This little Alfa seems to have quite limitless cornering power. Taking a bend at what ought to be a sensational speed produces nothing at all in the way of drama, the car merely running round in a way that can only be described as ‘on rails’. It hangs on so fantastically that we thought Goodyear must have put Araldite in the tyre treads.
The engine is like a little sewing machine: it spins up to well over 7000rpm without a trace of vibration and with very little induction or exhaust noise. But bottom-end torque is not a strong point of this Alfa engine (partly because of its short stroke) and we had trouble getting it briskly away from rest.
With its roomy five-seater body, it is all too easy to think of the Alfasud as a 1300 or 1500, whereas the engine size is really under 1200cc and for a car in this class it performs remarkably well. The acceleration times on paper belie the way the car feels on the road, and with a sporty driver behind the wheel this Alfa is a hard car to stay with on a twisty road.
