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Market #42: Yet another scrappy ‘Guilietta’ Sprint Veloce project

Update: Wow, no takers for $7000.  If it was in my area I’d be all over it.  It might help if they list it so it can be more easily seen by spelling Giulietta correctly.  Hmmm, lets see if it gets relisted.

Update: Ian reported that more pictures have been posted and indeed they have.  He commented that the carbs are not original, I think he means it should have 40DCO3’s.  I’m not certain and have seen no evidence one way or the other, but keeping in mind that Alfa during this period were consistently inconsistent, I think Veloces at this point may have had 40 DDCOE3’s as this is about the time they were being phased in and showing up on cars.  What’s the difference you ask?  E refers to the Italian word for Die-cast.  I think there is a pretty good section on the differences on the Veloce Register website.  Anyone?

Giulietta Sprint Veloce 750E 1495E08315, Engine 1315*32289. Ian Evans sent me a link to this auction with the note: “Probably a safe bet to believe it truly does not run since it is missing the carburetors, eh?” I’m glad he sent it along because I’ve been too busy to troll for cars to write about. For once Fusi is in agreement with the seller and it is indeed a 1959 Sprint Veloce. Metric gauges, swooshy market lights and amber directionals in the tail lights indicate it’s a European Market car, an inquiry to Alfa’s archives would tell you which country if it mattered to you.

The good: Straight nose and trim, good hood fit, not missing much. The bad: everything needs to be reconditioned, expensive to say the least! The ugly: The rust you see here hints at a level of corrosion on all the parts that is difficult to remove. I wonder if a tree fell on it like my Berlina.

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Other 1315 series Giulietta engine numbers.

In 1955, with introduction of the Giulietta Berlina and Spider, an engine number series was started for each.  For the Spider, engine numbers run from AR 1315*40001* through *45854* and for the Berlina AR 1315*50001* through *74950*.  In 1956 The Sprint and Spider Veloce’s were introduced  sharing the engine number series starting with AR 1315*30001* and running to *32738*.  For 1957 an increased power version of the Berlina was introduced, the TI for ‘Turismo Internationale’ with an engine number range starting with AR 1315*80001* and running to *97834*.  Oddly the series number for the TI is 753 rather than 750.  I have read that the Romeo 2 van was being produced at this point with a Giulietta 1300 engine as an option and if so, it may have an engine number that is a variation on one of the above.

Andrew Watry owns Giulietta Berlina 750C 1488 01774, engine number 1315*51850.  Note the depth of the stamping effort in the vin plate.  The early cars seem to have been more aggressively stamped or perhaps the earlier were done by hand and the later had some sort of jig.

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Guest blog entry: Concorso Italiano 2008

Giuliettas.com couldn’t make it to the Concorso Italiano 2008, so we asked Hardtuned.com and Sports Car International Magazine’s Jeff Glenn for a full report.  Words and Photographs are his.  Thanks Jeff!

 

 

It was always a bit of a chore getting into the Concorso Italiano when it was at the Bayonet and Black Horse Golf Course on Fort Ord, and the organizers convincingly fixed that by moving the event to the Marina Airport. In the process, they lost a fair amount of cache. At past Concorso’s, I enjoyed sitting in the grass and people watching after checking out an overwhelming number of Italian cars and the club corrals in the outlying parking lots. Trees, fleeting glimpses of the ocean, and a rolling topography that gave you a sense of how many cars and people were there have been replaced by a flat, asphalt and concrete parking lot bordered by vendor tents, chain link fence, and port-o-potties. This year, when we couldn’t stand any longer, we collapsed on the concrete.

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Market #41: Giulietta SS 00207 cleaned up.

Another update: This car has reportedly sold!  I guess that means you have to buy mine…

Update: I found a couple of pictures from the previous sale if anyone is seriously interested in this car and wants to see them email me at sprints@giuliettas.com. Also this car is missing the hood spear but they are available.

Giulietta SS 10120*00207, Engine 00536*08350, Bertone *87*209*. Fantasy Junction has this car listed for $48,500. This car was sold by them last year for about $28,000 as a project. Interestingly the link on their ‘Cars we sold’ page is gone. I suppose if I was selling this car a second time after it under went a cosmetic face lift I’d rather the world didn’t know.

The engine in the car is a 1600cc from a 1966 Giulia Sprint GT Veloce or a Duetto and contemporary literature lists the power output at either 125 or 122 depending on the brochure, either way a few shy of the 129hp claimed for a 10121 Giulia SS. The good: Probably a fast smooth 10120 Giulietta SS, not as high strung as one with the original 100 hp 1300cc engine but the bad: it’s not original and the price doesn’t adequately reflect this in my opinion, though I suppose it could be argued that it’s close. I could of course go on at length with opinions but form your own from this: The correct 00120 Engine with all the the correct parts in running condition starts at $15,000 due to its commonality with the expensive SZ, a 1966 Veloce engine like the one in this car is maybe $5-6000.

Car looks a lot better than it did when I looked at it last year. All of the loose ends seem to have been tied up. I like the addition of fog lights. Headlights are cheapo Wagners or something. I’d like to see some period Carello’s or Marchal’s but if you’re sprucing a car up to make money it probably doesn’t make sense to spend money unnecessarily, especially when so few would notice.

