Concorso Italiano 2002 - Alfas, Etc.

Alfa Romeos have lovely engines, and I like the rare Montreal in yellow and red.

A current production Alfa sedan and Fiat Stilo hatchback, neither of which is imported into the U.S. All the more ironic that Stilo, more stylish than pretty, was styled by an American designer. Many wonder if we may see this and other Alfas brought in now that GM owns part of Alfa and may buy Alfa Romeo outright from Fiat. Hopefully GM won't then kill Alfa as it did with another early auto brand, Oldsmobile.

Previous Italian-American adventures: Bizzarini, Apollo, Iso, Intermeccanica. Bizzarini and Iso were Italian cars with American engines. Apollo and Intermeccanica were American cars with Italian bodies. Makes and buyers of these cars felt they had the best of both worlds with reliable American power and charming Italian style.

Etceterini: nice Aston Martin street car, Maseratis and a yellow Ferrari 275 Spyder, several Maserati Boras, wonderfully cool rear-engined Abarth microcars, nicely detailed V-8, slant narrow-angle V-4 of a Lancia Fulvia, purported barn finds. The narrow-angle V-4 reminds that Italian engineering tickles both sides of the brain, as does classical-minded Italian styling. Italian engineering can be creative yet reasoned, and classical styling can be beautiful yet balanced and proportioned.