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Off radar

The Fallen Stars
Alfa Romeo 2uettottanta

Killed by the wrong name?

Photo credit: Alfa Romeo, Pininfarina

All too often, Alfa Romeo has been the victim of sacrifices that have made it lose customers waiting to celebrate its magnificent past once again. The Milanese brand, before it was bought by Fiat, had shown great imagination and passion. 

Harmony and efficiency: Pininfarina’s beautiful spider in front of the Turin coachbuilder’s wind tunnel

Then the typical logic of large groups that rationalizes products and platforms, combined with more than a few difficult years, ended up dashing the many hopes of a return to its heyday. 

Always beautiful: the 2uettottanta has in harmony the perfection of its forms. A harmony that was reminiscent of the Giulietta Spider from the 50s

It happened with the magnificent Nuvola by Walter de Silva and it happened again in 2010, with the Duetto revival proposed by Pininfarina. This spider, capable of reviving the emotions of the original Giulietta Spider and, 11 years later, the Duetto, never saw the light of day. 

A sporty dashboard that fits strongly and attractively into the smooth lines of the passenger compartment

Perfect proportions and a stunning tribute to the past re-proposed with the tastes of the present, powered by a 235 horsepower, four-cylinder engine coupled to a six-speed sequential gearbox, it was so well made that it could have entered production immediately. 

Muscular and promising aerodynamic efficiency in the rear shapes

Among other things, it would have been the perfect way to celebrate the brand’s 100th anniversary that same year, giving nostalgic fans the opportunity to rediscover the emotion of a small Italian spider driven by Dustin Hofmann in The Graduate.

Very interesting the belt line projected towards the forward that gives the car a wedge shape

Do we want to find a flaw in it? Yes, the name: 2uettottanta, which combined the number 2 with Duetto, which could only have made the passionless marketing creatives happy.

Try to read this name, do it out loud and you’ll understand just how complicated and inconsistent it is with the purity of the model