While on holiday this summer in the Picos de Europa in northern Spain, I caught sight of a striking red convertible gliding through traffic. I followed the car across town and though I never caught up with the owner, I had time to admire its sculpted lines and exquisite Italian coachwork – unmistakably, an Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider a car guaranteed to make anyone smile.
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ALFA ROMEO IRELAND
Alfa Romeo’s story in Ireland stretches back nearly a century. In 1929, Boris Ivanowski won the first Irish Grand Prix in an Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 SS. Years later, the Harris Group in Dublin, known for assembling Hino trucks and Lada cars, explored the possibility of locally assembling Alfa Romeos, though the plan never went ahead. As far as we know, Alfa Romeos were never assembled in Ireland, but we are open to correction.
Since 2021, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and Jeep have been imported by the Gowan Group, ensuring that Italian flair still graces Irish roads, even if the 2600 Spider remains a rare and beautiful sight.
CARROZZERIA STYLING
Beneath the Spanish sun, the Alfa’s ruby-red paintwork gleamed. Surrounded by the muted car colours of other cars on the street, it stood out as a testament to a more glamorous time. To quote that old saying, they don’t make them like this anymore! To prove my point, just look at Ireland’s current best-selling car for 2024-‘25 the Hyundai Tucson compact SUV. Most Tucson’s are finished in Hampton Grey or Amazon Grey and not the most striking of colours. This ruby-red 1964 Alfa Romeo, by contrast, was shaped by hands and eyes, not robots and software.
Built on an Alfa chassis and engine, with elegant open-top bodywork drawn with pen and paper and styled by Carlo Anderloni and Federico Formenti at Touring. Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera was founded in 1925 in Milan. The company patented a revolutionary new construction method that became Touring’s hallmark, Superleggera, meaning “super light” in Italian. In 1937 the first cars built using this technique were turning heads worldwide. The principle was brilliantly simple: rather than relying on heavy wooden frames, Touring shaped the body around a framework of thin steel tubes, then covered it with lightweight aluminium alloy panels. The cars they built were subtle, balanced, and beautifully proportioned, representing the very best of Italian design.
An evolution of the Alfa Romeo Tipo 102 2000 series, the 2600 with a 2+2 monocoque body was produced from 1962 to 1968. Offered in four body styles the 2600 is remembered as the last Alfa Romeo to be crafted by independent coach builders:
1. Berlina: The classic four-door saloon version (2,092 cars built).
2. Spider: The convertible model, hand-built by Carrozzeria Touring (2,255 cars built).
3. Sprint: A stylish coupé designed by Bertone (6,999 cars built).
4. SZ (Sprint Zagato): An exclusive lightweight coupé crafted by Zagato (105 cars built).
LAST OF ITS KIND
For the Irish and UK markets, just 112 right-hand-drive examples of the 2600 Spider were ever built, making it a rare sight on Irish roads. The Tipo 106 2600 traced its heritage back through the 2000 to the 1900 the car that brought Alfa Romeo into the mainstream post-war.
Unveiled in 1962, the Alfa Romeo 2600 succeeded the 2000 series, retaining its chassis and bodywork with only subtle refinements. The real innovation was under the bonnet, a new 2,584cc twin-cam straight-six with an aluminium block and head, twin inclined valves per cylinder, and triple 44 PHH Solex carburettors. Notably, it was the last Alfa Romeo to feature a straight-six with twin overhead camshafts. With 145 hp in the Spider (130 hp in the saloon), the 2600 could reach 125 mph (200 km/h) in fifth gear.
The Spider featured coil springs all round, telescopic dampers, servo-assisted disc brakes, and a five-speed manual gearbox. In their advertising materials Alfa described it as “every inch a Gran Turismo with sports car characteristics.”
This author felt the car was on the large side for a sports car, but totally elegant and composed all the same. And what I wouldn’t have given for an afternoon drive in the Alfa along Spain’s Costa Verde, the lush “Green Coast” of Cantabria — like Ireland, only with more sunshine. Instead, feeling dejected, I got back into my rented grey Hyundai SUV.
Sources of Information and Photo Credits:
Alfa Romeo 2000 and 2600: The Complete Story – Bagnall
Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint – sales brochure
Austin Harris website
Classic and Sports Car website
Touring Superleggera
If you have an idea for a story, please email Kevin Reid at [email protected]
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