1954 Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva

In the late fifties, Alfa Romeo was looking to revive the glory of their prewar period. To do so they built several ‘flying saucers’ called Disco Volantes for the track and the Sportiva as a road-going version. While neither project made production, both encouraged the design of several unique cars and the Sportiva ranks as one of the best sports cars from the fifties. The Sportiva was a small car that relied on the solid Alfa Romeo engineering built up from the prewar period. Like the Disco Volante, the Sportiva featured a tubular space frame and a hot version of the DOHC engine sourced from Alfa’s immediate post-war family saloon, the 1900. But to stay competitive with the with cars like the Mercedes-Benz SL300, Alfa Romeo focused on creating a small design to utilize all the 138 bhp that was available.

So, a short wheelbase chassis was sent to the Studios of Bertone to be dressed in a body that would attract customers as series production supercar. Franco Scaglione was assisted with the project and together with Bertone they designed both a coupe and convertible version.

Even though the Sportiva complied with sport category racing regulations, the car never went into regular production. Only four show cars were completed including two convertible examples. It is a shame really, since the car was road tested as very production worthy