giulietta sprints

Once again I’m straying form the topic of Giuliettas here but I couldn’t resist this video. Only the Italians would decide this was a good idea. Perhaps someone knows what kind of bikes they would have been riding? I can’t think of an Italian big bike manufacturer from this period so I’m tempted to say they are BMW’s.

Right after the last installment on Giulietta accessories these two black and white pictures were discovered. I have read that a Bertone technical booklet exists detailing all of the possible accessories but I don’t suppose I’ll ever see it.

The first picture is of a 750 series Sprint and shows several accessories and an anomaly I’ve never seen elsewhere. The most obvious accessory in this picture is the fog lamp kit. It differs from the 101 kit in that the grill opening surrounds are unmodified, just the grill bars were modified to mount the fog lights. The lights really look a lot like Hella 128 items in this picture. I wonder what sort of switch they used and where it was mounted.

This 750 Sprint wears a lot of the available accessories. I wonder if it is one of the early prototypes?

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The last modified Sprint Speciale’s installment highlighted some fairly successful modifications, mostly done in the youth of the featured cars. This car glared at me from the same file directory I used to store the other pictures but I just couldn’t work it in. It would have been like accidentally finding reverse while speeding down the highway.

I know, you’re looking at the picture thinking ‘that’s an SS??… NO WAY’. Look closer, you know it’s true. My first impression was someone built an interpretation of something from Bubblegum Crisis or another cyberpunk Anime, but without the ability to fly.

Not an altogether unsightly proposition if it was based on a 70’s Spider -which is where the nose appears to have come from, but in my opinion an abberation as a Franken-SS unless based on a horribly smashed SS that would have been recycled if not for this.

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If you are a fan of Alfa Romeo Giulietta’s there is a pretty good chance you also have an appreciation for Italian motorcycles from the same era. The clip below fulfills both interests and gives a glimpse of road-race competition protocol in Italy in the 50’s. If you look closely there are several Romeo vans kitted as team transporters, a Giulietta Berlina at about 1:25 and best of all lots of footage of the trailing press car, a Lancia Aurelia Spider America, close cousin of the Pininfarina Giulietta Spider. Enjoy.

I have this approach I’ve noticed when faced with a job I don’t necessarily want to do on one of my cars, it’s called procrastination, you might have heard of it.  As necessity is the mother of invention it is just as strongly the enemy of procrastination and I it took me having two unavoidable reasons and a little good luck to effect an almost final fix for this fuel pump issue.  The first good reason was the need to give Kip back his SU fuel pump that was given temporary duties on the SV (I was going to see him on Sunday at a shop warming party), the second is the requested attendance of this car at Pixar’s Motorama this Friday afternoon.  The little bit of good luck was a friend having a new Facet fuel pump kit bought specifically for a weber equipped Giulietta Spider that was no longer in his life.  With no good rationalization left to enable procrastinate, I went to my shop yesterday determined to mount, plumb and wire the new fuel pump.

Nice new Facet fuel pump hanging out with 50 years of scummy crud on the underside of the Sprint Veloce.  Note shock isolation mounts, like little motor mounts, and grounding wire.

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Giulietta Sprint 750B 1493*01864. On eBay right now, starting bid is $1000. Vin on this seemingly very straight Sprint nose corresponds to early 1956. This would probably be ideal for the buyer of the smashed Confortevole or perhaps the basis of an interesting project for the right person. I know project?? Am I crazy? Well, if you know something about the origins of the Sprint Zagato you may have heard of the group of cars collectively known as Sprint Veloce Zagato’s.

I goes something like this: You go off the road, down an embankment into a ravine and end up upside down wedged between a tree and some rocks. You climb bruised and battered from your recently purchased and expensive Sprint Veloce. Two weeks later you deliver the car to carrozzeria Zagato to get it fixed. Elio looks it over and tells you it would be cheaper to cut most of the original crushed body work away and make a new body from aluminum than to restore it. Oh, and by the way he can make it lighter and more aerodynamic in the process, you’ve seen the ‘double-bubble’ roof right?

Only Sprint Veloce Zagato’s were not all Veloce’s or even Sprints for that matter. A modern SVZ recreation if sold as such is still a very sought after and expensive car.

Nice nose. No deep rot to be seen, lots of small parts that are hard to find still bolted and screwed into place etc.

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1960 Giulietta Sprint Speciale 00120*00388.  This car is available in Houston here right now for $69,900.  If I have my information correct this car was restored by Bill Gillham, who has been a prominent voice in Alfa enthusiast circles for years and knows his Giulietta’s (and incidentally, he welded the floor in my 59 Sprint).  No engine number is given and no pictures of it are among the pictures on their website.  I would want these and underside pictures for starters if I was seriously considering this car.

This dark blue is my favorite color for the Sprint Speciale and the red/gray interior is the perfect compliment.  If this car was originally this color combination it is rare indeed as most were red or white.

Exceptionally straight panels covered in very nice paint.  Trim all looks straight and fits the car very well.  

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When I went shopping for a modern car last year I was surprised by the number of accessories available, the fact that cars came pre-optioned for the most part, and how expensive additional accessories were.  Accessories are nothing new when it comes to cars, windows and lights were accessories in the early days!  The Giuliettas were no exception and the picture below, from a 1958 brochure, reprinted in the Alfieri book shows some interesting accessories that could be missed by the casual observer.

“Fog lamps fittings. It can be ordered as a seperate unit complete with mounting brackets and hollow intake fairing, painted in the colour of the car. Please specify No. of chassis.”

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When you take an old car out on a tour or rally far from civilization, you have to be prepared to either figure out a way to limp home, leave your car and go borrow a truck and trailer, or pay a big towing bill.  I’m not saying old cars are inherently unreliable, it’s just that, if like me, you do a lot of the work on your cars yourself, this preparedness is a simple admission that your skills have their limits.  

The guys in this video hopefully got the McGuyver trophy if they didn’t win. 

Broken throttle linkage?  No problem.  Enzo, get out there and use your hand, you’ll know when I’m going to shift. 

Update 7/14/08: Price is now 15,999 Euros.

Update: Overnight the price went from 12,499 to 16,999 Euro’s.  I wonder what they are thinking.  See the comment below for a European perspective.  Perhaps they saw this car.

1957 Sprint 750B 1493*04327, Engine 1315*03847. This car, with an asking price of 12,499 Euro’s, verifies my claim that 750B’s are regarded as being worth a premium compared to 101 style cars. This makes sense considering the hand made nature and relative rarity of this model, with roughly 6500 being made, Veloce’s included, compared to probably more than 25,000 of the later style.

Classified text reads: “CH Fahrzeug aus 3.Hand - 1968 zerlegt & total Restauriert - Seit 30 Jahren Stillgelegt - Zylinderkopf demontiert, mit Doppel Weber Vergaser (Sprint Veloce). Die Orig. Farbe des Gulietta war weiss ! - Fahrzeug ist complet, wenig Rost, zum Restaurieren!”

Or via Google language tools if you prefer English: “CH vehicle 3.Hand - 1968 decomposed & total Restored - For 30 years Decommissioned - cylinder head dismantled, with double Weber carburetor (Sprint Veloce). The color of Orig Gulietta was white! — Vehicle is complet, little rust, to restore!”

Not too bad really. The nose looks straight as does all the trim. Drivers side headlight ring is missing. I like the fog lights. Apparently this car was in the sun long enough to fade the paint.

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