We watched a vey positive video review of an e30 BMW M3 yesterday, and it got us thinking about how our Milano Verde compares to our past 1991 BMW 318is. The 318is isn't quite an M3, lacking very much in power compared to the real deal, and missing the suspension and chassis modifications. But, as a reasonably powerful e30 with the lighter 4-cylinder, the comparison is somewhat valid.
Compared to the e30, our Verde always feels more special - from the sound, to the steering wheel angle, to the lower quality interior, to the way it rolls in corners (by design) - driving the Milano brings such a sense of occasion. We don't doubt that e30 M3s drive better and are worthy of $40k these days, but it's certainly nice that Milanos and Milano Verdes, which are arguably more fun to drive, are still priced somewhat realistically.
The North American market never saw a 3.0L V6 version of the Alfa Romeo GTV-6, but across the Atlantic, South African customers were offered the opportunity to purchase one of 212 3.0L GTV-6s which were manufactured in the name of homologation for the racing circuit. That offering was a result of a collaboration between Autodelta and Alfa Romeo South America.
The more common version of the GTV-6 3.0L is made possible by an engine swap from an Alfa Milano Verde, or more commonly, the Alfa 164. In comparison to the South American 3.0L V6, the Verde/164 engine features a slightly longer stroke, coming in at 72.6mm vs. the 72.0mm stroke in the 3.0 SA; cylinder bores are a common 93.0mm. The South African engine made use of 6 single Dell'Orto carburetors, whereas the engine-swapped examples usually feature fuel injection.
Fiat's takeover of Lancia preceded their takeover of Alfa Romeo by around 17 years, and while industrial giant Fiat would seem like a suitable companion to the smaller Italian brands, what resulted in both cases was an unfortunate dilution of each brand's distinctive products. Odd then, that the Fiat-Chrysler merger has been so successful, whereas Lancia has been driven into the ground with Alfa Romeo's demise looking more and more certain.
The Delta came from the second wave of Fiat-spiked Lancia products, and the Delta S4 came from a tube steel factory, seeing as it shared nothing but its silhouette with the Deltas scattered about European roadways. Itself an evolution of the WRC Group B Lancia 037, the Delta S4 was powered by a mid-ship turbocharged, supercharged and intercooled 1.8L 4-cylinder. The combination was good for 5 wins in its 12 race entries, but not good enough for a season victory in its sole years of competition, 1985 and 1986. US rally fans would have been fortunate to witness the Delta S4's 1986 victory in the Olympus Rally in Washington state.
Introduced with a retail price tag more in line with the Ferrari lineup than anything resembling Alfa Romeo pricing, the 8C Spider joined its 8C Competizione sibling a year after the coupe came to market. This low-mile Spider's $370,000 asking price represents a 50% increase over the MSRP when new, which results in a feedback loop of increased value leading to even fewer miles on the road.
It all seems like a waste. The 8C marked Alfa Romeo's return to the North American market, which they abandoned back in 1995 when they withdrew the Spider and the 164. And while Alfa's return was an occasion for celebration, the extent of the 8C's appeal as a rare collector car ends there for us. The styling is classically handsome, but making use of the Maserati GranTurismo's chassis does the carbon fiber body no favors - the overall design can't overcome a real sense of bulkiness that a car on a bespoke chassis would escape. And, in terms of performance and technology, it is basically a Maserati GranTurismo. We would happily take an 8C over the Maserati, but the collectibility of these really hinges on their rarity rather than any outstanding intrinsic value.
Painted Red Brake Calipers Carbon Ceramic Brakes BOSE Hi Fi Sound System iPod Connection Partition & Central Bag Interior Floor Mats Smooth Leather Cruise Control Bi-Xenon Headlights Carbon Fiber Sport Seats Sports Brand (Lucky Clover on Fenders) Woven Interior Leather Full Carbon Fiber Dash Carbon Fiber Door Panels Carbon Fiber Shift Paddles Carbon Fiber Center Console Leather & Carbon Fiber Roll Bars
Click to view listing
The upside of utilizing Maserati components as a mechanical basis is exceptional reliability, relatively speaking. The Ferrari F136 series engines are praised by Maserati technicians as stout units, requiring nothing more than cam variator attention, which is labor-intensive, though no more than $1,000 in parts. Should you have a parking lot incident, sourcing new carbon fiber body panels will prove to be an adventure, financially and otherwise. In short: drive it hard and park it carefully.
