It’s rare, gorgeous , recently restored and repainted
The Giulietta , and its later Giulia sister ,are the cars that took Alfa Romeo from being a small production company to become an economically viable and successful firm .Before that Alfa had produced large and expensive cars in relatively small numbers . The masterstroke was fitting a powerful twin-cam engine in a light bodyshell , and making the cars relatively affordable.
Of the 176,114 Giulias built (including 91 of the delightfully – named Promiscua station wagons),some 14,300 were Spiders but only 2796 were Spider Veloces , using a pair of twin-choke Webers , higher compression ratio , bumpier cam profiles and a five-speed gearbox. The Giulia received the 1570cc version of the engine in 1962 and of the 10,318 Spiders produced, just 1091 were Veloces.
This car is rare. One of the last 101-series Spiders, it was originally supplied to Germany in blue, and came to the UK in 1999 , where ten years later it underwent a £20,000 restoration by Lackford Engineering.Only 2000 miles have been covered since restoration , and it has been repainted again and detailed by JD Classics; it’s very straight and shiny , with a mirror-like rechrome and good brightwork, riding on refurbished wheels . The carpets are new ,the leather is supple , and it’s very clean underneath, having – obviously – done a sum total of zero miles since being reassembled.
Somewhat curiously, the tyres are Bridgestones rear and Kumhos front, through the spare is a period Cinturato which suits the car perfectly. We have been given a reassurance that when the car is sold it will be wearing matching tyres all-round . The hood is new and typically Alfa-easy to erect, with a clear window.Under the bonnet there are no leaks from the pretty twin-cam, although not everybody will like the highly-polished cam cover and air intake (nice to see this rare and irreplaceable part still in place) and chrome fluid reservoir. Oil is golden and just over the max mark and coolant is visible in the filler neck.
It fires readily and drives beautifully once you have contorted yourself into that ‘Italian ape’ position. The gearchange is nice with good synchros , it drives straight hands-off and the disc brakes pull up square , hands on or off. The oil pressure and fuel gauges weren’t working , but they will be when the car is sold with a new MoT. Coolant temperature held steady at 90 C, which is what you want to see.
If you think that the money looks strong (there’s a similar Californian car on sale for the same number of dollars and a straight Spider in London for £49,995),just try finding another of these rare, desirable roadsters in the same , near-perfect order. It is likely to be a prolonged search.
The Giulietta , and its later Giulia sister ,are the cars that took Alfa Romeo from being a small production company to become an economically viable and successful firm .Before that Alfa had produced large and expensive cars in relatively small numbers . The masterstroke was fitting a powerful twin-cam engine in a light bodyshell , and making the cars relatively affordable.
Of the 176,114 Giulias built (including 91 of the delightfully – named Promiscua station wagons),some 14,300 were Spiders but only 2796 were Spider Veloces , using a pair of twin-choke Webers , higher compression ratio , bumpier cam profiles and a five-speed gearbox. The Giulia received the 1570cc version of the engine in 1962 and of the 10,318 Spiders produced, just 1091 were Veloces.
This car is rare. One of the last 101-series Spiders, it was originally supplied to Germany in blue, and came to the UK in 1999 , where ten years later it underwent a £20,000 restoration by Lackford Engineering.Only 2000 miles have been covered since restoration , and it has been repainted again and detailed by JD Classics; it’s very straight and shiny , with a mirror-like rechrome and good brightwork, riding on refurbished wheels . The carpets are new ,the leather is supple , and it’s very clean underneath, having – obviously – done a sum total of zero miles since being reassembled.
Somewhat curiously, the tyres are Bridgestones rear and Kumhos front, through the spare is a period Cinturato which suits the car perfectly. We have been given a reassurance that when the car is sold it will be wearing matching tyres all-round . The hood is new and typically Alfa-easy to erect, with a clear window.Under the bonnet there are no leaks from the pretty twin-cam, although not everybody will like the highly-polished cam cover and air intake (nice to see this rare and irreplaceable part still in place) and chrome fluid reservoir. Oil is golden and just over the max mark and coolant is visible in the filler neck.
It fires readily and drives beautifully once you have contorted yourself into that ‘Italian ape’ position. The gearchange is nice with good synchros , it drives straight hands-off and the disc brakes pull up square , hands on or off. The oil pressure and fuel gauges weren’t working , but they will be when the car is sold with a new MoT. Coolant temperature held steady at 90 C, which is what you want to see.
If you think that the money looks strong (there’s a similar Californian car on sale for the same number of dollars and a straight Spider in London for £49,995),just try finding another of these rare, desirable roadsters in the same , near-perfect order. It is likely to be a prolonged search.
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