The
showcar
Alfasud Sprint B&B was presented to the public at the Turin Auto Show in
1982. The Italian car magazine "Auto Capital" had suggested the
building of a modified Alfasud Sprint. A white Alfasud Sprint 1.5 Veloce was
used as base for the B&B Sprint. Auto Capital
charged the German stylist Rainer Buchmann and his company
B&B which was situated in Frankfurt with the reworking of the Alfasud
Sprint's design. Buchmann and his team earned their money with the modification
and redesign of exclusive cars for VIPs. The B&B Sprint was aimed at a small
but exlcusive segment of custumers which could afford a small sportive coupés
with exlcusive features.
Buchmann used the Trofeo Sprint race car as example fro
the redesign and started working. He replaced the front chrome bumper against
the plastic bumper of the Alfasud
Ti series III and integrated their ends into the wide wheel arch extensions.
A small front air dam was also added to the Sprint's front. The rear
bumper
was exchanged by the plastic one of the Alfasud Ti series III, too. The ends of
the bumper were also integrated into the wheel arch extensions. The chromed Scudetto
was painted in dim black as all the other chromed details of the body. Buchmann
also modified the radiator grille and replaced the chrome lines between Scudetto
and front lights against two larger plastic covers which were painted in the
body's colour. The old mirror was replaced by body-colour coded Vitaloni
mirrors. Special light alloy wheels were mounted, too. Finally Buchmann gave
the Sprint a respray in a special blue duo-effect paint. Titanium-dioxyd crytals
which were added to the paint let the paint change its colour when different
intensities of light reach it. This so called Iriodine-paint resembles the paint Audi used in the early 1990s for their mother-of-pearl paint.
The engine and suspension of the Alfasud Sprint B&B remained unchanged. The only mechanical parts, Buchmüller changed were the wheels and the rear muffler which was exchanged against a sport exhaust muffler.
The interior of the B&B Sprint was even more
exclusive
than the outside. Buchmann installed specially made König sport bucket seats,
which were covered with fine grey Alcantara. Alcantara was also used to cover
the dashboard, door panels, centre console as well as the shelf behind the front seats.
The Alcantara door panels can not be seen on the photos. Presumably they were
still not ready when the press release photos were taken. In addition to the
Alcantara parts, a smaller leather steering wheel was added. B&B specialist
for high-end car hifi, installed twelve Blaupunkt speakers and a Blaupunkt
Atlanta SCR 22 radio with 4x20 Watt, LCD-display and auto reverse
cassette-player in the Sprint - at that time the top of the range. Eight of the
twelve speakers were installed into a panel which was specially made by B&B. It
was placed under the tailgate and deminished boot capacity considerably. The
other four speakers (all of the in the size of a larger plate...) were mounted
on the door panels. As a replacement for the boot, B&B removed the rear seats
and installed a special shelf which filled the room between the speaker panel
and the front seats. This tray and its lid were also covered with Alcantara.
The Alfasud Sprint Veloce B&B was the first co-operation between Rainer Buchmann and a foreign (not-German) car manufacturer. After its appearance in Turin, the B&B Sprint fell into oblivion. In the early 2000s it then appeared at a Milanese vintage car dealer. Its speedometre showed 13.000 km.
Last Update: May, 23rd 2004 Created: May, 23rd 2004
© Text and layout by Tim Rauen. Photos are press release photos by Auto Capital.