Freelance automotive designers are no different than anyone else in the creative field: they like to get more bucks for their bang. Pininfarina’s Florida Coupe created a raft of design jobs, and the Florida’s lines were recycled across the globe. Giorgetto Giugiario penned two very similar cars in around 1972-1973, the VW Scirocco and this Alfasud Sprint, later know as the the Alfa Romeo Sprint. The Sprint had many endearing qualities, including a low front-mounted boxer four. But it had one quality that practically destroyed it.
The story of the Alfasud, the basis for this coupe version is quite fascinating in its own right. A brilliantly advanced FWD sedan designed by Austrian Rudolf Hruska, it was a cornucopia of all the most technically leading edge engieering concepts: water-cooled boxer four driving the front wheels (a la Panhard and others), inboard front brakes, and a very light but roomy body.For 1971, it was extremely advanced, and perhaps the Golf’s closest progenitor except for its drive train configuration. Incidentally, or not, the Alfasud was also penned by Giorgio Giugiaro.
But the Alfasud was flawed in its execution by several minor issues and a truly fatal one: one of the most rust prone car ever, at least the ones from the first few years of production. It has been alleged that many Alfasud bodies were already rusting before they were even painted, by virtue of the fact that they were sometimes exposed to the elements in a totally bare state. And its not like there were any rust-preventive measurements taken prior to painting.
Let’s leave all that oxidization behind and briefly enjoy what could have been, but is no more. The Alfasud Sprint was available in with a choice of 1300, 1400 and 1500 cc engines, with horsepower ratings from 75 to 105. About the exact same size as the Scirocco, it was praised for its smooth and zingy engines, and good handling.
In 1983, the Sprint was majorly revised, renamed the Alfa Romeo Sprint , and now sharing underpinnings with the Alfa Romeo 33 (above), itself the successor to the Alfasud and its boxer drive train. Engine choices included a 1700cc version with up to 118 hp. The Sprint endeared itself to those that were able to make its body last long enough.
The Sprint had a couple of more disadvantages. A high and impractical liftgate, and a fixed sway bar mounted behind the rear seats just below shoulder height. I don’t remember if the rear seats were foldable, but I think that they were not. So, it really wasn’t the most practical of car.
Edit: It’s not really a sway bar, it seems to be more integral for holding everything together.
http://alfaamore.hu/kepnezo/blog/3114?num=3
That’s a typical structural panel one finds (or used to find) in sedans, but makes negates the benefits of a folding seat with a hatch (or even without one). I guess the Alfasud body structure must have required it? Hard to imagine the sedan didn’t have fold down seats either with its hatch.
But the regular Alfasud didn’t have a hatch. At least not initially. It was a four door fastback sedan. The small letterbox luggage compartment door had outside hinges for space utilisation, á la Mini side door. I’ll check when it got a hatchback.
Edit: The Alfasud debuted in 1971, but didn’t get a hatch until 1981, only a couple of years before being replaced. Though there were a 3-door station wagon, introduced in 1975.
That explains it!
When I lived in Zimbabwe in ’96-’99 there were still quite a few of the sedans around. There were other cars which had been imported in greater numbers (Renault 4 for instance) that had all but disappeared, so I doubt they were the ABSOLUTE worst rusting car ever.
I agree. Calling this “the most rust prone car ever” is a very big, very brave, call and probably deserves a post of its own. Maybe they didn’t stand up to the salted road of Iowa too well, but they lasted pretty well in Australia. Some are still on the road, and for sale.
http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/private/details.aspx?Cr=0&R=9532021&keywords=&trecs=2&__Ns=pCar_RankSort_Int32|1||pCar_PriceSort_Decimal|1||pCar_Make_String|0||pCar_Model_String|0&__sid=12E9A60AAFC6&__Nne=15&__Qpb=true&seot=1&__N=1216%201247%201252%201282%204294967235%204294967249&silo=1011
OK, maybe not the worst (what was?), and they did get better after the first few years, but the rep of the earliest ones was pretty legendary.
Lancia Beta. Or, really, any Italian car built in the 70s or 80s. It’s a 59-way tie.
I’ve known about the alfasud’s rep a looong time, but I just checked wiki, for what it’s worth:
The Alfa Romeo Sprint has justifiably been criticized about rust and poor build quality[by whom?], the rust being a result of both the quality of the cheaply-bought Swiss(?; Russian, actually) steel used for the Alfasuds at the time (which happened to contain quite some impurities), and the method of transporting the unpainted bodyworks through any kind of weather on open trolleys, towards the painting-plant in a separate building[citation needed]. Word has it they often arrived already slightly rusty in named painting-plant, and subsequently still were painted anyway; and without any of the protectives so common nowadays[by whom?]. They were built in a then new car plant in southern Italy, in Pomigliano d’Arco, hence the original ‘Sud’ moniker which means south. Other Alfa models were still being built in Milano.
The Sud’s penchant for rust gave Alfas in general a bad name in this respect, which until today haunts their reputation; even though their more recent and current cars are not more rust-prone than most other car-brands.
A possible reason why the ‘sud was still around in Zimbabwe is because African Alfasuds were made in Brits, South Africa. Only the mechanical bits were from Italy, the rest of the vehicle was locally made.
The Wikipedia article is wrong on the sourcing of the steel. It was cheap recycled thinner gage russian steel, not swiss.
The Alfasud factory was located close enough to the sea that salt spray could contact the bodies before paint application. Labor relations were extremely poor leading to more than 700 strikes by the 1984.
Any car that has its windshield pop out while being unloaded for the first time due to seam weld rusting gets my vote for most rust prone car ever!
