ALFA ROMEO PROTEO, 1991

You might think that 2021 has been a bit of a bust, but 1991 wasn’t that much better. A year notable for Operation Desert Storm, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the death of Freddie Mercury. But still, there was a bright red glimmer of hope in the form of the Alfa Romeo Proteo concept, revealed in Geneva.

The concept was based on Alfa’s venerable 164 saloon, with a chunk chopped out of the middle. Styling-wise it took the challenging wedge-tastic shapes of the SZ coupe and its roadster sibling and softened them, made them a smidge more acceptable to the human eye. The Proteo has an elegant rising beltline and squirrels the SZ’s square triple lights behind an extended bonnet.

Keen-eyed Alfa fans will no doubt spot the further similarities with the Alfa Romeo Spider, which arrived in 1995. The Proteo was designed by Walter de Silva, head of the company’s Centro Stile. That’s the company’s design centre, Alfa didn’t just take a punt on the guy who ran the factory canteen. Work had already started on the Spider before de Silva arrived, but the Proteo was Walter’s stamp on Alfa’s new look.

Then-Alfa boss Giovanni Battista Razelli told an excited press gaggle the Proteo concept was production ready, that it would go into a limited run of 2,000 cars. But it only managed three prototypes. Sad times.

So what happened? There’s nothing particularly wacky about the Proteo, other than the fact it’s an early Nineties Alfa Romeo, although the disappearing hardtop roof was a particular novelty. A few cranks had tried out the mechanism in the brief history of the car, but it wasn’t until 1996’s Mercedes SLK that the modern craze started.

The Proteo was the very opposite of the crazy concept car inside – you might even call it a touch sober for an Alfa, and a boring interior definitely means a concept car is going into production. The instrument panel and dials are familiar to anyone who has seen an Alfa in the last 40 years or so, the dash inexplicably festooned with buttons to create your basic ergonomic nightmare.

Under the bonnet was Alfa’s delightfully charismatic 3.0-litre V6 petrol, four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering for extra grip and handling. The engine produced 256bhp and took the car to a top speed of 155mph; it all sounds like it would’ve been a hoot. An expensive hoot, perhaps.

You can visit one of the three prototypes at the Alfa Romeo museum in Milan, but the closest you could get to owning one of these high-tech bad boys was speccing your 1995 Spider in a wistful metallic shade of Rosso Proteo. Thanks for nothing, 1991.