The Alfa Romeo Tipo 103 is a sub-compact
front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...
automobile developed by
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...
in the late 1950s. A prototype powered by a 0.9 L
double overhead cam
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
inline-four engine
A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft.
The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...
was completed in 1960. Alfa did not put the Tipo 103 into production.
Background
After World War II Alfa Romeo moved to reinvent itself as a major auto manufacturer instead of a builder of small numbers of expensive high-performance sports and luxury cars. In 1950 they introduced the
Alfa Romeo 1900, a mid-sized
berlina that was the first Alfa built on a production line. In 1954 the even smaller
Giulietta was released to broaden the appeal of the brand.
At the April 1954
Turin Auto Show
The Turin Motor Show ( it, Salone dell'Automobile di Torino) was an auto show held annually in Turin, Italy. The first official show took place between 21 and 24 April 1900, at the Castle of Valentino, becoming a permanent fixture in Turin from ...
where the Giulietta debuted,
Rudolf Hruska
Rudolf Hruska (2 July 1915 in Vienna – 4 December 1995 in Turin) was an Austrian automobile designer and engineer, most famous for his design of various Alfa Romeo cars.
After graduating Vienna University of Technology he worked for Magirus ...
told Alfa mechanical engineer
Giuseppe Busso that
Finmeccanica
Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the eighth ...
, the mechanical industry sub-holding of the Italian government's public holding company
IRI
IRI or I.R.I. refers to:
Businesses and organizations
* Iringa Airport, an airport in Tanzania serving Iringa and the surrounding Iringa Region by IATA airport code
* India Rejuvenation Initiative, an Indian anti-corruption organization forme ...
and Alfa's `owners', planned to develop a microcar.
Hruska was a consulting engineer for Finmeccanica until 1954, when he was appointed Alfa's technical manager.
Prior to that conversation Busso had done preliminary design work for three front-wheel drive concepts.
His first was done in 1946 while still at
Ferrari, and a second in 1948 after he moved to Alfa Romeo. The third, started in April 1952, was code-named Project 13-61 and was a design for a car powered by a two-cylinder engine mounted transversely driving the front wheels. Project 13-61 did not make it to the prototype stage before development of the Giulietta took precedence. Busso believed that if development of the 13-61 had been allowed to continue, Alfa could have released a front-wheel drive microcar with a transverse engine in 1956, three years ahead of the Mini.
Busso reviewed these earlier studies following the conversation in Turin, and in December Alfa's senior management met with him and his team to assess them as well. Preliminary work was allowed to proceed, but it was not until 1957 that the features of the new car began to be settled. Air-cooling was considered and rejected, as was a
boxer engine
A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, wh ...
configuration, while use of front-wheel drive was approved. Displacement was to be 900 cc. The first drawings are dated January 1958.
In February 1958, Hruska set December of that year as the deadline for delivery of a complete set of drawings, with production to start in 1961.
In October 1958 Hruska left Alfa and new managing director Mangano christened the microcar development "Project V" and set a slightly lower displacement target of 850 cc.
In October 1958
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...
and Alfa Romeo signed an agreement of cooperation that led to
Renault Dauphines/Ondines and
R4s being assembled under license in the
Alfa Romeo Portello Plant
The Alfa Romeo Portello Plant in Portello Milan, Italy was the first Alfa Romeo factory, and the main factory between 1908 and the 1960s. The factory was closed in 1986 following FIAT's buyout of Alfa Romeo, but all major production had already b ...
and Renault distributing Alfas in France.
The first Alfa-built Dauphine rolled off the assembly line on June 4, 1959 and production of these licensed cars continued until 1966.
The prototype Tipo 103 was built in 1960. Road tests of the car did not begin until 1962.
Technical features
The Tipo 103 was built on a steel unibody chassis. Overall length was , and the car weighed .
The body style was a four-door
three-box
The configuration of a car body is typically determined by the layout of the engine, passenger and luggage compartments, which can be shared or separately articulated. A key design feature is the car's roof-supporting pillars, designated from fron ...
berlina with a tall greenhouse. The rear deck lid had a wide shallow recess running fore-and-aft which was continued in the front hood as an indented "V" that carried through into the upper grille of the car. The taillights were set into indentations in the rear of the car on either side.
Suspension was independent front and rear with coil-over shock absorbers. Brakes were disk front and drum rear.
An unusual feature of the rear suspension was that it was electrically adjustable.
Extensive work was done on the type of constant-velocity joint used to provide predictable behaviour but even then Busso felt it was a temporary solution.
Power came from a version of the
Alfa Romeo Twin Cam engine
The Alfa Romeo Twin Cam engine is an all-alloy inline-four engine series produced by Alfa Romeo from 1954 to 1994. In Italian it is known as the "bialbero" ("twin-shaft"), and has also been nicknamed the "Nord" (North) engine in reference to its be ...
adapted for the 103. This inline four-cylinder DOHC engine has two valves per cylinder and an aluminum head and cylinder block with steel wet liners. In the Tipo 103 it displaced with a bore of 66 mm and a stroke of 65.5 mm. Maximum power was at 5500 rpm. In adapting the Nord engine to a transverse application the engine block and transaxle cases were built as one unit. Power was transmitted to the front wheels through a four-speed fully synchronized manual gearbox. Top speed during testing was and the standing kilometer took 41.2 seconds.
Post-cancellation
Alfa Romeo did not put the Tipo 103 into production. At the time Alfa was building Renaults for the entry-level market, which freed them to focus on the more profitable middle- and upper-price market. It is speculated that Alfa's decision was also influenced by pressure from Fiat to honour a "gentleman's agreement" that Fiat would not build larger more expensive cars and Alfa would not intrude into the small car market that Fiat was active in.
Styling cues from the body of the 103 would appear in other later Alfa Romeos, including the
Giulia, which came to market in 1962.
It is widely believed that the Tipo 103 influenced the design of the
Renault 8
The Renault 8 (Renault R8 until 1964) and Renault 10 are two rear-engined, rear-wheel drive small family cars produced by the French manufacturer Renault in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The 8 was launched in 1962, and the 10, a more upmarket ve ...
that was introduced in 1962 with a Vee hood and boxy shape but with a rear-mounted engine.
Alfa Romeo would revisit the concept of a compact front wheel drive car a decade later with the government-backed
Alfasud.
The Tipo 103 prototype and three engines are preserved at the
Alfa Romeo Museum
Museo Storico Alfa Romeo (Alfa Romeo Historical Museum; subsequently called Museo Alfa Romeo - La macchina del tempo, literally ''Alfa Romeo Museum - The time machine'') is Alfa Romeo's official museum, located in Arese (Province of Milan, Milan), ...
in
Arese
Arese ( lmo, Ares ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, about northwest of Milan.
Arese borders the following municipalities: Lainate, Garbagnate Milanese, Bollate, Rho, Milan.
Arese ...
.
References
Further reading
*
* Georg Amtmann, Halwart Schrader: ''Italienische Sportwagen.'' Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, .
*
External links
*
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{{Alfa Romeo
Tipo 103
Cars introduced in 1960
Front-wheel-drive vehicles
Sedans