ALFASUD /SPRINT
Discussion
pacoryan said:
Really? Seen lots of GTV's but not a single chrome bumper Sprint that was functioning! Must pay more attention.
there has been 2 chrome bumper ones, one is a Trofeo re-sprayed in green, the other was a rather nice low mileage red 1.5.Italy is the place to get one plenty of chrome bumpers down there.
this is the best site, set search criteria to the country you want to find a rust free example
http://www.autoscout24.com/Details.aspx?id=2382692...
Edited by rallycross on Friday 25th October 15:55
first holiday job after passing driving test was at Guildford Car Auctions in Slyfield Green in the late 1980's - think thickset pike ees(beating censorship) with sovereign rings/gold chains - watches the sizes of dinner plates - way before oversize watches were in vogue - with mobile phones the size of breeze blocks - usually smoking around in old Jags or 2.8 Ghia Granadas.
my job involved parking the cars and sometimes driving them through the auction ring. when i was the handed the keys to a sprint veloce in black with a blowing exhaust - i immediately thought of my potential role as an Autodelta test driver and with a few colleagues watching - got in the car in the delivery bay - revved the tits off it till the valves were on the verge of leaving the flat 4 heads and amidst a flurry of tyre squealing drove off to neatly handbrake into the line for the car to go into the auction.
unfortunately as i approached the designated slot at a fair lick i was unaware that these alfas had the handbrake on the inboard front discs....ended up a rear ending a cavalier 1.6 in the rear wing - upon impact it was a toss up to work out which was worse - filler that was revealed on the cavalier or the rotten left front wing that more or less crumpled to metal rust particles on the Alfa.
My services were not required the following week. Those little Alfas were great cars - and with the snaffling twin carbs and 1970's porn magazine italian car interior - left a lasting impression on an impressionable youth - thank god that after ownership of a series of appalling condition alfas/lancias/fiats i am nearly cured....still fancy a gtv6 though
my job involved parking the cars and sometimes driving them through the auction ring. when i was the handed the keys to a sprint veloce in black with a blowing exhaust - i immediately thought of my potential role as an Autodelta test driver and with a few colleagues watching - got in the car in the delivery bay - revved the tits off it till the valves were on the verge of leaving the flat 4 heads and amidst a flurry of tyre squealing drove off to neatly handbrake into the line for the car to go into the auction.
unfortunately as i approached the designated slot at a fair lick i was unaware that these alfas had the handbrake on the inboard front discs....ended up a rear ending a cavalier 1.6 in the rear wing - upon impact it was a toss up to work out which was worse - filler that was revealed on the cavalier or the rotten left front wing that more or less crumpled to metal rust particles on the Alfa.
My services were not required the following week. Those little Alfas were great cars - and with the snaffling twin carbs and 1970's porn magazine italian car interior - left a lasting impression on an impressionable youth - thank god that after ownership of a series of appalling condition alfas/lancias/fiats i am nearly cured....still fancy a gtv6 though
Lowtimer said:
Can't be many left. I have not seen one for many years.
http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?q=alfasud
Will do some pics when it stops raining!!
My Sud history is a 1.5 TiX, that was the £350 one...they were unloved, expensive to insure and maintain and the trade hated them hence their low prices back then....anyway that ones front subframe parted company with the rest of the car in two places and fell on the road just fastened by the back mountings
I then had a hearing aid beige Spint followed by a silver Trofeo limited edition...both those were good cars, handbrake cable snapped on one which was a pig to do!
The new car has been stored for 6 years, needs two new door bottoms welding in, apart from that very straight and almost rust free.
Put some new Golden Lodge (remember those) plugs in it yesterday and had it running...carbs need tuning and the chokes are stuck, should be easy to free off...the interior is mint with perfect green carpets ..going to get her MOT tested next week.
Ive had some really nice cars over the years ( 328, 458, R500, Elan Sprints etc) but can honestly say im as excited about this as any of them.....that Alfa flat four rasp is divine
My Sud history is a 1.5 TiX, that was the £350 one...they were unloved, expensive to insure and maintain and the trade hated them hence their low prices back then....anyway that ones front subframe parted company with the rest of the car in two places and fell on the road just fastened by the back mountings
I then had a hearing aid beige Spint followed by a silver Trofeo limited edition...both those were good cars, handbrake cable snapped on one which was a pig to do!