Favorite quote while looking up this info: “Alfasud: The Corrode Warrior. It was the car that gave rust a bad name.” Lemon!-Sixty Heroic Automotive Failures
Other info: Tim’s Alfasud Page
I remember reading about it being Russian steel. No such thing as cheap Swiss steel! I added an update to that wiki quote.
The steel was payment to Fiat for the rights to build Ladas and judging by the number of old Ladas still rattling along over here the Russkis did a way better job than the Italians, examples of their dubious mechanical skills are very rare.
Seems like this and the Alfetta/GT/GTV would have stepped all over each other. Similar in fact to the Riviera/Somerset Regal conflict.
Did the Alfasud gain any interior space advantage with the FWD? Or are they not as close in size as pictures make them look?
The size may not have been that different, but there were substantial mechanical differences, and the cars were marketed to different demographics. The Alfasud Sprint was the perfect european secretary car, along with the Scirocco and earlier perhaps the Opel GT. The Sprint was for your wife, the GTV was for you. It’s not more different than Triumph, with its Spitfire, TRs, and Stag. Alfa had a similar lineup with the Sprint, Spider, GTV, and Montreal.
All Italian cars rusted. I assume they don’t use salt on highways in Italy. But, leave us not forget the Vega — “made out of compressed rust”: Dave Barry.
Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I always thought that the ’55 and ’56 Buicks were the worst rusters in the world, especially after I saw a ten-year-old one sitting in front of a wrecking yard with rust-out almost all the way around those full rear wheel cutouts, to say nothing of the rockers and front quarters. I never even saw a ’57 Mopar that bad.
Alfasuds would hole thru within 12 months they were rubbish, early Vauxhall Victors were the worst untill these came along then Lancia Betas outrusted even Alfas, Italian build quality at its finest biggest joke of all Fiat will save Chrysler yeah right
Rust was an issue in the 70ies, for sure, independent of the make (Golf/Rabbits, rusted, French cars did traditionally too, even a Mercedes S class at this time needed careful rust care/prevention).
But Alfas were among the worst. A friend of mine bought the Alfasud as a brand new car and had to scrap it after just two years because of massive rust everywhere. Such a nice car, a joy to drive and to look at.
BTW: I don’t believe in this Russian steel conspiracy. A simple explanation might be that neither the manufacturer nor the typical customers really cared for rust prevention. For the latter, this would have meant a lot of DIY work, as, e.g., carefully getting rid of snow and ice after each trip during winter. A typical Alfa/Lancia/Fiat/Citroen/Simca/Renault driver would not have done so.
I think the rust issue is a complex one! ALL European cars rusted easily until modern galvanising processes became widely used in the 1990’s I had a 1999 Peugeot which after sustaining crash damage REFUSED to rust- simple it was galvanised.
Even now some cheap cars such as early Kas and vans rust quickly.
Back in the ’70s cars rusted because of cost cutting leading to poor paintwork and no factory undersealing. When they were painted properly and undesealed they last pretty well, especially when their owners kept them clean. I’ve lost count of the number of classic cars I’ve examined which have been caked with mud under the wheel arches- I’d say cleaning or lack of it is, after paintwork the biggest factor in rust prevention.
I have a ’82 sud sprint and it’s my daily driver. It has never had any major rust work but, to be honest, is due for some now. So, regarding rust, it really depends where you live. The main killer of old Alfas where I live (Australia) is apathy. Anyway, it’s a great little car so I think I’ll spend the money.
Regarding the worst rusting car ever, my nomination is the BMW E9 coupes of the ’70s. They rust everywhere (including the roof!) and were the most expensive cars in BM’s line up. The legend is that the company BMW hired to assemble them, Karmann, didn’t protect the shells from the weather before painting them.
That’s a good call Tim, I’ve looked at a few E9 coupes and theyre up there with the Sud in terms of rust. What’s odd about the BMW coupes is where they rust- inside the engine bay, in the middle of door panels, inside the boot, the firewall. The panels must have been rusty before painting.
I looked at buying a ‘Sud recently too- weird- wheel arches good, outer sills reasonable, front valance good. All the places you’d expect a ’70s car to rust were OK. However, inside engine bay, lousy. Middle of roof, scabby! ‘A’ pillars, scrap.
In other words the easily accessible parts of the car that could be repainted/ undersealed and generally cared for by the owner were fine wearas those areas that can’t be gotten to are poor.
Hence bad steel wasn’t the problem, poor surface prep and lousy paintwork by the manufacturer was.
Late 70’s Honda Civics. They will give the Vegas and the Fiats a good run for their money in the rust game.
Having owned a Alfa Sprint, there was another key feature missed here – the inboard brakes. While this was great for unsprung weight reduction, they did get hot & faded quickly….and fixing the handbrake tension was quite a job.
Personally I favour the Sprint over the Sud in the looks department and the light weight with the boxer engine really made you feel like you were going fast regardless of the actual speed.
My old man had two and rust and oil leaks were a part of it’s life.If Only we kids who were 5 and 8 when it was time to trade it in the first one could have persuaded him to look elsewhere in 1983 when it was time to trade up.Don’t get me wrong the hatch practicality and the fun factor was one thing but You could in Australia get either a Renault Fuego GTX 2.0l for similar money to the Alfa or from left field not to be dismissed as a wild card existed Ford with it’s Laser KB Sport(specifications were about the same with 1.5l twin carb engine,four wheel discs and 5 speed manual.the only real difference was you didn’t have to crouch down coupe style to get anyone into the rear seats(Italians might dismiss a generation ahead Mazda 323 SS by any other name as a pretender).Of course there was also the Honda Prelude but that was another size larger.
Quelle voiture ne rouillez pas à cette epoque ?