cars – Page 37 – Giuliettas

November 20, 2008

Market 60: Another Sprint Veloce Allegerita, this one with Targa Florio history

Giulietta Sprint Veloce ‘Allegerita’ 750E1493*04347, engine 1315*30526, Bertone 77468. This car is available right now for 68,000 Euro’s ($85,000 on November 19, 2008) from various sources in Europe but I found it at Steuel. The advertisement text is available below and includes pieces of the cars history the new owner will no doubt have fun verifying and elaborating on. I contacted the owner directly about the car and he provided me with the numbers and an offer of further information should I require it. I have no doubt any information required to help a potential buyer will be provided without hesitation.

In contrast to yesterdays SVA this car has been thoroughly refinished and prepared inside and out for racing without for cutting any corners and with no piece untouched. As can be seen below, the engine compartment underside and suspension are all in top condition. The Conrero connection and Targa Florio history should add quite a bit to the price of this car, but other than maybe a picture I doubt much evidence of those days still exists in the car.

This car looks like a new car and I suppose one could say to all intents that it is a new car. Wheels appear to be current reproductions. Without being specific I’ll just say this car looks right- everything fits together well and has a unified level of detailing.

Continue reading “Market 60: Another Sprint Veloce Allegerita, this one with Targa Florio history”

November 19, 2008

Market 59: Ex-Swedish royal family Sprint Light-weight 750E 04067

Giulietta Sprint Veloce ‘Alleggerita’ 750E 1493*04067, Engine 1315*30393. Available right now from our friends and neighbors at Fantasy Junction is this neat Sprint. Made in 1957 for the Prince of Sweden, this light-weight Sprint Veloce (SVA) has seen 32,219 KM’s since new if it hasn’t gone around once, in which case, even 132,219 is only about 82,000 miles. In the world of Sprint Veloce’s it really doesn’t get much better than this unless unashamed period race damage and accompanying provenance or utter originality is your thing. This car has changed hands a few times over the last year, not sure why, but if the declines in my 401K are any indication I can make a guess.

While I will whole-heartedly endorse this car I have to air a major gripe: this car was is VERY GOOD original paint recently, I mean, probably the BEST original paint one could find on any Sprint, much less an SVA. Now I’m all about the rights of ownership and all but I can only imagine what the twins on antiques roadshow would say if this was a seriously expensive piece of furniture that lost 90% of its value because it was refinished. One doesn’t OWN a car like this, one is CONSERVATOR of a car like this. There should be someone who grants permission for you to paint this car.

Is a lightweight still a lightweight if it’s not lightweight? Lightweight or not it’s a beautiful car! Small headlights with aluminum trim rings are sort of wasted on a car with a heavy grill and chromed bumper. I bet those fog lights are a few pounds each.

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November 16, 2008

Pedal Pushers Pull-over rally 2008 Wrap-up

The Pedal Pushers Pull-Over Rally ran yesterday, November 15th and a lot of fun was had. The event started in an Oakland city parking lot behind Peet’s coffee on Fruitvale and made it’s way to the Warehouse in Port Costa, with 160 miles of scenic California back-roads in between. Focus of the rally is vintage sports and touring cars and a strong contingent of each was present, with some little French cars thrown in to keep everyone smiling.

On my Event Photo’s page is a full set from the drive. If you have a set of photos from the drive hosted somewhere I can link to let me know at sprints@giuliettas.com.

If you are shivering in Minnesota right now wondering what the weather and scenery is like in Northern California here’s your glimpse. This picture was taken on the civilized northern stretch of Morgan Territory road where Giuliettas.com and Pedal Pusher Citation Bait’s 1972 Fiat 124 Sport sedan chased a string of cars including a ‘Conrero-ized’ Giulietta Spider, Porsche 356 and Colli Super Wagon among others.

