Category: Restored Cars

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Market 14: “1961 Concours 101 Sprint” 20825

Update November 11, 2016.  This car is listed on ebay again out of Greenville South Carolina.  It’s funny to read my old write up – so earnest!  This car has been improved a tiny bit – most notably with Sprint seats being added, but still has a few things that could be improved if the new owner so desired.  Or not.

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Still a good looking example.  This dealer had a Giulietta TI listed recently.  Very little distortion on the side of the body in the reflection.  

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Market 548: SZ 00113 – exceptional

Giulietta Sprint Zagato (SZ) 10126*00113, 00120*00633 completed January 26, 1961.  $775,000 delivered to the fine folks at Fantasy Junction will buy you this fully restored, ready for the morning commute SZ.  It has more than the usual SZ provenance, coming from the collection of the late Martin Swig who used it as it was intended to be used, and took very good care of it, while originally shipping to Libero Liberati, one of Italy’s most famous drivers (and a national hero) in the late 1950’s – early 1960’s.

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Nice seaside overcast shot of a lovely car.  Zagato rewrote a masterpiece almost entirely and yet managed to pay perfect homage to the original while producing a masterpiece of it’s own.  Imagine if they had made 200,000 of these instead of about 160.

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Market 544: Sprint Zagato 10126 00207: other-worldly transport

Sprint Zagato 10126*00207, 00120*00634 (probably original), Body 634.  This amazing piece of functional art is available now from the good folks at Fantasy Junction for a mere $585,000.  With a generally accepted production run of 44 examples, the second series Giulietta Sprint Zagato, colloquially known as the Coda Tronca for practical reasons, is the third of what I imagine being four time-lapse frames. Frame one is the original run of Sprint Veloce Zagato one-offs that inspired frame two: the first series Sprint Zagato Coda Tonda.  Frame three is the series represented by this car, and frame four is the Straight out of science-fiction Tubolare Zagato or TZ if you’re the sort to worry about pronouncing foreign words correctly.  I suppose frame five would be the Tipo 33, but that fellow is its own can of beautiful worms with quite a few interesting permutations to explore.

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Behold: the rarest production Giulietta by production number – and also my personal favorite.  I doubt I will ever own one, or even drive one for that matter, but aspirations being necessary for a healthy human brain and work ethic, I’ll  set my sights here.  A regular Giulietta Sprint looks BIG next to one of these.

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Market 541: Extremely nice 1960 Sprint 22219

Giulietta Sprint 10102 1493*22219, 1315*013171.  This European market Giulietta Sprint was reportedly purchased from Joe Mora in 2013 by an Alfa enthusiast in Chicagoland area. As purchased, the car had original but weathered paint and being somewhat of a perfectionist, the new owner decided to see what was under it. As shown by work in progress pictures on the B&L website, this looks to be a truly rust free example.

Story goes it was originally sold to a (one hopes) very stylish woman in Venice, where it stayed until 1982 when it was shipped to the USA.  The interior features new carpets and fresh vinyl. Headliner, dash, engine and rear end have never been apart.  This is a fine example and rarely does one find such an unmolested car at any price.

img_2465Great paint and exceptional chrome. Very good symmetry between all the pieces.  Interesting to see an original Italian front license plate frame.

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Market 507: 1957 Spider Veloce 750F*01970 at Fantasy Junction

Update October 2 2015:  I took the day off work to do some really fun stuff like go to a Dr. appointment and get my daily VW oil changed and smogged, and I was rolling by FJ and thought – hey, why not, and stopped in.  I gotta say, this car is REALLY nice in person.  Spencer told me it looks like it’s probably sold, but like Indiana Jones, in the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, you could probably swoop in and grab your hat before the door gets all the way down.  Commendable restoration for sure.

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If you licked it, it might taste like cherry or watermelon jolly rancher candy.

Giulietta Spider Veloce 750F 1495*01970, 1315*32969.  This car is available from Fantasy Junction in Emeryville Ca for $145,000.  I get asked most often if I know of any 1957 Spider Veloce’s for sale – well, here is one!  Car looks very well restored, though I’m sure there is one or two of you right now seething at some incorrect minutiae.  The engine number is not in the correct range (1315*30267 – 30761) for this year car, but as I commented* on my “What year…” post (see below), Veloce engines blew up and were replaced.  This old post has a discussion of what it may mean.  The restorer did us a favor and stamped a new build plate with the number for the engine in the car – that won’t cause any confusion in 50 years.

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Looking good – has that wet lollipop sheen that somehow triggers heightened desire.  I have worked on a lot of these cars, I can tell you it is an astonishing amount of work to get to this point from a bare shell in need of rust repair (not saying this needed rust repair – just that its a ton of work to get a car together from a shell to yum).

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Market 157: restored 101 Sprint in Australia

Update 1/20/2014:  This car found its way to Texas and recently sold through Driversource for about $45,000.  Still a nice looking example. This car was priced a bit on the high side back in 2009 or the market hasn’t moved much I guess.  I’ll split the difference.