The new car has been stored for 6 years, needs two new door bottoms welding in, apart from that very straight and almost rust free.
Put some new Golden Lodge (remember those) plugs in it yesterday and had it running...carbs need tuning and the chokes are stuck, should be easy to free off...the interior is mint with perfect green carpets ..going to get her MOT tested next week.
Ive had some really nice cars over the years ( 328, 458, R500, Elan Sprints etc) but can honestly say im as excited about this as any of them.....that Alfa flat four rasp is divine
My first car back in 1992 was a 1984 Sud Ti Green Cloverleaf, B123KHF I recall. Rumour was that a batch were destined for South Africa but were diverted to the UK, who knows if true. It had done just over 100k miles when I got it and seem to remember the head gasket going fairly early on and oil leaking onto the inboard front discs gave some smoky fun! Body wise it was pretty good but when the front wings rotted I got some fibreglass ones which were for a Mark 1 Sud so made mine cross eyed as the light cut out was different. The lack of weight over the front wheels also made the torque steer worse, not helped either by swapping the original TRX alloys for 13" Revolutions.
After blowing the engine I bought a Sprint 1.5 Green Cloverleaf in Alfa Red, C58 SLY, lovely car to look at but just didn't seem to have the gung ho spirit of the Sud, partly down to the lower driving position maybe but also maybe due to the extra weight. Mine rusted in the roof above the tailgate and the panel behind the back seats disappeared giving it the rigidity of a tupaware box.
I used to remove the metal air box cover and drive filterless, awesome induction noise but no torque!
After blowing the engine I bought a Sprint 1.5 Green Cloverleaf in Alfa Red, C58 SLY, lovely car to look at but just didn't seem to have the gung ho spirit of the Sud, partly down to the lower driving position maybe but also maybe due to the extra weight. Mine rusted in the roof above the tailgate and the panel behind the back seats disappeared giving it the rigidity of a tupaware box.
I used to remove the metal air box cover and drive filterless, awesome induction noise but no torque!
Martin 480 Turbo said:
@ Blueboxer: How does one go from a slightly rusty Sprint into the
first Ferrari within 3 years?
Obviously I missed a trick. 18 Years later, still no Ferrari...
ha ha. The Sprint wasn't rusty when I first had it, in fact it was rather shiny and expensive (for me) at the time when I got it. Went into a new 205GTi in 88 after the Sprint. It felt like a rocketship in comparison but didn't sound anywhere near as nice.first Ferrari within 3 years?
Obviously I missed a trick. 18 Years later, still no Ferrari...
I wasn't the first owner of my old 90 328GTS. I got that in 94, so 7 years later by which time, I earned more but also borrowed more!
Nimby said:
MJK 24 said:
Handbrake was always centrally located.
Not in this Sprint, and I'm pretty certain mine was similar on the earlier model.It's only a bit offset but enough that your knuckles caught on the passenger seat's piping
blueboxer said:
ha ha. The Sprint wasn't rusty when I first had it, in fact it was rather shiny and expensive (for me) at the time when I got it. Went into a new 205GTi in 88 after the Sprint. It felt like a rocketship in comparison but didn't sound anywhere near as nice.
I wasn't the first owner of my old 90 328GTS. I got that in 94, so 7 years later by which time, I earned more but also borrowed more!
Thanks for the kind and funny reply, makes me feel at least a little better about not having a Ferrari, yet.I wasn't the first owner of my old 90 328GTS. I got that in 94, so 7 years later by which time, I earned more but also borrowed more!
(That I would not really fit into. I was able to squeeze me into the Sprint, but had to alter the seat sliders in the Spider, that I followed it up with.)
I love this thread! At least I am not the only middle aged bloke, who remembers the Suds that way. Very Friends of mine think I am ungrateful when I say the Sprint was the best drivers car I ever had. My new Audi handles very well, but it is just too damned lardy to be really good. Most manufacturers nowadays have forgotten, that weight stands in the way of being a sports car. The new M5s are nice. But they are muscle cars... Not very European.
