Cars
Broken Dreams: Alfa Romeo Scarabeo. Jealousy
The Alfa Romeo Scarabeo, a groundbreaking rear-engine prototype from the 1960s, was sidelined due to internal conflicts. Despite its advanced design and exceptional performance potential, it remains an unrealized dream, now preserved at Museo Alfa Romeo.
In the mid-60s, the use of rear engines in racing cars was becoming ubiquitous. Alfa Romeo’s technical team had studied the Tipo 33 with this very solution, a car that was successfully developed by Autodelta, the company’s sports division. Alfa Romeo subsequently felt the need to offer its racing driver customers a Berlinetta with this same configuration, and the engineer Giuseppe Busso and his team set to work, starting from the successful four-cylinder GTA, on a model with a transverse rear engine. The name chosen for the car was Scarabeo.
Three prototypes of this model were built, which promised extremely impressive performance, one of which was never completed. The demise of this car, however, was marked by an internal conflict between the technical direction of Alfa Romeo and Autodelta, a separate department dedicated to racing and led by the engineer Carlo Chiti.