We don't wish to slight a very cool and competent modern classic that we ourselves would be incredibly enthused to see in the wild, let alone own one ourselves. Oddly, the Maserati GranTurismo is the closest most will ever come to owning this Italian GT. It might lack the Alfa badge, but we don't think you'll beat yourself up over the Maserati trident marring the front and rear!
We weren't going to list this Giulia on our subtly named Classic Italian Cars For Sale website at first, because we didn't know that it met our only criterion for eligibility: Italian origin. We list a couple of Polski Fiats here and there, so even that has some wiggle room. In any case, we were relieved to see the conspicuous "Prodotto Italiano" decal on the rear of this Giulia, thus qualifying the Alfa Romeo for inclusion on our website.
Jesting aside, Giulias are always welcome on the website. The sedans, or Berlinas, even more so. These 3-boxers were shaped with help from the wind tunnel, which might not be apparent at first glance. Frictional drag comes from separations of the airflow over the surface of the vehicle, such as in the cowl area, at the sideview mirror, and in the wheel wells. The Giulia massages these areas well to manage airflow. The pressure drag comes from the eddy of recirculating air in the vehicle's wake. To combat this, the Giulia employs a chopped "Kamm" tail, and a small lip spoiler on the trailing edge of the roof. It all adds up for a drag coefficient of .34, which is impressive for the time period and tools available to optimize the shape.
Alfa Romeo Giulia . Condition is Used.1967 alfa romeo giulia 1300 ti ,isgot a bigger engine 1750 cc just overhall 500 miles ago runs great ,new exhaust sistem ,new brahpke pump,new steering box,newtires , it has a new floor carpet ,the car is in pretty good condition if you needsome more pictures let me now,listing price or best offer,thank you
Click to view listing
Potential buyers should have questions, and this seller offers very few answers. First, what is the rust situation? The underbody appears pretty clean, but fresh black paint has a way of covering up rust. Fortunately, the seller is open to sending more photos - if this car interests you, we suggest you take advantage of that offer. For the price, the finish looks alright, but this could very well be a five-foot car. It's clearly not original, with the 1750cc engine swap, and what we believe is a dash swap from a later car to replace the strip speedometer from early Giulias.
It's not so common to see a Giulia listed below $20k these days, so these are worth assessing when they pop up for sale. The trouble is, if you can swing nearly $17k for a rough Giulia, why not wait until a sorted $25k car comes up for sale? Well, some of us enjoy the rehabilitation process, regardless of its financial and temporal toll. For that crowd, this example could be worth a second look.
We hate to muddy the waters of our loyalty - the website is Classic Italian Cars for Sale, after all - but we must admit to a certain appreciation of the Volkswagen Golf. Ok, it's our favorite hatchback. And, to our credit, it's a classic Giugiaro design. Anyway, we are reluctant to stray from our favorite, the proven classic.
In theory, the Alfa 33 appeals to us as a close second to the Golf. Now, we are sure that thousands of past owners of the 33 could convince us otherwise, and we've never had the opportunity to drive one ourselves. But, we love the basic formula. Start with the Alfasud front boxer layout and remove the inboard front brakes (and unfortunately replace the rear discs with drums). Drape it in a smart, if oddly proportioned design from Ermmano Cressoni, designer of our beloved Milano / 75. And, build it down south, near Naples.
This 1988 Alfa 33 1.5 Ti is definitely a one of a kind. This example is really unique! The car has covered a mere 16,000 Miles (26,000 km's) and it goes without saying that the car is still in mint condition. The car has always been stored in dry conditions. Recently imported from Portugal it is now for sale in Dallas Texas USA. As mentioned, the car is in mint condition and so are the mechanicals. The original instruction and maintenance booklets have been preserved. Must see/drive to appreciate!! Still have original tires!
Click to view listing
A facelift model, this example sports the updated clear turn signal lenses both up front and in the rear. At first, we were curious whether the clear rear turn signal lenses were original or not, just because they really look like something from the 1990s aftermarket. Turns out that they are original. Moving on to the drivetrain, power is adequate for this lightweight, coming in at 1053bhp. Nothing to scorch the earth, but respectable when compared to a contemporary 8V GTI.
With minimal footprint on US soil, this car may very well see an outsized hammer price. The Europeans reading this might find that odd, but the 16,000 original miles and general condition of the car make it sort of worth a bit of irrational bidding. Great or merely adequate in its day, it's now an anomaly without many competitors, and would make for an entertaining addition to the right collection (or driveway)!
