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Ah, the Alfa Romeo Canguro. A name that sounds playful, perhaps even a bit bouncy, but don’t let that fool you. What Bertone and Alfa Romeo unleashed at the 1964 Turin Motor Show was a design manifesto on wheels—an audacious one-off that stood as a sleek love letter to the cutting edge of Italian car design. And boy, was it sharp.
Built on the bones of the already-racy Giulia TZ, the Canguro took that tubular spaceframe and slathered it with pure, unadulterated design genius. Imagine a coupe so smooth, so sinuous, that it looked like it had been sculpted by the wind. The body panels flowed into the glasswork, with the windshield and side windows seemingly melded into the very metal. No harsh edges, no gaps, just seamless fluidity. It was as if Bertone had freed himself from the shackles of traditional car design and gone wild in the best possible way.
Now, take a moment to appreciate the front end. No traditional hood and wings here. The whole lot lifted up as one—hinged forward like the bonnet of some race-bred exotic. And while we’re at it, the windshield? Glued to the body. Not bolted or clamped—glued! This was a car that laughed in the face of convention and dared others to follow suit.
And then there were those proportions. The passenger compartment was nudged far back, making it look like the engine was ready to leap out ahead—a dynamic stance that screamed ‘performance’ even at a standstill. Muscular haunches and a chopped-off tail gave it a purposeful, aggressive look, the sort of thing that you’d expect from a designer just showing off his skills. Bertone wasn’t just playing with shapes; he was laying down the rules for how Alfa Romeos should look for the next decade.
Sadly, the Canguro never made it to production. Just a single example of this automotive work of art was ever built. But even though it stayed a one-off, its DNA trickled down into Alfa's designs for years, influencing the brand’s signature style well into the future. It may have been a styling exercise, but the Canguro was a perfect demonstration of what happens when you give a visionary designer free rein. The result? An icon, even if it never graced a showroom floor.
Classic Alfa, classic Bertone. What a pair.
