The Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva is a 2-litre

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

made by

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

car manufacturer

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." ...

in 1954. Although developed to be built in a small series, just four were made — two

coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

s and two

spiders Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species dive ...

History

The 2000 Sportiva was intended to be produced in limited volumes for Alfa Romeo's more sporting clientele, and to be used as a high-speed

grand tourer A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with either ...

or for racing in the sport class. The car never made it into series production: only four were built, two open-top spiders (also known as Alfa Romeo 1900 Sport Spider) and two 2-seat coupés. Both bodies were designed by

Franco Scaglione __NOTOC__ Franco Scaglione (26 September 1916 – 19 June 1993) was an Italian automobile coachwork designer. Biography Franco Scaglione was born in Florence to Vittorio Scaglione, a chief army doctor, and to Giovanna Fabbri, captain of the ...

Bertone Bertone is an Italian surname meaning "descendant of Roberto". Notable people with the surname include: * Alicia Bertone, American academic, researcher, and veterinary surgeon * Catherine Bertone (born 1972), Turkish-born female Italian marathon r ...

. Today a metallic silver coupé and a red spider are part of 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 (Milan), and displaying a p ...

collection. Some traits of the coupé—such as the wrap-around rear window and rear end treatment—were later seen on the mass-produced

Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint The Alfa Romeo Giulietta (''Tipo 750'' and ''Tipo 101'', meaning "Type 750" and "Type 101") is a family of automobiles made by Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo from 1954 until 1965 which included a 2+2 coupé, four-door saloon, estate, spi ...

, also by Bertone.

Specifications

Like the earlier

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, the 2000 Sportiva uses a tubular

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chassis covered by an all-

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

body, and a

front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout In automotive design, a FR, or front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout is one where the engine is located at the front of the vehicle and driven wheels are located at the rear via a drive shaft. This was the traditional automobile layout for most ...

. Front suspension was by

double wishbone A double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design for automobiles using two (occasionally parallel) wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckle ...

s, while at the rear there was a

De Dion axle file:De Dion axle (297670071).jpg, De Dion rear axle A de Dion tube is a form of non-independent suspension, independent automobile suspension (vehicle), suspension. It is a considerable improvement over the swing axle, Hotchkiss drive, or live ...

. Brakes were diagonally finned

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, the rears mounted

inboard An inboard motor is a marine propulsion system for boats. As opposed to an outboard motor where an engine is mounted outside the hull of the craft, an ''inboard motor'' is an engine enclosed within the hull of the boat, usually connected to a pr ...

The engine was a

dual overhead camshaft 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 ...

1997.4 cc (bore 85 mm, stroke 88 mm)

inline-four 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 ...

, with a

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

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, aluminium

cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern ov ...

, and

hemispherical combustion chamber A hemispherical combustion chamber is a type of combustion chamber in a reciprocating internal combustion engine with a domed cylinder head notionally in the approximate shape of a hemisphere (in reality usually a spheric section thereof). An en ...

s. Fed by two twin-choke side-draft

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carburettor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...

s, it produced at 6,500 rpm, giving the car a top speed of . The transmission was a 5-speed

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

References

Bibliography

* {{Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva Bertone vehicles Cars introduced in 1954