Start with what the Alfa Romeo RL is: a car with 2.9 , built from 1922 to 1927, the vintage years, when coachbuilders still shaped most of what was sold. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Giuseppe Merosi. 2,640 were built.
The story
The Alfa Romeo RL was produced between 1922 and 1927. It was Alfa's first sport model after World War I, designed in 1921 by Giuseppe Merosi. It had a straight-6 engine with overhead valves, and came in three different versions: Normale, Turismo and Sport. A total of 2,640 RLs were made.
What is underneath
The engine is 2.9 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1550 kg Zagato. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the Alfa Romeo line-up the Alfa Romeo RL has a clear place: it replaced the Alfa Romeo G1; it handed the line to the Alfa Romeo 6C 1500; the factory was Portello, Milan, Italy. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Lancia Trikappa, the British Motor Corporation Austin 7, the Fiat 804. Nearby in the Alfa Romeo catalogue sit the A.L.F.A 12 HP and the A.L.F.A 15 HP.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Alfa Romeo RL has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.