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November 14, 2008

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS ‘Leight 00002’ Low-nose

Elmar, my European correspondent, sent me a link to Classic Motor Action in Belgium (who is currently offering a Fiat 8V that is spectacular!!!), telling me they had Low-nose SS number 2 in their archive of cars they had sold at auction, sure enough they do. d’Amico and Tabucchi say of this car “Machino presso il servizio esperienze principali”. I’m not sure of the nuance of the Italian language but I suspect they mean this car was put to work by the factory for testing, shows, journalists etc. It’s good to know it exists as it is truly the second SS made behind 00012 and before 00006.

Definitely a low nose. I wonder how old this picture is? Notice the similarities to 00001 below. I assume the title ‘leight’ means it is aluminum.

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November 12, 2008

Market #58: Very Rough incomplete 56 Sprint

Update 12/2/08: This car reached $3650 with 24 bidders before ending reserve not met. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this car. As I mentioned before, I am interested in it, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger yesterday while looking at those floors, knowing I have been too chicken to go for it on my SS that doesn’t need this much.

Update 11/25/08: This car is now on eBay. A trunk lid (courtesy of me) and rear glass have been added along with more detailed pictures of the floor and trunk rust. A project for the brave. Opening bid is a realistic $1956 compared to the $6950 asking that was lowered to $5950 when it was on CL. Original engine number for this car was 1315*03053. I may actually bid on this thing.

Giulietta Sprint AR 1493*03146, Engine 1315*40174. This car is available now on Craigslist out of Newport Beach from Fastcars of California. According to Fusi this car was made late in 1956 and the engine came in an early 1956 Spider. These early column shift Sprints don’t come up for sale often and it is doubtful many were made.

This car is likely to define the bottom of the market for early Giulietta Sprints. I’ve seen worse cars being tackled by enthusiasts but those cars are usually purchased for very little money so the first resurrection phase brings their investment up to about this cars starting asking price.

Tusk style bumperettes are odd and give the car a less than sporty makeover. All in all the trim is there and not too bad but the shape of the front looks to me like it has been pushed in a little.

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November 11, 2008

Event Notice: Pedal Pushers Pullover Rally 11/15/2008

I thought it would be nice to pass along a press release from the Pedal Pushers website. They have put a lot of miles and effort into putting on an exciting fun event with great T-shirts. Show up in your classic car and bring $20 to buy a shirt, you’ll be glad you did. Supplies of the shirts will be very limited so arrive early! The following is all nearly verbatim from their website:

Don’t put your vintage ride into hibernation just yet…Come on out and join us for the Pullover Rally, a 150+ mile romp through the back roads and hills of the East Bay

The Pedal Pushers would like you to join us on Saturday, November 15 for some fall season driving fun. Our route will begin in the heart of Oakland, behind Peet’s coffee at 3401 Fruitvale Ave and we’ll make our way through remote two-lane roads and fields of windmills to reach our lunch stop, an Italian ristorante, where we’ll fuel up on pizza, panini, and cappuccinos before the second leg begins. After we zoom along beautiful scenic roads, we’ll race over the backside of nowhere to a watering hole in Port Costa, between Highways 80 and 4. Approximate driving time including lunch is 6 hours, ending the rally by 4 pm.

Giulietta Sprint belonging to giuliettas.com and Pedal Pusher Citation Bait sits beside Shaun and Candy Pond’s award winning Fulvia at the lunch stop on the last Pullover Rally.

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November 10, 2008

Giulietta Sprint 101 1300 engine rebuild part 3: more bottom end work

If you’re not into reading about engine rebuilds the next few posts will probably bore you… I woke up early Sunday and set out for the shop determined to figure out the oil pan set up on the engine I’m building. I bought a 101 1300 Normale oil pan for pretty cheap that was dirty and the windage tray had a lot of surface rust, but I figured I could clean it up and if I got the rust off it would stay off since it will be in an oil bath. I had to look at the parts book illustrations several times before I figured out how the windage tray brackets get installed. The brackets themselves were bent up but I aligned everything with some pliers and I’m now confident I know how it goes together.

The brackets are taller on one side than the other, probably to put the windage tray at an angle to direct the oil to the pick up as it drops out of the crank. The ‘cigarette’ seals can be seen here sticking out of the end main cap. These will have to be trimmed before the final assembly.

