Market 480: 1900M ‘Matta’ AR5101384 in Florida

1900M AR51 01384, AR 1307 00610.  This interesting piece of Alfa history is available now out of Florida.  The Matta is very rare in the US -I think I may have seen one or two over the years in pictures, but never in person.  It is a fairly standard 1950’s ‘serious’ 4×4 offering – a sort of next step from the 4×4’s designed for WW2.  It occurs to me as I type this that the long lived lines of serious 4×4 players grew out of this period: Unimog, Jeep, Land Rover 88, Austin Gipsy, Toyota Land Cruiser, Fiat Campagnola, NIssan Patrol, yougettheidea.  Had Alfa based the Matta on the Giulietta engine, maybe there would be tens of thousands of them around -I know I would dig an open Fiat Campagnola type Alfa from the 1950’s!  I suppose there probably is one that I am not aware of…

Great grill on these -has a modest character.  In the cramped garage with poor lighting for my auction pictures?  Why not!  No one else will be listing a Matta at the same time.

Pick and shovel will come in handy in the CostCo parking lot.  This would be fun to take the kids fishing in -actually just kid -I don’t think it would be legal to put anyone underage in this thing except for strapped to the front seat. 

1900 engine makes 61 HP and is said to be torquey.  I’ve never driven one, but hey – opinons get around.  Looks pretty good under here.  A bonus is the base commander could get his 1900 Coupe serviced on base.

As sparse as you would expect from an early 50’s military spec utility vehicle.

A little more appropriate color schemes for these.  This guy has a large round wine rack on his back.