750 and 101 series cars 1954 – 1965
Maurizo sends me a note: “I put this interesting video on YouTube.” That’s an understatement -this is like the first time I saw the Shell Coup Des Alps video -except a little more lingering on the cars here. Wow. How many stills from this film or photographs have I seen from this day 54-ish years ago!
Post a comment with your favorite moment below.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7HqVhtbUKk&feature=email]
I enjoy movies set in Europe in the 1960’s where they have real street scenes. I watched ‘How to steal a million’ with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole the other night and the street scenes were amazing. I was reminded I haven’t been featuring video’s in a while and it brought to mind this video. I know, you’ve seen this before but paying close attention to the details will get you thinking. If you’ve never seen it watch it before you read the comments after it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeKtzX1pAXo]
Continue reading “Alfa Sprint crash from ‘Les Choses de la Vie’ 1970”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGhQjqye094]
Click here to go on to post 17 in the series.
Or here to go back to post 15.
Norm sent me a link to this footage of a Giulietta SS at speed going through the mountains. The exhaust note is familiar to driver of most Alfa’s from this period as is the tire scrub. Driver has 4 Alias names and ‘Born to be WIld’ makes yet another appearance as the seeming ubiquitous soundtrack to a driving film. At least ‘Shaft’ gets a little air time near the end. It is shaft isn’t it? Sorry, it’s early. Enjoy.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN6pvAYtWpg]
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]
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]
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 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.
The guys in this video hopefully got the McGuyver trophy if they didn’t win.
[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.
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.
Continue reading “Giulietta Sprint Veloce Allegerita at 1958 Coupe Des Alps video”