Posts Tagged ‘alfa romeo’

Proven duo: 1979 Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce

November 20, 2009

Having just got back into my Alfetta, and realizing what a great car it is to drive, I thought I’d look up a couple more of these. For the money, as long as you’re patient have deep pockets to get you through smog, these can be a lot of fun. Aside from the SPICA pump oil filter, which has been craftily hidden behind the oil pump, they’re fairly easy and straightforward to work on. While they don’t have the extensive US competition history the 105/115 GTVs have, they’re still attractive cars with a design that is clearly related to the Scirocco and Esprit. Changing to smaller European stainless bumpers also does a lot to clean up the look – I highly recommend this for anyone with a US-market Alfetta.

Anyway, enough waxing on about these cars – here’s our first example, a 1979 Sprint Veloce that can be found on craigslist in Bellevue, WA for $2500. This car might be a Velocissima edition Alfetta, which got the Ronal A1 wheels you see here, along with some other aerodynamic bits and pieces that would be hard to see on a black car. Seller seems to have read the manual on how to photograph cars for sale, since he’s included 2 outside pics from different angles (one from the rear would have been better), an interior shot, and an engine shot. He also claims extensive service history, including an engine service for $4K, and some performance modifications. Detail-oriented eyes will notice some rusty-looking areas on the passenger-side inner wheel well, but I believe those are just smog stickers. Get rid of the Ferrari logo on the wheel, fix the key marks in the paint, and you should be good to go!

1979 Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce

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1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde

October 22, 2009

The first time I truly paid attention to one of these was when I saw a red one parked out in front of a used car dealer in Mountain View, CA in the early 90s. At the time, the bright red wedgy design with sporty Recaro interior and that funky u-shaped handbrake seemed pretty wild. Needless to say, the car was too expensive for a high school/college student, so I put up with admiring from a distance. More recently, a friend of mine had a 40K-mile example that was a fantastic drive, but with a mortgage and the state of the economy, they’re still out of reach for mere mortals. But not this one!

You can find it here on eBay in Park City, UT with a Buy-It-Now of $2500 and bidding currently at less than that. This car actually only has 102K miles on it, and looks pretty decent. It has some of the wear issues you’d expect of an older car with that mileage, but seems like a bit of work would put it on par with some pretty tidy examples.

1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde front

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My First Alfa Drive – 1971 Alfa Romeo Spider 1750

September 25, 2009

I was looking through the classifieds, as I often do, and noticed a green 1971 1750 spider for sale up in the north-east bay area. Back in 1991, when I was looking at cars, I checked out a green ’71 with steel wheels and those disc hub caps in Redwood City, and ended up passing on it because the guy wanted $3400, which would have blown both my purchase and repair budgets. However, the top down experience with the weird shifter exiting at an angle through the console, as well as the sound of that engine, encouraged me to keep looking until I found the spider I have today. The ’71 might have been the wiser investment, but I subsequently met the person who purchased that car a few years later, and it apparently had some significant rust in the floor pans that she spent a lot of money repairing.

Well, as it happens, it seems this car has popped up in the classifieds again. I can’t say for 100% sure, but there must be very few green ’71s left, and I specifically recall the weird nerf bars this car had to protect its nose. Check it out on craigslist, where it’s listed in Vallejo/Benicia, CA for the bargain price of $1450.

1971 Alfa Romeo Spider front

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