The Alma Sprint Is A Tribute To Alfa Romeo’s Group B Car That Never Was

With 158bhp and weighing just 880kg, this Portuguese-Italian restomod sounds like a proper hoot

04 Jun 2024

Alfa Romeo isn’t the first company – not even the first Italian company – you think of when it comes to rallying, but it doesn’t mean it hasn’t flirted with the sport in the past. In the 1980s, it came close to entering Group B rallying with the Alfasud Sprint 6C, a mid-engined, Busso V6-powered monster based on the little Alfa Romeo Sprint – the coupe version of the Alfasud hatch.

That project never made it past the prototype stage, but now, a tiny Portuguese company has revived its spirit with a new restomod.

Called the Alma Sprint, we’ll get one big disappointment out of the way now: this car isn’t mid-engined, nor does it have a rasping V6 hidden beneath its bodywork. There’s still a lot to like, though. Powering the front wheels is a version of the fizzy little four-cylinder boxer engine from the original Sprint, but bored out to 1.8 litres and featuring forged pistons, new camshafts and a pair of velocity stacks on its two carburetors.

The result is a relatively meagre-sounding 158bhp, but the car weighs just 880kg, so it should be a spritely little so-and-so. It also breathes through a new stainless steel exhaust system. The transmission is a close-ratio five-speed manual, and buyers can optionally add a Torsen LSD to the front axle.

Underneath, reworked suspension with adjustable dampers is fitted, and it gets a significantly widened track. Accommodating it all is that Group B-inspired composite bodywork – with its flared arches and little upswept ducktail spoiler, the Alma Sprint really does resemble Alfa’s rally racer that never was. Alma has also gone to town on the panel gaps and, we presume, worked to resolve the standard Sprint’s utterly awful rustproofing.

The inside has been trimmed in Alcantara and corduroy, with major touchpoints now made from aluminium. A Zagato-designed steering wheel and new bucket seats with four-point harnesses keep things sporty, and a Bluetooth-capable sound system is a nod to modern usability.

Just 20 Alma Sprints will be made, and there’s no word on price. The company does say it’ll work with buyers to help find the best possible (read: least rusty) donor cars, though.

The first full sentence spoken by an infant Mike was a review of the ride quality of a Volvo 850. It was “Daddy’s car goes bumpy-bump on a bumpy road,” so would probably need proofreading a bit, but it was a start.