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November 8, 2008

Giulietta Sprint 101 1300 Engine rebuild part 2: depths have been plumbed and the ascent begins.

I have a good honest tired accomplished feeling tonight. I spent about 5 hours on the bottom end of the 101 1300 engine that is going back in the Sprint and I got a lot done.

I brought the 1400 kit I bought along with the head to Glenn Oliveria, local Alfa engineer par excellence and driver of a neat column shift 750 series Giulietta Sprint race car, to get some advise. He measured a few things, thought about it and decided the head had been milled .040″ already and would require a .010″ skim, in addition to a valve job, to be ready for action. He explained what was involved to use the 1400 kit, chamfering the head, measuring valve to piston top clearance, measuring tdc combustion chamber volumes to calculate compression and balance the compression across all 4 cylinders. Oh, and peening the rods might not be a bad idea. Long story short, a $1000+ machining bill would be paid to make the 1400 kit work so I am going to go stock 1300cc 9.1 to 1 compression ratio piston liner set for the Giulietta Sprint.

These holes are about 2 inches deep. When I first started cleaning this up they were barely visible. Lots of crud had gotten in here over the years. I used a drill bit to help auger it out then washed them out. Nice and clean now.
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November 6, 2008

Market #57: New Delhi $50K ’59 Spider Veloce

Update: If you scroll down to the comments you will find a comment by the owner of this car. This auction is a scam, no doubt about it. Makes me wonder a few things… What possible gain is there in running this scam auction? I don’t think there are very many buyers interested in this car who exist in a vaccuum as it were, who would buy without telling any other Alfa owners or asking around for verification that it is a Veloce, correctly set up etc.

I also wonder about eBay. Granted, everyone knows they have postured themselves with policies to support high volume sellers of crap that bulk up search results but add little of value to the discerning buyer, probably to increase traffic and there-by perceived company value (and stock price), at the expense of the little guy who is in reality selling the thing that most people go to eBay for. I used to frequently sell on eBay to help pay for my hobby but between eBay fees and Paypal gouging policies I have all but given up. Search on Alfa Romeo, I bet the items you express interest in are sold by low volume individuals, the very people eBay policy is the least sympathetic to. On top of this is the fraud auction problem. There should be an internal listing review audit that sees an auction like this with high buy it now price, little information given and a no-feedback seller that goes through a verification process before the auction goes live. This sort of auction makes ebay look bad.

It’s time for a dedicated auction site for classic cars and car parts for and by the little guys. I have some ideas if your interested in going for it.

Currently on eBay is this 1959 Giulietta Spider Veloce. Entire text of ad reads as follows:

“Alfa Romeo 1959 Giulietta Spider, very rare car only 2800 made ever. Only serious buyers contact. Scammers do not bother to contact. Car in excellent condition. Not driven in over a year now. Serious buyers contact for further details. Will have to meet in person for completing the deal. Thanks for looking.”

Doesn’t look too bad, but then again, with picture resolution like this is could be one of those high quality scale models coming out of Italy now.

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November 5, 2008

Interview with Berlina Register Keeper Andrew Watry

This morning when I checked my email I found that Andrew had sent me his latest Berlina/Giulia/Giulietta Register Newsletter No. 27 (November 2008). As I was reading it I realized that Andrew has been a fixture in the Alfa world for a while and I didn’t know much about his history with Alfa’s, so I emailed him a few questions. The result is the first in what will probably turn into a series of interviews with notable characters in the Alfa world.

What made you decide to do the Berlina website and Register?

“I started the Berlina Register began in 1997. There were other Alfa Registers (particularly the Giulia Sedan Register) to serve as models; I had loved Giulias for years and had just bought a Berlina, so I thought it would be fun and useful to become the clearinghouse on Berlinas and gather other interested folks. Not many people cared about them at the time except me, it seemed. I took over the North American Giulia Register five-ish years ago when Dave Mericle stopped handling it, and added the Giulietta Sedan Register in 2007 when I bought one of those.”

Andrew in his Cortina (that is currently for sale) leading the Berlina Register tour.

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