In 1967, Alfa Romeo showed up at Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, with a 2+2 coupe concept so new it didn’t have a name yet. With its scalloped C-pillars, menacing glare, and long hood, the styling exercise caught the public imagination—to the point where Alfa Romeo felt compelled to build a strikingly similar model a few years later. Alfa Romeo dubbed the car as Montreal, the nickname the concept picked up during its time in the city.
The road to production in 1970 included the decision to swap out the concept’s four-cylinder engine for an exotic 2.6-liter aluminum V8 that drew heavily from the automaker’s Formula One racing efforts. With a 7,000-rpm redline, the unit produced just under 200 horsepower and 173 pound-feet of torque, and it benefited from mechanical fuel injection, a quad-cam design, and a five-speed manual gearbox. The engine and styling were noteworthy and impressive, but the rest of the Alfa Romeo Montreal’s running gear was more practical—with the Giulia GTV coupe donating its underpinnings to the car.
The shark-like silhouette of the 1970 Montreal still turns heads today.
With fewer than 4,000 of these hand-built coupes leaving the Alfa Romeo factory between 1970 and 1977, the Montreal is a rare beast, especially considering it was priced higher than comparable 2+2 models of its day. Despite its North American namesake, it’s harder to find one on this side of the Atlantic, where it was never officially imported. A trickle of grey-market cars has satisfied enthusiast interest for years, but with the rising prices for the coupe at recent auctions, a renewed search for original examples of the car has spread through the classic car community.
The interior is in remarkable shape, which speaks to the dry storage where the vehicle sat for many years.
That makes the 1970 Alfa Romeo Montreal offered in this eBay Motors listing that much more interesting. While it’s clearly a project, the market for unmolested Montreals is incredibly narrow. In fact, the seller estimates that there may only be two other original 1970 model-year restoration candidates on sale in the United States—and that’s out of a claimed seven Montreals available in America, period.
This example’s barn find status hides very strong bones. It sat in storage for many years in a dry Texas climate. There is some rust on the rocker panels, but paint is original, as are all other components. The vehicle is currently not in running condition, but given the near-$200,000 selling point of restored Alfa Romeo Montreal models, there is a lot of headroom here to bring this snazzy Italian back to its former glory.
See Alfa Romeo Montreal Cars & Trucks for sale on eBay.
