Tag: Classic cars

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Market 436: 1956 Sprint Veloce Alleggerita 750 E 02239

Update 8/23/12: $310,000 hammer has members of the exclusive club known as ‘early lightweight Sprint Veloce owners’ all calling their insurance agent to up the agreed value, and then thinking about whether or not they really need that jewel in their jewelry box at that price.

8/11/12: Giulietta Sprint 750 E 1493*02239, 1315*30135, Bertone body number 77117.  This car will be auctioned by Russo and Steele next weekend with an expected hammer around $200,000.  With a high expected price comes high praise and/or high scrutiny.  d’Amico and Tabucchi list this chassis number as a 1956 Sprint Veloce 750E, good enough for me!  It has been magnificently restored to a semblance of ‘last raced’ specification, with lightweight seats, a lack of bumpers and other details deviating from stock.  It is doubtful it wore the Borrani wire wheels shown since -not only have I never seen a period picture of a Giulietta racer with wire wheels, they were very likely heavier than the usual Fergat or Borrani wheels due to the required extra splined hub adapter.

A lot of the ‘lightweight’ treatment was replacement of chrome-over brass parts with aluminum.  Body fits together with the typical Bertone precision.  Would be nice to see it wear it’s original, most likely lost 50 years ago aluminum bumpers.  I have read they are available -I know ClassicAlfa and Alfastop list a few of the aluminum parts, not sure if they have bumpers.

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Market 434: Winning-est Giulietta racer Spider 750 03083 ‘Sophia’

Update 8/23/12: Sold for $72,450 including premium.

Update later the same morning:


I got this picture taken at Road Atlanta circa 1983 from Michael McClure, then owner of the brown Giulietta racer and wearing the gold race suit talking to Martin Krilanovich (in green sleeves). The red car is Sophia with Phil Mason in white racing suit leaning over it talking to his crew chief Jerry.  Time flies. 

Giulietta Spider 750D 1495*03083, 1315*41849.  The late Al Leake Jr. raced Sophia to much success on the west coast.  I can remember seeing them many times at Sear’s Point and Laguna Seca -always out front or nearly so -even against cars that on paper ought to have gotten around the track faster -even if driven by lesser drivers.  I don’t remember where I heard/read it, but I seem to recall that Sophia is one of the winning-est race cars in history.  Lineage includes prior ownership by Phil Mason and connection to H. B. Luginbuhl, who some say had a lot to do with development early on.  Anyway, Sophia is being auctioned by Bonhams this coming Monterey weekend.  Estimate is $65,000 – $85,000.  It’s too bad the seller chickened out and omitted the rubber chicken that used to be seen dangling from the trunk -oh well, maybe that rubber chicken is a stuffed trophy over someones mantle now next to a 12 point buck or buffalo head.

Tasteful for a dedicated race car.  Development started in the mid-70’s and by the late 80’s Sophia was a potent machine.  Fiberglass grill and trim?

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Market 383: 10120 Sprint Speciale at Hyman

Update 8/21/12:  Sold for $138,000.  Well, er, bought and sold.  The journey continues.

Update 2/13/12:  It is the same car -the vin has been verified.  Sold for about €38,000 in 2006.  Market has changed!

Update 2/12/12: I heard from a previous owner of this car -the vin is 10120*177259.  He sold it into Spain 6 years ago.  He’s not positive it’s the same car, but pictures indicate it most likely is.

Silver grill -yes.  Same tires?  I think so.

Definitely looks like the same engine to me.  There you have it -a piece of the past puzzle of this car.

Giulietta Sprint Speciale 10120.  This car is listed by Hyman Ltd, in St. Louis.  No asking price, vin or other info is provided, but judging from the pictures it’s a nice car and knowing Hyman’s MO, it will undoubtedly be expensive.  I looked through my files but was unable to find this car.  Anyone know it?

Like Fantasy Junction and their brick wall, Hyman uses this stage to good effect.  I wonder if it’s set up all the time?  I’m helping a friend listing a ton of Jaguar parts from the 50’s and 60’s on eBay and we plan on setting up a permanent photo area.  Note the screen behind the grill is in silver (or possibly chrome) -not original (if you care).  Windshield wipers are parked on the opposite side form usual.  Nice looking car!

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Market 438: Spider Veloce 750F 04699

Giulietta Spider Veloce 750F 1495*04699, 1315*31090.  This car is on eBay right now.  Has it weaknesses and strengths.  No surprise why it’s on eBay this particular week.  Here’s an idea: you provide the captions, I’ll add them.  Just say which picture your comment is for.  Hint: B- or C+…

Scott’s intro: “Looks like a few of the cars that have come up for sale in the last year. Fix a few details and it would sell for a fair bit more.”

Craig’s overall: “She could use a little rust cleanup in the engine bay,a set of the green Cavis ignition wires, white plastic on the horn ring, seat repair, proper exhaust system, gauge inserts and a Veloce tach. Nothing to bad here I give her a B.”

Mike I says: “First photo. As per Mr Hamilton: nice complete trim. Good shut lines correct borrani wheels. Good stance, with shiny paint……”

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Market 62: Restored Giulia SS 380024 (still) on the block

Update 8/13/12: Still available.  Description says it was restored from bare metal by Carrozzeria Touring.  Price is now “upon request”.  Maybe a good car to bring to the US and try and sell at auction for a profit?