No, this isn't an early, pre-production Giulia Quadrifoglio from 2003, though the date stamps on the photographs might suggest otherwise. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we imagine that the owner of this Giulia was around for the introduction of the original Giulia as well, and we respect that.
The Type 952 Alfa Romeo Giulia design comes from Marco Tencone at Centro Stile Alfa Romeo. Mr. Tencone is responsible for 2/3 of the exterior designs at Alfa Romeo today, having also designed the 4C. We are big fans of the overall shape of the Giulia, which we believe successfully navigated the challenge of differentiating itself in a sea of smart sedans.
Beautiful Quadrifoglio. I am the original owner, ordered new. Has sport steering wheel, carbon ceramic brakes, new Michelin Pilot 4 tires, clear bra on entire hood, front and fenders, quarters and a-pillars and roof. Still has factory warranty through June 2021.
Click to view listing
If you were to buy a Giulia Quadrifoglio in this configuration today, you'd be looking at a $85,000 price tag, thanks mostly to the carbon ceramic brakes. We would be hard-pressed to option those carbon ceramic brakes, unless the car were a dedicated track car. Is a Giulia Quadrifoglio dedicated track car such a bad idea? Certainly not, especially when modern M3/M4s are used as such. But we think that street time is equally important to the Alfa Romeo ownership experience. Otherwise, we like the classic red over black color combination and the optional carbon fiber sport steering wheel on this model.
The elephant in the room is the complexity of these cars. No, Alfa Romeos are not particularly unreliable, but the bad reputation seems to hold somewhat true on the Quadrifoglio, which was rushed to market with a smorgasbord of new technology. Would we be willing to risk the purchase with just 27 months of warranty left? We are not so sure. Perhaps an extended warranty is in order. Seems like a great purchase for an Alfa Romeo dealer technician - certainly work is easy to come by these days?
We've fallen prey to the allure of a dry Sprint Veloce before. Disassembled, chock-full of brown boxes from that overzealous attempt at restoration, it arrived at our garage on an auto transporter and left a couple of years later on a U-Haul auto hauler. Ours was half the current bidding of this brown example, and in better shape too.
Peter Egan advises against buying a car disassembled by someone else, and we would tend to agree, for the most part. That's why, despite the obvious cosmetic needs of this example, we're on board. It's completely usable as it sits. Drive it this summer, take care of the seats and dash this winter, and attack the paint next winter, if you get to it.
A 1979 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT 2.0 Sunroof coupe. Brown with a cream interior. An extremely straight body, dry Arizona car. The paint is not perfect, it has cracked all over. The interior is original but the cloth seams on the seats have split. There are also cracks on the dashboard. The original engine was taken out and completely rebuilt some years ago. Approximately 148k miles are shown on the stopped odometer, with an estimated 2,500 added by the seller and total mileage unknown. The 2.0L inline-four was rebuilt under the seller’s ownership, with bottom-end assembly performed by Bearing Services of Portland, Oregon. The engine features a resurfaced cylinder head with lapped valve seats and new shims, 10.0:1 Alfa EFI/Motronic pistons, new bearings, a replacement timing chain and oil pump, a balanced rotating assembly, fresh gaskets and seals, and more. The DOHC four was installed an estimated 2,500 miles ago with a new electronic distributor, thermostatic ignition components, and more as documented on included receipts. An oil and filter change were conducted approximately 200 miles ago. A new stainless exhaust system features a Euro-spec 4-into-2 cast iron header leading to a collector, resonator, and muffler. The service file is said to include 10-15 years of receipts, with the majority being from current ownership. An owner’s manual is also included along with the collection of used and new spares seen in the gallery, including thermostatic actuator and SPICA components, used giubos, and an extra 5-speed manual transaxle. The car runs and drives very well.Typical oil leaks in the engine. Comes with some books, records and an original brochure.
Click to view listing
The fresh engine bay has us salivating. And, while minimalists might frown upon it, we welcome the functioning air-conditioning system in this example. If the cooling system is in proper functioning order, this car would make a fine companion across lonely landscapes - Reno to the Bay, perhaps.
We love a no-excuses vintage roadtripper like this Giugiaro-designed coupe. With a healthy bump in compression and a nice, free-breathing exhaust system, it will be up to the task, should the traffic clear up. Transaxle Alfas ride wonderfully, especially with stock torsion bars, which we expect this car to ride on. Time to free this Sprint Veloce from Cleveland.