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Market #40: Another low in Sprints

Giulietta Sprint 1493*22515.  This 1960 Sprint Normale was on eBay here and sold for $310!  Not a bad deal if you have a project you need body panels for or if you (like me) have a lot of extra Sprint parts and are looking for something to bolt them to.  Another good use for this would be as a mule to develop some welding skills on, the benefits would be two-fold:  You’d be learning to weld and you’d be saving an otherwise fairly hopeless seeming car. 

Sellers have all the removed parts and would consider keeping them with the car for a price.  How considerate. 

The nose here is really not that bad.  I see some dents and wrinkles but this is what you would find under the paint and filler on just about any Sprint, concours contenders included.

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Sprint to Berlina engine swap advances: Part 1 of Sprint engine rebuild and Berlina revival.

After I picked up the new windshield for the Berlina in Berkeley I headed down to the shop to finish the pulling portion of the job.

I am new to pulling and dropping in engines so I probably spent way too much time thinking about it compared to just doing it. I decided to pull the transmission from below due to the tight fit of the 1750 in the Sprint, which turned out to be a good idea, though difficult. To pull the transmission the tunnel opening cover has to be removed along with both shift boots (and a whole bunch of stuff on the underside). It took about an hour to get the right angle and grip on it but eventually the trans slid free of the main shaft. I put a tire under it so if it got loose unexpectedly it wouldn’t hurt itself crashing on the cement floor.

I hated pulling up the nicely glued in carpet but there was no getting around it. The cover had two Philips and two slotted screws, nice touch. The boot you see here is what keeps you from smelling gear oil when you drive. Stinky stuff.

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Market #36: Very Rough 1600 SS

Update: This car (11/18/08) is now offered for 1012 Euro.  Next thing you know this car will be free if you are willing to get a tetanus shot and show up with a trailer.  I know of a similar car locally that, in addition to being this rusty, was hit HARD in the front, that recently changed hands for the price of a tow.  Someday for this car?  I hope so…

The opening bid of $5413.80 (3500 Euro) will probably buy you this challenging SS rusty shell project that is currently on Italian eBay. Of course what do you do with something like this? From the pictures, I’d say half of the car would have to be rebuilt from panel sections and fabricated from scratch. Lets not forget glass… doors… trim…

This is kind of what I expected to arrive when my SS came, but I spent less than this and got more than I was hoping of the trim and glass. Drivers side headlight opening is funky among other things. Steering box should be present, a small plus.

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Market #35: Black plate Sprint Veloce Confortevole project

Sold! $19,340. Deutschland, here it comes. Well, it is eBay, so we wont know until a few weeks pass without it reappearing if it actually sold.  I was kind of thinking $20,000 would be the tipping price between a good buy and a good sale, so for what it’s worth I owe myself a t-shirt.  Greig, you were the only entrant in my guess the final price contest so I guess I owe you a T-shirt either way.  Hopefully I’ll get to them in our life-time.

Sprint Veloce ‘Confortevole’ 1493E*06481, engine 1315*30972. I am starting to think that Michael at Fast Cars of California has a endless hoard of Giulietta projects, mainly Sprints. Today’s offering is a 1958 Giulietta Sprint Veloce Confortevole project that apparently spent 15 years with weeds growing through its trunk. The car is complete and basically sound but requires (and deserves) a full restoration.

Pretty much all there and ready to come apart. Nose has been where it ought not have been and has lots of little dents to show for the experience. Grill ‘eyebrows’ can be had.

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Market #33: Giulietta Spider… Veloce?… Veloce!

Reserve not met! Auction ended the second time around at $9100, I guess the repeated listing curse has struck.  I imagine the seller will regroup, make some small changes to the car then relist it in a few months when the general public has forgotten about it.

Relisted: The car is back on ebay due to a non-paying high bidder. The seller has added to the description a scan of a response from the Alfa Romeo Archive stating without caveat that the car is a Giulietta Spider Veloce. Will a relist with solid documentation take this auction higher than the first selling price or will the eBay repeated listing low-price curse strike? I anticipate the former. Veloces are special and with a little, ok, well, a lot of work this car will be fantastic.

Update: Car sold for $14,100 which is at the lower end of my speculation, but considering the expense of getting a 750 Veloce engine together this is probably a good price. As always, we’ll see if the sale sticks. I am thinking Sprints might be more popular than Spiders right now based on recent eBay results.

Giulietta Spider 10125 1495*(F)10203, Engine 1315*44059 (not original). This car is available now on eBay, another neat Giulietta project from the seller in Newport Beach who sold several of the Sprints I have written about. This car is being sold as a Veloce and has several physical characteristics of a Veloce but based on the numbers there is some legitimate doubt as to whether it is truly a Veloce.

There are a lot of VERY enthusiastic Alfa people out there whose primary interest and first love are Giulietta Spider’s, especially Veloce’s, and if you are seriously considering this car and looking for guidance, you may want to check out the AlfaBB (link is to a discussion of this car) or join the 750/101 Yahoo group to track some of them down and get their opinions.

This Spider almost looks like a wax and go in this picture. Dent in the nose is not too bad and it doesn’t seem to have affected the trim which all looks pretty good. I like the baby blue.

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