Tag Archives: Romeo

Springbok Special – ALFA Romeo GTV6 3.0

The ALFA Romeo GTV 2.5 was in production from 1980 to 1987 it featured a a fuel injected 156 hp 2,492 cc / 152 cui V6 motor from the Alfa 6 model, a rear mounted gearbox to optimise weight distribution just like the Porsche 924/944/968 and an attractive Giorgetto Giugiaro body with a bulge in the bonnet / hood to accommodate the V6 engine.

These vehicles won four consecutive European Touring (stock) Car titles, however out in South Africa the touring cars were running to different regulations with a 3.5 litre / 213 cui class cut off as opposed to the 2.5 litre 152 cui class cut off as used in much of the rest of the world.

In order to race competitively against BMW which ran 3.5 litre engines in South African Touring Car Races ALFA Romeo in South Africa approached Autodelta the competition arm of ALFA Romeo who obliged by supplying enough parts developed for a rally programme to build around 220 2934 cc / 179 cui carbureted V6 engines which were assembled and tuned in South Africa.

The outcome was a vehicle that in 1983 beat BMW to win the South African Touring Car Championship and in mid 1984 was declared the fastest South African assembled vehicle with a top speed of 139 mph / 224 kph.

With that ALFA Romeo Montreal inspired NACA duct in the bonnet and deep spoiler this 3 litre GTV6, belonging to Richard an acquaintance from ‘The Nostalgia Forum‘, is quite easy to distinguish from its 2.5 litre brethren.

My thanks to Richard for bringing his pride and joy to the Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival.

Hope you have enjoyed todays Springbok edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

105/115 Series – ALFA Romeo 2000 GTV

4 Replies

The ALFA Romeo 2000 GTV was part of the 105/115 Series Coupés in production from 1963 to 1977, it is thought that 37,459 2000 GTV variations were produced from 1971 to 1976.

The Bertone penned bodywork was built onto to shortened Giulia Berlina floorpan, all 105/115 Series Coupés used four cylinder all alloy twin cam engines, this particular one has the largest 1962 cc / 119 cui motor that came equiped with carburettors and was good for 150 hp.

An undetermined number of 105/115 Series Coupés were assembled near Petoria in South Africa allegedly alongside other knock down kits including Datsun’s.

Date for your diaries Saturday April 16th Bristol City Centre will be hosting the Italian Auto Moto Festival, today’s photo’s as were many others featured here over the last 6 months were taken at this event last year.

E-mail me if your planning to attend it would be great fun to meet up.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s all alloy twin cam edition of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

California Dreaming – Ferrari California 2+2 Convertible

4 Replies

A couple of years ago I was at an airport and I noticed in the duty free area there was a Ferrari on a turntable that was a raffle prize.

I’d never seen one like it before turns out that it was a California, at £25 / $40 a pop for a ticket I passed on what may well have been my only opportunity to own a Ferrari without regret.

Allegedly the California was originally conceived as Maserati, however the economics of the project dictated that only a Ferrari badge offered any hope of a financial return on the vehicle.

Researching this blog I was surprised to find the California introduced in 2008, shares it’s engine design with both ALFA Romeo and Maserati models.

Over 1,000 hours are said to have been spent in a wind tunnel perfecting the aerodynamics of the California so that it’s drag coefficient is 0.32 the lowest ever achieved for any Ferrari.

I have to confess it was not until I had run a registration check on these vehicles that I had any idea of exactly which models they were and indeed they were both the same type, I thought the red one was a 612 Scaglietti !

Allegedly there is room on the back seats for two adults in a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti something at 6′ 2″ I’d love to put to the test.

Even if I had known it comes with a front mounted 450 hp 4.3 litre 260 cui V8 engine I doubt I would have been tempted to buy a raffle ticket….

because for all the attention to detail …

beautiful craftsmanship ….

seven speed dual clutch transmission …

and promise of the joys of open air motoring …

alone price of the road tax on the Ferrari California is enough to keep me on the road for a whole year in my 20 year old jalopy … but that does not stop me from dreaming 🙂

With thanks to the PistonHeads responsible for bringing these dream machines to the Sunday Service at the BMW Plant in Cowley a couple of weeks ago.

Hope you have enjoyed to days California dreaming edition of ‘Gettin a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for a look at another vehicle bearing the California name. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Should I have failed to quench your thirst for Ferrari’s take a look at the new Ferrari FF with Michele Rahal over on The Drive Channel.

Special Kit – Lenham Healey ALFA Romeo Special

13 Replies

Continuing yesterdays ‘one off’ theme today’s photo’s are of what is so far as I know a unique vehicle based on a Lenham Healey kit car. Built to use Austin Healey 100 motor and running gear the original kit vaguely resembled an Allard at the front and a boat tailed Bugatti at the back. The owner of this one installed a twin cam Alfa engine and completely reworked the nose as a homage to 1930s vintage racing ALFA Romeo’s.

I understand that Lenham manufactured a variety of kit cars starting in the 1960’s, the best known of which is probably the Lenham Sprite a Fast back GT fibre glass body built to accept Austin Healey Sprite or MG Midget running gear, they are also well known for making hard tops for Austin, MG and Triumph convertibles.

Lenham also made an outstandingly attractive sports prototype racing car the Lenham P70 in the late 60’s early 70’s which Vincent Mausset’s Darnval Cars brand became involved with the intention of manufacturing a road going variant. Darnval went on to become named entrants of the Connew Grand Prix car featured a couple of months ago.

