Alfa Romeo, eight-cylinders—that’s a rather evocative cluster of letters. If you’re any sort of Alfisti like us, the very mention of an eight-cylinder Alfa has you slack-jawed and glaze-eyed with thoughts of Alfa’s pre-war straight-eight monsters that claimed world championships and terrorized Italian farmroads, and then onto dreams of Alfa’s high-revving racing V-8s from the 1950s and 1960s that begat the outrageously stylish Tipo 33 Stradale and the later Montreal. Eventually, you’ll settle on the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione from the late 2000s, shredding tires and breaking hearts with its Ferrari/Maserati V-8.
This 1974 Alfa Romeo Alfasud is none of those.
The tinny and rust-prone Alfasud was likely the last Alfa to enter your mind during that daydream sequence, yet this liveried Alfasud hatch headed for RM Sotheby’s upcoming Paris sale qualifies for that exclusive roped-off eight-cylinder section of the Alfa club. Take note on how we’re framing all this—we