1968 Alfa Romeo Gran Sport Quattroruote

RM Sotheby’s, Phoenix, USA 28-29 January

THIS LITTLE CORNER of the magazine is generally populated by lots that reflect interesting and emerging market trends. This month, though, we’re simply curious to see what bidders at RM’s Phoenix sale will make of one of the weirder cars ever built.

The Alfa Romeo Gran Sport Quattroruote looks like a car of the 1930s, and indeed was inspired by the 6C 1750 Grand Sport Spider – but it was in fact introduced in 1965. The Giulia-based two-seater was not the only retro car of the period (both the Siata Spring and the Vignale Gamine attempted, in considerably less handsome style, to revive the aesthetics of an earlier time), but the genesis of the Quattroruote was particularly strange. Its name was taken from the popular motoring magazine Quattroruote, which basically willed the car into being in an article. Zagato accepted the challenge of building a modern machine styled a+er the aforementioned 6C, and in no time at all Alfa Romeo was supplying purpose-built chassis to the carrozzeria to be fitted with ‘old-fashioned’ aluminium bodywork.

In total 92 examples of the car were made, including this one, which is described as being in ‘very nice’ condition throughout thanks to the efforts of its current owner. The pre-sale estimate of $125,000-175,000 is in line with sums being asked in the trade, but until bids are invited in January there will be some uncertainty over the car’s potential; now, as in 1965, a 6C with a four-cylinder Giulia engine is a niche product.

Regardless of the eventual hammer price, the Quattroruote has given us much to think about… The March issue of Octane will now be 282 pages of us yelling at Mazda to build an MX-5-based Cosmo.