidly progressing development of Group B, in which soon only all-wheel-drive horsepower monsters had a chance of winning.
At least one of the two prototypes seems to have survived. For people who are interested in the subject, please refer to the enthusiast website created especially for the Sprint 6C . We have portrayed the engine in a separate report.
How much would one of the 200 Sprint 6Cs that were unfortunately not built be worth today? Just imagine this vehicle with the famously wonderful-sounding Busso six-cylinder engine, weighing only 990 kg and producing at least 160 hp (before the Autodelta cure)!
P.S. The photos can of course also be found in the Zwischengas picture archive .