My thanks to ‘trashbat’ at the ALFA owners forum without whom I might have spent months trying verify the identity of the kit upon which today’s special is based.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s unique special and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at another home built car. Don’t for get to come back now !

” Il Mostro ” ahead of it’s time ? – Alfa Romeo SZ & RZ

9 Replies

The Alfa Romeo SZ designed, in just 19 months, by Robert Opron, responsible for the equally alien Citroen SM, and Antonio Castellana with a little input from Zagato amongst others was dubbed The Monster when it was launched in 1990, one either loves or hates its ‘back street speed shop’ styling.

The Sprint Zagato was powered by a 210 hp 2,959 cc / 180 cui alloy V6, good for a 150 mph and matched to a superb chassis thanks to the work of Giorgio Pianta who fine tuned the Alfa Romeo 75 chassis inherited from the Group A / IMSA racing programme.

Unfortunately the SZ was launched in the middle of a world recession making it very difficult to sell the 998 Rosso Alfa coloured vehicles. It is believed that there were an additional 38 prototypes and pre production models, many of which are thought to have been scrapped.

Sales of the SZ were boosted by a ‘one model’ SZ Trophy racing series for which participants were offered a 25% discount on the purchase price of an SZ.

Despite the difficulty selling the SZ when production ceased in 1991 the roadster RZ version of the composite plastic bodied SZ was put into production and went on sale in 1992.

Like the SZ the RZ has a hydraulic lifting mechanism activated by a button which allows the ride height to be raised by 50 mm / 2 inches in order to negotiate bumps in the road surface.

The RZ proved even more difficult to sell than the SZ so production was abandoned after just 278 of the planned 350 were completed, in light of the success of the BMW Z series sports cars perhaps the SZ and RZ were just half a decade ahead of their time.

With thanks to E van der Beek and A.Ritzinger for additional information.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s back street racer edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow on Ferrari Friday for a look at 3 flat 12 racers. Don’t forget to come back now !

Purring Panther – Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

5 Replies

The Alfa Romeo Giulia also known as the 105 series was in production from 1962 – 1978, I first heard the distinctive sound of the twin cam Super model in Cyprus in the mid 1960’s.

This 1971 vehicle is powered by a 97 hp twin carburettor 1,570cc / 95 cui engine that gave the car sports car performance in a saloon car shell. In 1965 the Giulia Super received much of the technology from the 1963 Giulia Ti Super racing programme.

This crest featuring a serpent eating or regurgitating a human known as a Biscione has been an emblem of the Visconti family for a thousand years and used in the crest belonging to the ruling Sforza family of Milan for over 600 years. It’s exact origins are unknown but thought to be either from the legends of Theoderic the Great or alternatively from the biblical story of the Leviathan and Jonah.

Film buffs will remember that a number of Italian Police Giulia’s, known as Panthers, were out run in the original version of ‘The Italian Job’.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Biscione edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me tomorrow for a look at two Alfa Romeo’s with bodywork that exudes all the hallmarks and subtlety of a back street speed shop. Don’t forget to come back now !

Patina with well travelled history – Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Super Sport, #0312961

7 Replies

My thanks to every one at the Alfabb forum who made today’s post on this 1929 Alfa Romeo possible.

The 6C 1750 was in production from 1929 to 1933 with 369 examples built. The Super Sport came in normally aspirated 64 hp or supercharged 85 hp variants.

The 1929 chassis number #0312961 seen here was originally supplied as a double overhead cam normally aspirated model, after it was successfully used in competition it was returned to the Alfa Romeo factory in 1932 and upgraded with a supercharger and replacement crank case.

The body is unusual for the type having an ash frame with steel panels rather than the steel frame with aluminium panels preferred by Zagato.

After it’s initial foray in competition this vehicles adventures continued with a fire department in Ivera, Aosta near Turin. Somewhere around 1939 the vehicle turned up in Eritrea, then an Italian colony where many other vintage Alfa Romeo’s including this one are known to have been used for racing, there is a possibility that during one race #0312961 may have been in collision with a donkey while leading a handicap race in Asmara, Eritrea in 1943.

In 1947 the car was acquired by a British Captain serving with the victorious occupying forces in the former Italian African colony and he imported it to the UK in 1950.

After several more changes of ownership being painted blue, then red again and an engine rebuild the car was sold to an American in Zurich in 1959 who returned with #03122961 to Ohio in 1962. The car was sold to it’s present owner Nick Benwell in 2009 who then set about completing a rebuild that had started in Ohio in the 1960’s.

Nick is a great fan of original patina and as can be seen he has left the bodywork more or less as he found it. With the restoration complete Nick took his car on a 2,100 mile round trip to the Alfa Centenary celebrations last year where the car was waved past 400 other Alfa’s and honoured with being the first to pass through the Arese Factory gates as the oldest vehicle present.

My thanks to everyone at Alfabb.com ‘Help Identifying Vintage Alfa’s at Prescott ?’ thread who provided clues as to which car KYR 564 is including, Odin, Orouge and Duncan Macnab who kindly showed me a copy of Simon Moore’s excellent 2 part feature on this vehicle which appeared in ‘The Automobile‘ August 2010.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s journey across 5 countries on three continents and that you will join me for a look at an Alfa Romeo Giulia Super. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring