Late 1970’s magazine advertisement for Alfa Romeo in the United States
5 Important Reasons for Choosing an Alfa Romeo
2012 All Italian Car and Motorcycle Show
I drove my Alfetta Sprint Veloce to the 2012 All Italian Car and Motorcycle Show. The informal show is sponsored by the Alfa Romeo Association for the benefit of the Alameda Special Olympics.
This year, my Sprint Veloce was joined by Chris Keen‘s red Alfetta GT, (see flickr photoset below) so there were four representatives of the Alfetta family, including a sedan and a GTV6. There were plenty of Alfa Romeos, Ferraris, Fiats, a few De Tomasos, a few Lamborghinis. a few Lancias and a few Maseratis. On the motorcycle front, there were many Aprilias, Ducatis, Moto Guzzis and Vespas.
Alfa Romeo Alfetta Sprint Veloce
A little over two months ago, an incompetent driver slammed into my parked Alfa Romeo. The Alfetta was in the body shop for 46 days while I argued with State Farm over the value of the car and searched for replacement parts.
I was lucky to find some Euro-bumpers on AlfaBB.com. Larry Jr., at Alfa Parts Exchange was more than helpful in getting me grills and headlight buckets. I was up in Berkeley, so I made a personal appearance at Alfa Parts and bought a reproduction turn signal lens, complete with white gasket. Skip, at J & J Autobody in Monterey, did very nice sheet metal work.
Daniel Stern only had a 5.75 inch Cibie H4 headlamp. I had great difficulty finding a 5.75 inch, flat face, Cibie H1 headlamp. A deep Google search for Cibie “flat face” led me to Joe English, owner of Group2 Motorsports for the H1 headlamp. The last thing I’m waiting for are some Osram SilverStar H1 bulbs I bought on eBay.
In the end, it’s an experience I prefer not to have gone through.
Alfa Romeo Rust Repair
The body shop called today to point out some rust they found when they removed the rear bumper (like I didn’t know about this). I guess what they really wanted to tell me was that it was going to cost more money.
I had ladled POR-15 Rust Preventive Paint
Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money…
So far the body shop has repaired rust in the front rocker panels, around the base of the windshield on the passenger side (without removing the glass), around the right windshield wiper drive shaft, on the door under the driver’s side window, around the rear bumper shock, below the bottom edge of the rear window and the trailing edge of the trunk lid.
Over the years I had treated those areas with POR-15 and/or Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Paint
I’d previously done my bush league repair work on the rust on the inner front fender wells and a large hole in the spare tire well – my first attempts at using fiberglass. Those repairs look great if you don’t look at them.
Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT
Thanks to my friend Kenny, I have an Alfetta Sprint Veloce.
Thanks to my friend Steve Fields, purveyor of automobilia, I now have the book, Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT by David Owen. Owen is the author of numerous Alfa Romeo books.
Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT covers some of the history of Alfa Romeo, the Alfetta’s family tree, Alfa Romeo racing and the Alfetta GT through the GTV6.
The Alfetta GT chapter outlines the design ideas and engineering solutions to problems such as weight distribution and rear axle design. The result being a clutch-transmission-final drive unit, DeDion rear axle and in-board disc brakes.
I’ve read that Giorgetto Giugiaro‘s original design for the Alfetta GT had retractable headlights, but I’d never seen any images. Owen’s book illustrates that with some of Giugiaro’s original sketches.
For the illiterate crowd, there are eight pages of color photographs plus black and white photographs of Alfettas and its predecessors throughout the book.