750 and 101 series cars 1954 – 1965
If you ever wondered what it would have been like if ‘Streets of San Francisco’ had a sister show in Italy then wonder no more. This Maurizio Merli clip from the early 70’s is pretty tough, with all the obligatory car chase moves including avoiding baby-stroller pushing pedestrians, crashing through a flower stand and kicking out a broken windshield. Awesome! Maybe the Berlina needs to be Italian Police spec.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYcbgBpMYXE&feature=related]
Manufacturing automobiles by hand is not a simple task. A large number of individual car specific parts have to find their way from sub-contractors and various corners of the shop to the car they were made to fit. To help make this happen Bertone assigned each car a number independent of the autotelaio number Alfa had earlier, or would later assign and all the parts requiring fettling to fit the individual car were marked with this number either by stamping or with grease pencil. It makes sense that this number would also be used for billing Alfa for bodies built so it’s likely that all the Bertone built Sprint prototypes had a Bertone body number.
Here it is, the first Bertone number I ever encountered *6510072* corresponding to Autotealio 20379. The font of the punches used to stamp the body numbers never changed. This car also has 072 written in grease pencil on the underside of the hood.
Continue reading “Identification numbers part 3: Bertone body number”
Once again I’m straying form the topic of Giuliettas here but I couldn’t resist this video. Only the Italians would decide this was a good idea. Perhaps someone knows what kind of bikes they would have been riding? I can’t think of an Italian big bike manufacturer from this period so I’m tempted to say they are BMW’s.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC9qgH14N_0]
Right after the last installment on Giulietta accessories these two black and white pictures were discovered. I have read that a Bertone technical booklet exists detailing all of the possible accessories but I don’t suppose I’ll ever see it.
The first picture is of a 750 series Sprint and shows several accessories and an anomaly I’ve never seen elsewhere. The most obvious accessory in this picture is the fog lamp kit. It differs from the 101 kit in that the grill opening surrounds are unmodified, just the grill bars were modified to mount the fog lights. The lights really look a lot like Hella 128 items in this picture. I wonder what sort of switch they used and where it was mounted.
This 750 Sprint wears a lot of the available accessories. I wonder if it is one of the early prototypes?
If you are a fan of Alfa Romeo Giulietta’s there is a pretty good chance you also have an appreciation for Italian motorcycles from the same era. The clip below fulfills both interests and gives a glimpse of road-race competition protocol in Italy in the 50’s. If you look closely there are several Romeo vans kitted as team transporters, a Giulietta Berlina at about 1:25 and best of all lots of footage of the trailing press car, a Lancia Aurelia Spider America, close cousin of the Pininfarina Giulietta Spider. Enjoy.
When I went shopping for a modern car last year I was surprised by the number of accessories available, the fact that cars came pre-optioned for the most part, and how expensive additional accessories were. Accessories are nothing new when it comes to cars, windows and lights were accessories in the early days! The Giuliettas were no exception and the picture below, from a 1958 brochure, reprinted in the Alfieri book shows some interesting accessories that could be missed by the casual observer.
“Fog lamps fittings. It can be ordered as a seperate unit complete with mounting brackets and hollow intake fairing, painted in the colour of the car. Please specify No. of chassis.”
When you take an old car out on a tour or rally far from civilization, you have to be prepared to either figure out a way to limp home, leave your car and go borrow a truck and trailer, or pay a big towing bill. I’m not saying old cars are inherently unreliable, it’s just that, if like me, you do a lot of the work on your cars yourself, this preparedness is a simple admission that your skills have their limits. Â
The guys in this video hopefully got the McGuyver trophy if they didn’t win.Â
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=STB9E4pTyBE]
Broken throttle linkage? No problem.  Enzo, get out there and use your hand, you’ll know when I’m going to shift.Â
If you send an email to: ArchivioStorico@alfaromeo.com with a request for information regarding your Alfa they will get back to you with an email telling you what is in their records. I did this for my Sprint Speciale and this was their reply.
Dear Mister Hamilton,
 with reference to your request we are informing you as follows.
 According to our documentation files, the chassis number AR 101.20.00413 originally corresponds to an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale, manufactured on the 9th March 1961 and sold on the 13th March 1961 to Società per il Commercio dei Prodotti Alfa Romeo. Lugano, Switzerland.
The body colour is Alfa red.
 Yours, Sincerely,
 Marco FazioÂ
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As values increase, things that were once overlooked as not important suddenly gain importance. This will become increasingly true of engine numbers in Alfa’s 750 and 101 series cars as they grow in popularity and value in the collector car world. Engines, much like VIN numbers have a 4 or 5 digit Tipo number, followed by a serial number, which in some cases starts with a number indicating the model it was fitted to. The engine number ranges I will quote below come from Fusi’s book, which is known to have errors and omissions, if you have a number that doesn’t fit with what is presented, let me know at sprints@giuliettas.com!
A Sprint 10105 build plate indicating Tipo, Autotelaio and Motore numbers. The font of the stamp is correct. Note that this plate is held on by screws. Also note that Autotelaio and Motore numbers don’t match. The serial number of the motor 010669 is included.
Continue reading “Identification numbers Part 2: Sprint engine numbers”
It’s easy to forget what the Giulietta Sprint Veloce Lightweight was made for when caught up in pondering values, looking for restoration parts or simply pursuing an abstract historical interest in something like manufacturing techniques of 50’s Italian coach builders. A quote from d’Amico and Tabucchis ‘Le Vetture Di Produzione Dal 1910’ says it better than I could hope to.
“The Giulietta Sprint’s humiliating defeat at the hands of the Porsche 356 Super, itself a 1300cc car, in the Gran Turismo category of the 1955 edition of the Mille Miglia that Alfa had intended to dominate shook the powers that be at the Portello. The company needed to produce a car for the 1956 edition capable of beating the German coupe.”
Thus was born the Sprint Veloce and the seeds planted that would eventually yield the SVZ, SZ and SS. Below are two video clips that would probably cause most Giulietta Sprint Veloce Lightweight owners to faint if it were their car being driven this hard in this environment.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bbAsjyjm6U&feature=related]
The Youtube video above is a segment from the 1958 Coupe Des Alpes featuring a Sprint Veloce.Â
Continue reading “Giulietta Sprint Veloce Allegerita at 1958 Coupe Des Alps video”
