ELVIRA TELLS

Montreal, a dream by Bertone

 

22 April, 2018

 

Our Montreal was among the protagonists of the "ONE FOR ONE" exhibition, set up at Spazio MIL, on the occasion of Fuorisalone 2018. A captivatingly contemporary line and an icon of its time, the Montreal has been conquering for decades for its beauty, and it is no coincidence that it was defined as "Man's highest aspiration". As the curtain came down on Design Week, our indomitable Director brought it home.

 

And now Elvira Ruocco takes us through the history of the Montreal and Bertone... Elvira Racconta.

Montreal, a dream by Bertone

The Montreal, designed by Bertone, owes its name to the Montreal World Expo, held in the Quebec capital in 1967 to celebrate Canada's centenary. It was presented as a prototype. The organising committee chose it from among all the world's marques to symbolise man's highest aspirations in the field of automobiles.
It was officially presented at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1970.
The Montreal was a classy and prestigious sports car with a 2,593 cc 90° V8 engine with Spica mechanical injection, capable of delivering 200 bhp and a speed of 220 kph.

The bodywork is truly original: it is characterised by convex aerodynamic lines, with a flat bonnet and front lights shielded by grilles, a truncated tail and bumpers merged into the line of the bodywork.
Below are the curiosities I mentioned in the preview:

In 1971, in a scene of lights and colours, more than 150 cars of all sizes and tastes paraded through the streets to celebrate the 5th Sorrento Prize. Alfa Romeo polarised the attention with the whole range of its models and in particular with the Montreal, which was presented for the first time in the South. The parade of Alfa Romeo cars was preceded by four small spiders that reproduced the controls of real cars driven by four children.

In 1972, the magazine Quattroruote carried out a special test, or rather a raid, on board a Montreal, running on the edge of 200 km on the A1 motorway from Reggio Calabria to Bologna, then taking the Bologna-Padova to enter Austria via the Brenner pass, then Innsbruck, Munich, Nuremberg, Göttingen and stopping in Lübeck. 2574 kilometres (5.6 km to the gallon) covered in 20 hours without stopping. Something that today would be unthinkable for any car on a road open to traffic.

Montreal in the water
Alfa Romeo, which had been involved in motorboat racing since the early 1950s, prepared a version of the Montreal engine for racing in the Racers 2500 class in 1972.
This engine was called the Montreal 2500 and had a power output of 270 hp at 8300 rpm, later increased to 350 hp in the upgraded version of 3000 cm3 to be able to participate in the World Offshore Championship races, races in which Alfa was very interested because of its success all over the world.
The Montreal 2500 engine enabled Alfa to win the inboard world championship in 1973. Two years later, the Montreal 3000 engine gave Alfa another prestigious victory: the European Inboard Championship.

Elvira Ruocco, historical memory of Alfa Romeo, thanks to her more than twenty years of experience at the Alfa Romeo Centro di Documentazione Storica, has become part of the Museum team and in the column "Elvira Racconta" she will share curiosities and anecdotes that you may not know or remember. We will retrace the legendary history of Alfa Romeo with her.