nonno m (plural nonni, feminine nonna) grandfather (in the plural) grandparents. “However, I’d argue that in this case, we’re talking about a super cool grandpa. Well, in my humble opinion at least.” It’s still highly unlikely though that if Alfa Romeo would ever build a car like this they’d call it ‘Nonno”.

Regardless the naming, we feel that a car like this is currently missing in the lineup of the iconic Italian carmaker. You could argue that when it comes to little sport coupes, there’s the 4C, but we think that’s not the same and there’s still room for a twin sibling.

One that is a bit more traditional and perhaps slightly more practical. Rear wheel drive of course, but with the engine in the front and a boot in the back. In comparison to the rather radical 4C we wouldn’t mind a few kilos more, if we’d get a bit more refinement in return. And if we could get a proper open gate manual gearbox, we’d be in petrol head heaven.

When sketching ‘Nonno’ we were clearly driven by our love for one of Italy’s greatest classics, the Giorgetto Giugiaro designed Alfa Romeo Giulia Coupes from the Sixties. We wanted to capture that combination of Dolce Vita with the feistiness of these elegant but rather boxy little cars. And we definitely wanted to keep the distinct “3 volumes” (engine, passenger compartment, boot) silhouette. “Which brings us back to the naming.. as much as we adore them, Ana still thinks that only grandpas drive cars shaped like this. Oh well…”