The Alfa Romeo New York Taxi is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

that was designed by

Italdesign Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A. is a design and engineering company and brand based in Moncalieri, Italy, that traces its roots to the 1968 foundation of Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani. Best kno ...

in 1976 at the invitation of the

New York Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

. The concept was designed to guidelines from the museum aimed at producing a cleaner, more efficient taxi. It featured a body length of and could seat five. The taxi also featured its own flat floor space for wheelchair storage under the seats and

sliding door A sliding door is a type of door which opens horizontally by sliding, usually horizontal to a wall. Sliding doors can be mounted either on top of a track below or be suspended from a track above. Some types slide into a space in the parallel w ...

s on both sides, making it one of the first cars to have this feature. It was based on the front-wheel drive running gear of the Alfa Romeo F12 van, including a 1.3-litre petrol engine and an independent suspension in both the front and rear. Some of the design principles explored in the taxi were expanded upon with the

Lancia Megagamma The Lancia Megagamma is a small, almost one-box, concept MPV, designed by Italdesign and introduced at the 1978 Turin Motor Show. In retrospect the Megagamma was more influential on later designs than it was itself successful, becoming the "con ...

, which was a less boxy, more streamlined prototype that gave form to the modern

multi-purpose vehicle Minivan (sometimes called simply as van) is a North American car classification for vehicles designed to transport passengers in the rear seating row(s), with reconfigurable seats in two or three rows. The equivalent classification in Europe i ...

(MPV).

References

See also