Derek in Australia sent me some scans from manuals that show radio blanking plates for the different models. These should be considered ‘correct’ for all you correctness worryists. Check it out.
This looks to be a post-Giugiaro go over Sprint like mine. Can’t tell what the badge in the middle is but will assume it’s the Alfa badge.
Continue reading “Radio blanking plates revisited”
Giulietta Sprint radio blank plate options
I got an email from Jock in Australia asking me for recommendations for a radio blank plate for his Sprint. I spent a few minutes looking through the ‘Sprint Collection‘ I’ve built on Flickr and came up with these examples of how it has been handled. I had no idea there were so many variations!
If I had to point to a blanking plate and say ‘that’s the right one’, this is the one I’d point out. These come up for sale occasionally on eBay and are not too expensive. The center badge and chrome strips have threaded studs and are removable. Continue reading “Giulietta Sprint radio blank plate options”
Market 230: "Juliet Spider Velosh"!
Update 9/7/10: Well, this sad case has been reduced to an ending -no reserve met- total of $1136 after 3 bids. On the bright side, the phrase ‘Tennessee Velosh!” has entered the Alfa Giulietta lexicon.
Update 8/23/10: This feller is back on eBay -some lucky motoring enthusiast can buy it now for $2700 and figure out what to do with it later. Woot!
Update 7/10/10: Someone liked this enough to buy it now for $2500. Â In one of the Q&A responses the seller says emphatically that this car can’t be returned to stock. Â With these cars likely to be $100K by the end of the decade I’m sure some intrepid soul is hoping to prove the seller wrong.
Giulietta Spider Veloce 750F 1495*04640 (or 750F 03305), 1315*31655 (Not included). Tennessee is the home of this Spider that’s on eBay right now. Â Vin on the title with the car is 03305, vin on the build plate is 04640 and the vin on the body is unknown -if I had to bet on which is accurate I’d put my money on the title. Â It’s ironic/sad/frustrating that someone took a roller 58 Spider Veloce probably worth $10 – 15K of todays money, spent 6 years ruining it by altering it to fit a V8 and Toyota suspension and now are hoping to get $2500 out of it. Â This is what you call a lose-lose situation -I bet they threw out the sheet metal they cut out of it too.
What do you do with something like this? Â It’s probably unusable in its current form with all that weight over the front axle, way too much power for the rear end to grip and poor visibility with that scoop.
Continue reading “Market 230: "Juliet Spider Velosh"!”
Alfa Centennial Celebration part 1
Brad Baum, a southern California Giulietta owner/restorer/enthusiast -whose name you may recognize, was in Italy for the Alfa Romeo 100 year celebration and sent me these pictures from a parking lot in Rho. He focused on the rare and interesting bits on the cars there. Check it out. Captions in Italics are Brads
This impeccable red 750 Sprint was in the Alfa museum parking lot Friday afternoon of the Centenario Alfa Romeo in Arese. I very much like the industrial design of this mirror, but it looks like it might interfere when the door is opened.
Market 222: Spider prototype 750D 00007
Update 8/13/10: Sold and on its way to Milan.
Update 7/6/10: Spider did 2 tours of eBay with no takers. A purchase like this requires some serious non-coincidental provenance corroboration so I’m not surprised it didn’t sell. I think as I state at the end of the market review that this car needs to go through an auction that can authenticate it if the seller wants this kind of money.
Giulietta Spider 750D 1495*00007, 1315*40009. This Spider, one of the Pininfarina prototypes, is available now on eBay for $225,000. I have no real side by side comparison to make any comment on the value of this car but would say that the asking is in line with what I would ask if I had it.
Why? I think the Bertone Spiders (00002 and 00004) are probably million+ dollar cars these days. Pininfarina Spider 00001 (or is it 00003?), now residing at the Alfa museum and 00005 (I think), in the hands of the collector who also has the Bertone Sprint convertible and SVZ ‘Goccia’, both having the wrap around windscreen and side-curtain style windows are probably $300,000 – a million. Official numbering of the Spiders started in the mid-teens in Fusi and the cars between those mentioned above and 00016, the first production car, are likely similar to this car and close to the production models cars and hence not as valuable, maybe $100k to $500K depending on lots of stuff. I seem to recall having seen two or three other pre-production  Spiders like this but can’t remember where. Early race history usually adds value but I can’t say for sure if it does for a car like this.
As an aside, there is a chance that Ghia made a Giulietta Spider prototype. Anyone know anything about this?
