MEET YOUR HEROES, THE ITALIAN MUSCLE EDITION
35TH MONTREAL MEETING
11 September 2022 • Written By Marius Pop
There are three “regular” 8 cylinder powered cars that Alfisti have been blessed with over the years: the immortal pre-war 8C with its Mille Miglia legends at the hands of Nuvolari, the 8C Competizione so beautifully made that is has been famously elevated to the status of automotive art, and in the middle, the ‘70s Montreal, or the Italian muscle car.
Imagine the brief received by Alfa when they were commissioned by the organisers of Expo Montreal ‘67 to come up with “humankind’s highest aspiration in terms of automobiles”… Marcello Gandini lived up to the task, with a sleek shape and influential elements of design that are only matched by the supercar defining that era, namely the Lamborghini Miura.
The Montreal prototype was based on the Tipo 105 mechanics, but so outstanding was the public’s welcome in Montreal that Alfa decided to put the car into production, showing it at the Geneva Motor Show in 1970, after having adopted the Expo’s city name and a detuned Tipo 33 V8 engine needed to live up to that initial brief.
So when the good people at OKP asked me to take their Monty and attend the 35th annual owners meeting I knew I wanted to be there, no ifs no buts. The 2022 meeting took place in Inzell, Bavaria. Every year the group meets in a different country and this time it’s Germany’s turn to host the meeting.
Even though the car is sharing a garage floor with a 1900 Touring Superleggera, this one is Mathias Körber’s favourite. No pressure then in having the keys of the car and taking care of it for the next few days.
