Was fortunate to see a AR Montreal years ago, like an Italian woman, a fond memory in the past! AR is like sirens that call you, and not forgotten! Viva Alfa Romeo!

One of the cars that defined my vision as a child of the perfect machine. I went when I was 11, 12, 13 to the Earls Court Motor Show in London. You could buy a combined rail, tube and entry ticket at the station. I was about 30minutes away. I would collect brochures, as many as I could carry home. All sorts from the mid-70s. Opel GT-2 concept, Morgan, X1-9, 2002 Turbo, Coleman-Milne limousines and even the dull stuff like Simca 1100 and Fiat 133, Peugeot 504 and Hillman Hunter. The best brochure I ever had was for the Montreal. Printed in landscape and carrying a profile shot across two opened pages. When I left home, I threw out all the brochures... They filled a large family estate car with the rear seats folded and weighed the car down. But... I didn't know about nostalgia back then. What took years to collect from dealerships and shows as a child... and 20 minutes to drive to a landfill site. But the Montreal brochure stands out as a memory of dreams long gone and almost forgotten. Lovely video about a car that was almost... A car that was nearly... A car that might have... But ultimately a car that didn't. Thanks anyway. Excellent video about a fabulous machine. Bravo!

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

I used to have a nice brochure collection too (not as large as your old ones though) but, having no use nor space for it, I donated to the National Automobile Museum’s public library here in Turin, so enthusiasts can use it for their research if they need it.

I have been fortunate enough to get driven round Knockhill circuit in one for a few shakedown laps. It was so smooth, also went round in a Gulia ti that was crazy!

Surely one of the best and most desirable cars to be produced under the Alfa Romeo badge.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Indeed!

We just bought our pristine 1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal a few months back! I love every inch of the beauty queen and she turns a lot of heads here in California. We named her Farrah ;)

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Wow, that’s cool, congratulations!!!!

A dream - what a beauty. Painted in LUCI DEL BOSCO, it' s one of my favorite AR.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

I like that color too, it looks very elegant and has a very romantic name too

I saw this car here in Montreal at the annual Alfa club. It was so small, I was shocked! Possibally one of my favourite Alfas. Great video again!

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!!

Interesting fact about the Montreal, was that the chassis was based on the Giulia Sprint GT, fittingly given a 105 model family designation (105.64 and 105.65 for the RHD versions). As with the contemporary Junior Z, the fuel tank was relocated at the passenger side, and the rear floorpan was redesigned. Main issue was the handling. ALFA marketed the Montreal as a sports car with a racing engine, but the underpinnings were quite humble, and unable to manage the torque of the V8. It has been reported that Bertone was shocked when ALFA asked him to reengineer the chassis for the V8, and strongly protested against it, with Gandini agreeing with him. 2 additional hard points were added to the chassis legs, but this wasn't enough to achieve adequate structural rigidity, especially lateral twist. The gearbox was a ZF dog-leg 5-speed unit, and a LSD at the back, with a relatively short 10:41 final drive. Most magazines pitched the Montreal against the 911, where its flaws were highlighted. Ideally, the Montreal was best suited for highway relaxing drives close to 200 km/h, and not for twisting mountain roads. It was underappreciated for nearly 30 years, but good examples today command close to 100.000 Euros. An interesting piece of ALFA's troubled history, and as always, great job Matteo!

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for this very interesting comment. The Montreal was a compromised design, but it just couldn't happen any other way due to cost and time constraints. We often forget that Alfa in the 1960s was a profitable but also very small company, with perhaps too many projects competing for a slice of its tiny R&D resources.

One of the best looking cars to ever exist and a unique engine as well magnifico!!

I've loved the Montreal since I saw one ( In Toronto ) back in 1975. My father explained what it was to my eager ,6 year old. self.

Your information and passion is still a treat to watch and listen too. ...