I guess what I am saying is that in my opinion, the more the prototypes diverge from the standard cars, the more they are worth and this car is fairly close to the production version. Condition is the kind of ‘nice original driver’ I prefer.
Mythical beast: one of the Pininfarina prototypes. ‘Points’ on the grill tusks are the only visual cue that you are seeing anything special here, beyond your usual 750D.
Market 216: Modified Spider ‘track car’
This Giulietta Spider based homebuilt roadster is available now on Craigslist out of Grand Blanc, Flint for $3900. If it’s got most of it’s parts that’s not a bad price. If it’s not rusty it might be worth welding the correct nose and tail back on.
70’s Spider nose on a Giulietta? Could be worse… somehow. That rollbar/loop looks pretty thin.Â
Alfa 100 years track day hosted by CSRG at Sears Point (Infineon)
Update, later the same day: Will, GTV and Giulietta Sprint owner was there and took a LOT of pictures… he even took some of my Sprint!
In recognition of Alfa’s centenary, CSRG hosted 3 days of racing at Sears Point with several Alfa only races/groups, lunch time parade laps for Alfa’s and a corral in the paddock for all the spectator Alfa’s to park in. I can’t make Italy this year for the ‘official’ centenary in June, so this weekend was my chance to hang out with some fellow Alfa owners and think about what 100 years means.
Not your average vintage Alfa. This 33 was long, low and amazing looking. Too valuable to take on the track? Tell that to the guy in the Aston DB4 GT Zagato who was mixing it up with the GTV’s and Corvettes.
Continue reading “Alfa 100 years track day hosted by CSRG at Sears Point (Infineon)”
‘Production and Register’ page finally stable
Update 3/22/10:  I have moved all of my photo files to Flickr so they would be harder to lose -these are about 10% pictures I’ve taken, 10% pictures readers like you have sent and the rest are  pictures from classified ads, forums and the like that I saved.  All these pictures have been linked to the vin’s of the cars they are of on the ‘Production and Register’ page.  What’s the point?  Well, if you’re looking for a picture of some part of a car, some original color, some option or references/examples to help inform you about a car, chances are you’ll find it among the pictures.
If you have pictures of any cars to add I’d be glad to add it.
This picture of a Sprint Veloce lightweight at the beginning of a race was one of those ‘where did it come from’ pictures I found when organizing. If you go to Christian-Claude you will see many interesting pictures like this from France. Hopefully they don’t mind me posting this since I am sending them traffic.
Original post 4/2/09: I’ve been struggling with the layout of the production and register page the last few days but it is now fairly stable. Why go through the trouble you ask? The generally referenced production lists have flaws and don’t really address the numbering systems for US cars and this has led to a few restored cars I’ve come across with the wrong numbers stamped on their repro vin plates and in some cases owners who assume an engine is not original because its number doesn’t fall into the stated range for their vin.
This is the first time I’ve seen a contemporary picture of the original Bertone wood buck for the Sprint. Thanks Rogerio Machado for posting this to Flickr. Continue reading “‘Production and Register’ page finally stable”
Modified Sprint Speciale’s part two
So many of you enjoyed the last rerun about modified SS’s that I thought I’d rerun this one.
Originally posted July 16, 2008: The last modified Sprint Speciale’s installment highlighted some fairly successful modifications, mostly done in the youth of the featured cars. This car glared at me from the same file directory I used to store the other pictures but I just couldn’t work it in. It would have been like accidentally finding reverse while speeding down the highway.
I know, you’re looking at the picture thinking ‘that’s an SS??… NO WAY’. Look closer, you know it’s true. My first impression was someone built an interpretation of something from Bubblegum Crisis or another cyberpunk Anime, but without the ability to fly.
Not an altogether unsightly proposition if it was based on a 70’s Spider -which is where the nose appears to have come from, but in my opinion an abberation as a Franken-SS unless based on a horribly smashed SS that would have been recycled if not for this.
Modified Sprint Speciales
A rerun since I’m tropically indisposed. Â Enjoy.
Originally posted July 5th, 2008: While not considered competitive on the race track in retrospect, the Sprint Speciale must none the less have been a somewhat attractive option for wealthy amateurs when it was first sold. The combination of an aerodynamic shape and powerful engine must surely have seemed like a winner if some weight could be shed and current engine tuning tricks being used by Conrero, Bosato and others could further improve the engine. This is supported by period race photographs and entry lists which document the occasional SS among the field of SV’s, SVZ’s and SZ’s.
An early SS (00045) running the 1960 Targa Florio, 00029 and 00040 also ran. 00045 went on to run in ’61 – ’64. Anyone know where 00045 is now?