Martin
Edited by Martin 480 Turbo on Saturday 26th October 20:15
Had 3 of these in the mid 80s,surely one of the prettiest cars ever made,early cars were the nicest with the tin bumpers and no silly plastic cladding.Tried the golf gti thing but apart from outright speed and rust resistance the alfas were far superior,especially in the braking department.Would love to find a good 78/79 sprint veloce with no sunroof but I think ive missed the boat and I think going to Italy to find a nice rust free one wouldn't be an easy task.
One of mine:
About 20yrs ago.
taken near Croft circuit.
I also had a red '84 Sprint GCL, a red '78 1.3 sprint with brown/cream tartan style seats, a chocolate brown 1.5 4dr 'Sud which I restored, sprayed red and wrote off pretty quickly.
Oh and a yellow sprint and dark blue chrome bumpered T reg 'sud 1.5 ti which were sadly past it, but I couldn't resist buying. I used to love the sky blue gauges, especially the centre 3 - the clock and other two marked 'Olio' and 'Aqua'.
Other memories (apart from the rust) were the blue plastic windscreen wash bag, the windscreen washers which leaked onto the screen when you cornered hard, metric rims with crap TRX tyres, Twin Webber or Dellorto carbs which sounded great at full bore through the tunnels on the Leeds inner ring-road, horrible inboard mounted brakes, racing another local boy-racer in his Escrote and wiping the floor with him and loads of other stuff I forgot now. Happy days!
About 20yrs ago.
taken near Croft circuit.I also had a red '84 Sprint GCL, a red '78 1.3 sprint with brown/cream tartan style seats, a chocolate brown 1.5 4dr 'Sud which I restored, sprayed red and wrote off pretty quickly.
Oh and a yellow sprint and dark blue chrome bumpered T reg 'sud 1.5 ti which were sadly past it, but I couldn't resist buying. I used to love the sky blue gauges, especially the centre 3 - the clock and other two marked 'Olio' and 'Aqua'.
Other memories (apart from the rust) were the blue plastic windscreen wash bag, the windscreen washers which leaked onto the screen when you cornered hard, metric rims with crap TRX tyres, Twin Webber or Dellorto carbs which sounded great at full bore through the tunnels on the Leeds inner ring-road, horrible inboard mounted brakes, racing another local boy-racer in his Escrote and wiping the floor with him and loads of other stuff I forgot now. Happy days!
Edited by Evoluzione on Monday 28th October 22:20
crostonian said:
My first car back in 1992 was a 1984 Sud Ti Green Cloverleaf, B123KHF I recall. Rumour was that a batch were destined for South Africa but were diverted to the UK, who knows if true. It had done just over 100k miles when I got it and seem to remember the head gasket going fairly early on and oil leaking onto the inboard front discs gave some smoky fun! Body wise it was pretty good but when the front wings rotted I got some fibreglass ones which were for a Mark 1 Sud so made mine cross eyed as the light cut out was different. The lack of weight over the front wheels also made the torque steer worse, not helped either by swapping the original TRX alloys for 13" Revolutions.
After blowing the engine I bought a Sprint 1.5 Green Cloverleaf in Alfa Red, C58 SLY, lovely car to look at but just didn't seem to have the gung ho spirit of the Sud, partly down to the lower driving position maybe but also maybe due to the extra weight. Mine rusted in the roof above the tailgate and the panel behind the back seats disappeared giving it the rigidity of a tupaware box.
I used to remove the metal air box cover and drive filterless, awesome induction noise but no torque!
I owned C58 SLY too!!!!!!!After blowing the engine I bought a Sprint 1.5 Green Cloverleaf in Alfa Red, C58 SLY, lovely car to look at but just didn't seem to have the gung ho spirit of the Sud, partly down to the lower driving position maybe but also maybe due to the extra weight. Mine rusted in the roof above the tailgate and the panel behind the back seats disappeared giving it the rigidity of a tupaware box.
I used to remove the metal air box cover and drive filterless, awesome induction noise but no torque!
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