@Matteo_Licata

11 ай бұрын

Thank you!!!!

un sogno!!! Purtroppo per me resterà solo un sogno!!! Grazie per il video!!!

Christmas has just come early! Thank you Matteo. When I read early road tests by the motoring press , I already wanted them to rave and rave about it because it was an Alfa Romeo ! Even before I started the first paragraph . The engine , they did give very high praise for. Because of a combination of the De tuning process as well as increasing the capacity, it endowed the car with incredible torque characteristics and well as being free- reving to its red line . Some road test articles claimed the car would start off in 4th gear from a standstill with some slipping of the clutch ( unusual for a high output against small capacity engine for its day.) . The chassis had more moderate reviews , despite Alfa still leading the world in how to locate a back axle , which still gave a lot of independent rear sprung cars a run for their money. Nowadays , modern road testers said the car was under developed in that department, I but I don’t rate them as drivers compared to the “ old school “ motoring journalists from the past. Always loved the Montreal , always will ❤

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

It really was a fantastic GT, indeed! Thank you, glad you enjoyed the vid!

Ahah che coincidenza, mi sono sparato video su video della Montreal ieri ed oggi 😂👍👍🇮🇹🇮🇹😍 meravigliosa!

Fascinating to hear the story behind the car, very informative, thank you!

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, glad you appreciated it!

Alfa Romeo Montreal 🇮🇹 ❤

The Montreal is by far my favourite car ever. Whenever I drove my Alfetta GTV I imagined I was driving a Montreal. Then one day in Bournemouth I saw one in the flesh at a dealership open day. It was beautiful and I knew I had been in love all the previous years. However it was brown, who in their right mind makes a brown sports car? That said I was still in love. True love us blind

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Even though I like the brown metallic “Luci del Bosco” available for the Montreal, I admit I would have picked another color for it, I agree!

A very informative video, grazie! The Montreal sports a timelessly beautiful design. I recall seeing a number of Montreals in the late 60s and early 70s. Those were the good old days of (Alfa) beauties on the roads.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!!!

Another brilliant video! Merry Christmas to you and your beloved. Ciao 🙋‍♂️

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones as well!

Bellissima, un capolavoro, per me una tra le 5-6 macchine più belle al mondo di sempre ❤❤❤❤

Outstanding channel Matteo, keep up the magnificent work. Your videos are educational and truly fulfills my passion for Alfa Romeo. Hats off from Egypt.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!!! Glad you enjoy my work, this kind support is what keeps me going 👍

Theres' a one of the urban legends. It says that the engineers and designers of the Honda company was very impressed with Montreal. And as a tribute to the great car, Honda changed its logo in the style of the one used on Montreal, under the rear number plate.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

That’s one I had never heard before!

Most beautifull car ever

Thanks Matteo, a nice Xmas surprise. Have a great new year. (You mentioned the Canguro early in this video. This is one of my all time favourite designs. Any chance you could do a video on the Canguro?)

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Same to you, happy New Year Anthony! I’d really like to make a video about the Canguro, but I have no footage of it and it’s unlikely I will anytime soon, as the car is in Japan.

I cannot believe I haven’t seen a video on the Montreal on your channel already Matteo. Ah well, Christmas keeps on giving

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

I did cover the Montreal in 2020 but, given that video wasn’t one I was particularly happy with and it wasn’t pulling many views anyways, I’ve replaced it with this one :)

@davesclassicgaragetours

Жыл бұрын

@@Matteo_Licata This felt as fresh as a daisy. Really liked it.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Great, thank you!!!!

Very interesting story. I have a question, do you have a story explaining the triangle grill and the meaning of the badge on Alfas? Thanks great channel.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Regarding the Alfa badge, I do have a video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/dGVps9hmdsKpcZc.html but regarding the front end graphic that's typical of Alfas I haven't done anything yet, could be a good idea for the future!

