After a certain amount of rumor and anticipation about a project that was supposed to launch a revival of Italy's Carrozzeria Viotti just under a decade ago, the mystery was resolved when the wraps were taken off the car in a slickly-produced video, and at the Bologna Motor Show in 2014...
What appeared was a smoothly aerodynamic, mid-engined coupe dreamed up by Emanuele Bomboi, styling chief of the revived Viotti, and something called Fast Design. A couple of engines were mooted by the makers, including a 3.8 liter twin-turbo flat six (apparently Porsche) and a Chevy LT-1 V8, but it's not clear if any cars beyond the prototype were built, and what powered them. Despite the car's frontal similarity to the French Alpine A110 rally cars of the Sixties and Seventies, the name was a real surprise: Willys Interlagos AW380 Berlinetta...
"Tribute to a Legend", the video released by Viotti tells us. This was likely confusing to a modern European audience, who may have never heard of a Willys Interlagos coupe, and may have lacked any recollection of the Willys* name at all, unlike an older generation who may have associated it with the Jeeps that helped win World War II.
But for some reason, the Viotti / Fast Design effort was named after a license-built version of the Alpine Renault A108, the model preceding the more famous A110 and offered from 1962-'66 by Willys in Brazil...
Like the Alpine A108, the Willys Interlagos, named after a race track, was a tidy little rear-engined coupe with Renault Dauphine-based drivetrain and fiberglass bodywork by Giovanni Michelotti. Like the French A108, it was offered in coupe, convertible and 2+2 versions, though we've never seen examples of the 2+2.
The steel backbone chassis was shared with the A108, along with double-wishbone front suspension, rack and pinion steering, and disc brakes front and rear. The original engine offered was the 845cc Dauphine inline four making about 60 hp with Gordini aluminum head, sending power to swing-axle suspended rear wheels through a 4-speed transaxle. Not the stuff of legends, perhaps, but a sweet little car...
Sweet enough that Willys of Brazil sold 822 over a 4-year period. It never, however, established anything like the competition record of the more powerful French cousin that came after it, the Alpine Renault A110. And it's unclear whether any specimens of the Willys Interlagos were sold in Europe during its production life. So the decision by Viotti to hang the fate of their revival* project on a not-quite-classic car unfamiliar to Europeans seems an odd one.
There may have been other problems with selecting that name. Though Viotti had purchased the Willys "W" logo, Fiat Chrysler apparently had rights to the name, and felt confident enough that it reintroduced "Willys" in 2020 on special Jeep models. This practice continued after Stellantis took over in 2021. And late in 2017, the Renault Group issued its long-rumored 21st century version of the legendary Alpine A110 that had won the French Rally Championship in 1968 and '69, the European Championship in '70, and the World Rally Championship in 1973. The new mid-engined car is on the left below, with its over-achieving ancestor on the right. The front-end styling of both cars is a clear sign that the Alpine A110 is really the "legend" that Viotti had in mind for their tribute all along. They just didn't have rights to the Alpine name...
*Footnote: For a look at other Willys cars produced in Brazil, see "Willys Aero Saga: An Afterlife in Rio" posted here on August 29, 2019. A photo essay on the Alpine Renault A310 and its predecessor A110 appeared here on January 9, 2021, entitled "Forgotten Classic: Alpine Renault A310." Before we knew this business of attempting to revive mostly (or completely) forgotten makes of car was going to be a trend, we posted an essay on the ATS revival. Then it got to be a trend, and we did a numbered series. Here are the makes, the titles and the dates:
ATS: "Forgotten Classic Revival Show: ATS 2500 & 2500GTS", Nov. 11, 2018.
Connaught: "Forgotten Classic Revival Follies Part 1: The Connaught", March 31, 2021.
Spyker: "Forgotten Classic Revival Follies Part 2: The Spyker Saga", April 8, 2021.
Frazer Nash: "Forgotten Classic Revival Follies Part 3: Frazer Nash, the 3rd Time Around",
April 30, 2021.
*Photo Credits:
Top thru 4th from top: Carrozzeria Viotti official video
Top thru 4th from top: Carrozzeria Viotti official video
5th: Wikimedia
6th: pinterest.com
7th & 8th: bringatrailer.com
9th: Renault Group
No comments:
Post a Comment