Alfa Romeo appears, a fearsome SUV: reminiscent of the old Alfa 145

This was Alfa Romeo’s first true SUV: unfortunately, the aesthetics left something to be desired and the car was not a great success.

The Alfa Romeo brand range has been rapidly updated with What customers want Really: SUVs and crossovers, these are the most popular vehicles nowadays. Cars of this type cannot be absent from any brand’s list, so much so that the Italian brand now includes three cars: Stelvio, Tonale and Junior, originally known as Milano.

As often happens, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bproducing an SUV with Biscione brand It comes from very far away: a model that few remember and of which there is practically no trace even on the Internet, testifying to the Italian brand’s desire to produce a similar car for decades. It’s a shame that even though the car was designed by an exceptional designer, the result was not pleasant to look at at all!

Tastes are tastes and there is no debate on this matter, but there are limits. The Car What you are about to see It arrived when SUVs were not yet very popular, and in fact its design was rather immature. Perhaps the public’s lukewarm response to this prototype is the real reason the car never went into production and we had to wait twenty years to see the Stelvio as the Italian brand’s first crossover.

Utility vehicle on stilts

It was presented at the 1997 Geneva Motor ShowAlfa Romeo Sportutte Bertone It wasn’t exactly a conventional car at the time it came to market. This exotic car, literally an SUV, is over four meters long, equipped with all-wheel drive and theoretically with a 1,970 cc four-cylinder engine. We say “theoretically” because the prototype was actually “static”, and was created just for this exhibition.

Bertone is a famous car designer He gave us many race cars legendary. However, in the case of the Sportut, the guys who worked on the concept car might have gotten a little carried away: the car was a mixture of classic Alfa Romeo lines and futuristic details, created in a questionable red and grey, and equipped with light units that looked like they came from a car. Others were force-welded to the model and two ridiculous sloping mirrors that looked like Martian antennas.

Aside from its ugliness, the car He was definitely ahead At the time, far from being a small SUV like the ones so popular today, it featured interesting details like hidden door handles and all-wheel drive. Unfortunately for the company but fortunately for good taste, the car never made it past the prototype stage.