Very nice looking car, but that v8 was a bit underpowered compared to the competition at the time. Alfa Romeo didn't make another V8 sports cars until the 8c competizione, pity they didn't produce some in the 80s and 90s or the last decade. There are rumors of a V8 car coming soon from Alfa, hope that's true. Great video Matteo, thanks.

Great video man

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!!!

grazie mille, Matteo buon natale

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Grazie mille, Buon Natale anche a te!

Sad ending. Impressed with your history knowledge about the Yom Kippur war. Greets from Israel

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Always enjoyed studying history, even if cars aren’t involved. I’d like to visit Israel sometime too

@sainta2667

Жыл бұрын

@@Matteo_Licata You're more then welcome Matteo ! A lot of Italian car lovers here and everything that has 'Italia' in it ;-)

Stunning Design!

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Sure it is!

Talking about the Spica injection: how’s spare part supply today and maybe even more importantly, can mechanics still be found who know how to deal with it?

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

The answer to your question is the one you probably imagine: finding a ‘shop that can maintain it properly is very difficult, and the same applies to spares. After all, this is 50 years old stuff made by a company that ceased to exist 30 years ago or more.

The new Giulia SWB Zagato has quite an inspiration from this one in the frontal part I think, I really like it there.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

The new Zagato has generated quite a discussion among Alfisti here in Italy, but I refrained from commenting on it because, being a one-off commissioned by an individual, the only person it really has to please is its owner. Still, a very cool project

@AlessandroGenTLe

Жыл бұрын

@@Matteo_Licata I'm from north of Milan and new Giulia (gas) owner ;) Writing in En due to respect and because this is an international channel

When Italians make a tremendous Camaro!

@Matteo_Licata

5 ай бұрын

:)

👏👏👏👏👏👏

Hank you again, for a relaxing and informative video. Bravo Matteo! When i was a kid i always tought the Montreal was a 2 seater. But its a familycar. 😁

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Well, as long as your family isn’t composed of more than two people, the Montreal will do just fine as a family car ;)

Interesting as usual, but why not add some dynamic footage too.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

I'm not the BBC or Discovery Channel, just a man with a laptop :) I do what I can with the footage I can produce, and I don't know anyone who could let me film a moving Montreal, sadly.

Sorry had to wait a couple of days, to watch this on my favorite Alfa, with a glass of good Whisky in hand.

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

That sounds great 👍

@marcusott2973

Жыл бұрын

@Roadster Life when this whisky was distilled Alfa was still making the 164. 🥃😉

@madgardener5820

Жыл бұрын

Alfas and whisky don't mix. Hell let's do it anyway - I'm in.

Apart from the Montreal engine and the turbulent times the company faced, did Giuseppe Busso or any other designer within Alfa Romeo ever look at any other road-going V8 projects pre-Fiat takeover? Specifically one that had some commonality with either the Twin-Cam or V6?

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

As far as I know, no other V8s destined for road cars were designed at Alfa Romeo: there’s no trace of one in the memories and interviews left by the likes of Busso and Chiti.

Italians are the best engineers. Period. But I think Italians are very bad at marketing. Just imagine-fuel injected dry sump v8 with 80 hp/l power. In the 60-s!! But nobody knows about it. Let's look at the Multiair system-this is the revolution. While Keniggsegg talking about free float valves, Italians just made it in 2007 and start to put it on regular cars. But again-nobody knows about it. That sad. P.s. proud owner of the 2022 Stelvio, 1991 164, and 2013 Fiat 500.

Never seen one!All the bad rap it had and it still wouldnt stop me wanting one.....

@Matteo_Licata

Жыл бұрын

The bad rap is mostly unwarranted, by the way, generated by second and third owners who often didn’t maintain it properly.

Quando alfa ti faceva battere il 💞

Io and me padre just spoke about this this morning and of the detomaso that he could afford in the late 80s. And now he is crying because he never did it to import it from Italia to us herw in South Africa. Ce cazo