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A great color for Sprints I think.

10/21/2009: Giulietta Sprint 750B 1493*06979, 1315*06197.  Frank sent me an email pointing out this car for sale at Classic Throttle Shop in Sydney Australia (who also has a VERY charming Fiat 850 panel van.). Asking price for this Sprint is AUD$43,995 or a little over $40,000 US.  A high price, but a very nice car.

2alfagiuliettaNothing to fault here.  Grills, headlight rings, lenses, bumper etc all look very nice.  A pair of period Carello headlamps would be the finishing touch, but Australia might have ordinances about headlight brightness that they actually enforce.  I have the wipers set that high on my windshield and they move around and chatter at speed, they need to be just at the edge of the windshield gasket on the up side of the free play since the 60 – 80 mph winds they will encounter while working will keep them at that position.  Repositioning mine is like job 1142 on my list of things to do.

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Market 20: Waterloo Sprint Veloce 750E 08721

5/8/2013:  This feller has popped up for sale at Bonhams at their up coming Spa Auction.  Estimate is $53,000 – $66,000.  Probably a bit on the low side.

“‘The Alfa, in a few words then, is a small car with a rev-happy dohc engine that can carry two people from point A to point B over all types of roads quicker than most cars twice its size. It does this not with blinding speed but with a wonderful combination of roadholding, compact size and sheer willingness.’ – Car & Driver on the Giulietta Sprint.”

Five years later and no new pictures.  Thanks Jerry for pointing this sale out to me.

6/10/2008: Giulietta Sprint Veloce 750 AR1493E08721, Engine 1315*32399. Listed for sale on Classic Driverfor 31,200 GBP, or about $61,000. The ad text says it is a 1958 Confortevole but Fusi lists the chassis number range for 1958 ending with 07921 though there is a typo where the page breaks for the 1959 year information and beside the 1959 750 designation Sprint Veloce’s it says 1958. Conforevole’s end with car 06611 so its a stretch of the accepted definitions to call it one. In this condition and at this price I don’t think they added any premium for calling it a Confortevole and I doubt there is any dishonesty at work, likely just a lack of solid information combined with the usual regurgitation of hear-say.

“Perfect in all respects.” This is a car that the seller means for potential buyers to come see in person, and who in their right mind would buy a car at the absolute top of the market without viewing it in person and taking it for a spirited drive. I want to go see it just to get a better look at the sellers facilities.

This presentation is great. More museum than Classic car dealership with period pictures and statistics built into the display. You probably have to qualify to even step into the ring for a closer look.

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Market 477: Green on green 1965 1600 Spider 392552

Giulia Spider 1600 10123*392552.  This green-on-green late Spider 1600 is on eBay right now out of New York.  The condition is good over-all, if a bit unoriginal in the details.  Metallic paint on Market 69‘s late Spider took quite a beating in the comments section on BringaTrailer (always a pleasure!), I wonder what they would think of this one.  Carpet looks a bit like astro-turf!

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A good looking car in this color -whether you like it or not.  Kind of a big Healey or Aston type color.  I’m hoping by now you all know which kind of wheels these are.  Is the nose trim missing?

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Another SS cousin: FIAT Stanguellini Bertone Berlinetta

1954 FIAT Stanguellini Bertone Berlinetta *071366*. This car is for sale now through Fantasy Junction, but is doing residence at the Petersen Automobile Museum in southern California -worth a visit even if this wasn’t there.  If the Sprint and SS have an extended family, this car would be considered an older second cousin, perhaps a first cousin even, and definitely a near sibling of the Sprint and BAT cars.  The list of cars Franco Scaglione had a hand in creating is impressive, and includes many of Alfa’s most coveted one-offs, listed one after another (1900L, Sportiva, BAT 5,7,9 etc) and many others like this little guy.  Truly art in automotive form.  This is a car that demands a place in your house -not your garage.  For $295,000 you’ll be in an exclusive club.

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This is a beautiful car from some angles and a challenging car from others -but then a lot of Scaglione’s creations are.  You have to look at it for a few moments, then remember that this is a hand made car.  Panels were hand formed, gas welded together and married to some seed of a FIAT 1100 chassis.  Color is great -not a color one would typically associate with Italian sports cars, but common in the palette of early 1950’s Italy.

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Market 364: Fantastic early 750B 03811 in Switzerland

Update 4/16/13:  They all show up eventually it seems and this fellow is no exception -find it here on eBay.  Car body is described as having been restored in the Czech Republic, the mechanicals in Germany.  I suspect the owner handled a lot of the little details that would eat up hundreds of paid hours.  I can’t really comment on the asking price -I imagine the seller has quite a bit in it to have taken it to this level.  I am quite taken by this color -maybe a good choice for my Sprint. Screen Shot 2013-04-16 at 5.05.34 PM Very very nice.    I need one of these front plate brackets.   Continue reading “Market 364: Fantastic early 750B 03811 in Switzerland”