Update 2/13/09: This car is now listed on Anamera at 59000 Euro’s.  They have included a statement that the engine is an 00121.

Oops:  I confused this car with another.  This one was not (to my knowledge) restored by a German and didn’t benefit from a parts car that was sold for 50 Euro’s.  Sorry.

Original post 11/24/08: Giulia Sprint Speciale 10121*380024, 00121*00128.  This car is available now out of Italy from Luzzago.  Car was restored by a German Gentleman who is said to have had a parts car that he sold for 50 Euro’s when the project was done!

The condition of this car is very good  and Luzzago has several mid-restoration pictures to assure you that things were done right where the body is concerned.

giulia20160020ss20196420azzurra2000220wBumpers fit very well in this picture, as does the hood and headlight rings.  I like the blue but it might be a little better if it had a little less baby in it.

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Market 437: Sprint Veloce Alleggerita 750 E 03819

Giulietta Sprint Veloce ‘Alleggerita’ 750 E 1493*03819, 1315*30348. This 1957 Sprint Veloce is available now out of Italy. It is a good comparison with yesterdays lightweight Veloce, especially in the interior -would be a great comparison if I knew how much they were asking.  They made about 600 lightweights if my vin/body number math is sound.  Not horrifically rare as far as rare Italian cars goes, but these being very potent machines in their hey-day, frequently vanquishing their own class and placing very high outright in races against competitors with 2 or 3 times the displacement, and being constructed from lots of impossible to find special parts, they have all the cache one could want in a 50 year old Italian car.  Oh -and they are beautiful and easy to drive -even among modern traffic.

Hood fits very well.  I like the extra lights -looks like 1 fog and 1 spot.  Marchal’s?  Bumper, eyebrow trims and headlights all look like aluminum to me.  Nice car.

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Market 435: Spider Veloce 750F 04191 NLA

Giulietta Spider Veloce 750F 1495*04191. This car was on eBay for about 30 hours before being pulled and declared No Longer Available.  Someone with a spare Veloce block must have made an unrefuseable offer.  I guess we will have to keep waiting to see what a 750 Veloce goes for without a Veloce engine…  Will the new owner please step forward!

A fine looking example, without much to be done.  I like them like this -no worry driving them around.  Hood spear gone?  165 series tires?

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Order of Operations (pretty please my dear aunt sally*)

You’ve done it.  You are at the nadir!  Anything you do from this point forward will temporarily counteract the entropic tendencies of that system known as your car -assuming an asteroid or flood doesn’t stop by for an afternoon chat.  From here on you’ll be moving closer to that first turn of the ignition key, that first drive, that first stone chip.  Or:  your car is as apart as you can get it without employing cutting tools.  Everything from here on out is part of the process of putting it back together.

As with any process, there are things that need to be done in preparation, things that just need to happen at some point for the process to be considered complete, things that can be done simultaneously, and things that need to be done in a specific order because if they are not, they either can’t be done or a lot of time will be wasted.  Some are obvious -you wouldn’t paint before the rust repair or torque the head before putting the head gasket on for example, but others are a little more subtle, like assembling the front turn signal lights –  but mostly it’s a matter of not doing things more than once or twice if possible, and taking advantage of big blocks of time the car will spend with experts -such as when getting rust repair and paint.  If you are doing every single thing to the car yourself then the process will take however long it will take because you can’t do more than 1 hour per hour.

Car manufacturers are keenly aware of the dependent and independent processes that go into putting a car together.  Everything is prepared and on hand for trained staff to do the job efficiently.  Here some Montreal’s and Dino’s (?) get coupons for Pizza delivery tucked under their windscreen wipers.  I got this image off Alfa-male, a great Alfa site.

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Heater part 2: Heater valve 1493.54.709 and control cable 1488.31.723

Last installment we looked at the heat exchanger box itself, this time I’ll focus on the bits that hook it up and control the incoming hot water: the heater valve and the push/pull cable that controls the valve.  The first generation of Sprint’s had a heater valve (1483.54.711) that looked not far removed from a garden tap and you actually had to pop the hood and get out to turn on the flow of hot water to the heater core (if you didn’t realize you were going to want heat before you started out).  At some point this was deemed a little old fashioned so a cable operated valve was put to use -cousins of which can be found on Alfa’s for many years to follow.

Valve failure mode(s): hardening of rubber diverter seal, oxidation leading to through pits or breakage, loss.

Control cable failure mode(s): still/difficult operation, cable breakage/cut leading to too short, loss.

The current state of the parts supply has:

1493.54.709 with new diaphragm seal installed.  Like all rubber things, it just got hard and cracked after 50+ years.  The inner plateau seals against the port in the valve body, keeping the water out of the core when not wanted, the outer ring seals to the body to keep it from leaking when it’s open.

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Market 432: SS 10120 00392 ‘no longer for sale’

Giulietta Sprint Speciale 10120*00392.  This car is currently listed on eBay out of Haverhill, MA and sits at $45,000.  A note has been added at the end of the auction that it’s no longer available.  Must have received an offer too good to pass up, while being spooked by the presence of a nicer Giulia SS on eBay at the same time.

The car itself is rough around the edges, but needs mostly light cosmetics and some missing original parts sourced to be taken to the next level.  What level is that you ask?  Nice driver maybe…

There is a gray spot on the roof with a corresponding exit wound in the headliner.  They do look sweet without bumpers.  Looks very nice!

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