1963 Alfa Romeo 2600 Bertone Sprint Coupe



Our 2600 Sprint was purchased on eBay from a west coast dealer. While it was in running condition, it was burning a tremendous amount of oil, which turned out to be a broken compression ring. Unseen in the nice eBay photos was a lot of bodywork from an earlier rear-end collision. Much time and money has been spent on this car, but it presently sits disassembled in our barn. She has been media blasted and primed with a coat of epoxy, and most of the collision damage has been professionally repaired. Someday, when Sprint prices justify, she will be restored. For now she rests.



The following excerpt is from Wikipedia:

It was a large grand touring coupe which could seat four adults in comfort over long journeys at high speeds. As such, it did not suffer unfair comparisons to other models in the Alfa Romeo range, none of which could directly compare to it. In that mode of operation, oriented more towards fast touring than sporting driving, the agility and handling balance of the smaller Alfas mattered less, while the stability and smoother ride of the larger car, and the wide power and torque band of the six-cylinder engine, came into their own. Added to the greater space and comfort, those virtues made a convincing case for the 2600 Sprint. The car also inherited the sharp, modern styling of its predecessor, the 2000 Sprint, and that certainly contributed to its being the top seller in the 2600 range. That shape had been the result of Giorgetto Giugiaro's first major project as head designer for Carrozeria Bertone, and is arguably one of the most influential designs in the history of automotive styling.
A certain number of 2600 Sprint were purchased by the Italian government and specially equipped and modified to be used as
Police and Carabinieri patrol cars, respectively nicknamed "Pantera" (panther) and "Gazzella" (gazelle), from the emblems of their rapid intervention teams. The cars were very suitable for high-speed pursuits to counter the increase in armed robberies by motorized gangs in 1960s Italy, and appeared in quite a few genre movies of the time.