RE: You Know You Want To... Alfa Romeo Montreal

[LuS1fer]

Those Espadas were only £16-20k a few years ago. That is a beautiful car.

[Mole]

As a RHD these are rare cars, from memory less than 100 Rhd were sold in UK, as they were
very expensivenew,with a detuned Formula 1/GT block. I had a 19,000 mile Rhd a couple of years
ago, that struggled to find a UK buyer, but was snapped up by a Japanese collector.

Many years ago,I remember an original Blue rhd 8000 mile car (wish I still had it !), at the time
only Ramponi in Lancaster Mews could get them to run smoothly. Lovely engine, but rather 'lollipy'
on the suspension !

Mole

[2volvos]

Imagine hitching and being picked up by Yasmin in one of those...

[infradig]

silversixx said:

sinbaddio said:

Worth £25k to sit on the same seat of the glorious Yasmin (Simon really did pull well and truly out of his league there). That said, the car is equally as gorgeous!

When I was at school and the news broke about them getting together, my mates dad said "it's like a race horse pulling a beer cart."

The horse analogy could possibly be close to the reason according to the reports from a nurse I used to know, who treated him in Llanelli hospital after he came off a bike at Pembrey many years ago!

[CABBYBROWN]

V88Dicky said:

Always had a soft spot for the Montreal since, well, the 70's. Got to admit though, I thought they had a US sourced V8, a la Pantera;









WARNING *** PURE FILTH BELOW ***


























Oh by fk, yes!

Had to open that picture of the Pantera in a "private browsing session."

[V88Dicky]

LuS1fer said:

Please please tell me now that even Uncle Simon can spell better than this, surely? It's "their Alfa" but please, don't say a prayer for me now.

Those 80s rock stars could be wild boys at times, half of them dont realise that this is planet Earth, and to write that beauty off he must have had a dodgy reflex!

They dont know what its like to live in the ordinary world!

Do you think maybe the old girls on film?

[sc4589]

V88Dicky said:

Those 80s rock stars could be wild boys at times, half of them dont realise that this is planet Earth, and to write that beauty off he must have had a dodgy reflex!

They dont know what its like to live in the ordinary world!

Do you think maybe the old girls on film?

That's made me want to rip you apart, hungry like the wolf.

I wonder if the multi-storey carpark was in Rio..?

Ah well. As long as he doesn't end up working for the skin trade...

[Carparticus]

sc4589 said:

V88Dicky said:

Those 80s rock stars could be wild boys at times, half of them dont realise that this is planet Earth, and to write that beauty off he must have had a dodgy reflex!

They dont know what its like to live in the ordinary world!

Do you think maybe the old girls on film?

That's made me want to rip you apart, hungry like the wolf.

I wonder if the multi-storey carpark was in Rio..?

Ah well. As long as he doesn't end up working for the skin trade...

Are you guys Serious ? Is There Something we Should Know ? or would that be Too Much information on a Montreal thread…

[M3John]

My god that is lovely !

[Le Man]

Paul Dishman said:

When I had Alfasuds back in the dim and distant past (1976-1984) I'm sure these went for £25K, so they've depreciated over the years...

Oh for a better memory... They were around £6000 new when I was selling them between 1973 and 1976

[crostonian]

Mole said:

As a RHD these are rare cars, from memory less than 100 Rhd were sold in UK, as they were
very expensivenew,with a detuned Formula 1/GT block. I had a 19,000 mile Rhd a couple of years
ago, that struggled to find a UK buyer, but was snapped up by a Japanese collector.

Many years ago,I remember an original Blue rhd 8000 mile car (wish I still had it !), at the time
only Ramponi in Lancaster Mews could get them to run smoothly. Lovely engine, but rather 'lollipy'
on the suspension !

Mole

Despite that being true RHD cars are worth a lot less than LHD as there is a smaller market for them, they sell for around £30k in Italy/Germany/Holland, £15k is going rate for a decent UK car. Mal Nicholson at Trentside Classics has converted one to downdraught Webers with side pipes - one of the best sounding cars I've ever heard. Surprised no-one has mentioned it's other rival the Fiat Dino.

[spiderish]

crostonian said:

Despite that being true RHD cars are worth a lot less than LHD as there is a smaller market for them, they sell for around £30k in Italy/Germany/Holland, £15k is going rate for a decent UK car. Mal Nicholson at Trentside Classics has converted one to downdraught Webers with side pipes - one of the best sounding cars I've ever heard. Surprised no-one has mentioned it's other rival the Fiat Dino.

When I owned mine Mal looked after it too.His conversion is very good and the sound of the car is tremendous.He also runs a Fiat Dino .

[Zumbruk]

MartinJames said:

If I had this and the SM in my garage I would be the happiest man in the world. Oh, and a Strato's for the weekend.

What's a "Strato"?

[JPKerr]

I had to remove an engine from one of these that a friend of mine used to own. He had replaced to radiator and forgot to add anti freeze so it popped 2 core plugs. What a pig of an engine to remove no room to get your hands down between the inner wings and the engine.
Never again.

[Bonefish Blues]

Zumbruk said:

MartinJames said:

If I had this and the SM in my garage I would be the happiest man in the world. Oh, and a Strato's for the weekend.

What's a "Strato"?

Strato I (Greek: ÓôñÜôùí Á´), was an Indo-Greek king who was the son of the Indo-Greek queen Agathokleia, who presumably acted as his regent during his early years after Strato's father, another Indo-Greek king, was killed.

Seems an unusual weekend activity, but hey.

[vintageracer01]

Amateurish said:

Love the Montreal but isn't £25k rather steep for one of these?

It is rather steep, imo. If you watch the market, Montreals look nice but even cars under 20.000 GBP sit forever and do not sell. Some of the cars are in the internet ads for more than 3 years now!
Despite the previous ownership also the mentioned car is for sale for quite a while now.

And if one is on auction they sell closer to 10-12.000 GBP.

So WHAT is the market price now, I ask?

[Johnboy Mac]

vintageracer01 said:

It is rather steep, imo. If you watch the market, Montreals look nice but even cars under 20.000 GBP sit forever and do not sell. Some of the cars are in the internet ads for more than 3 years now!
Despite the previous ownership also the mentioned car is for sale for quite a while now.

And if one is on auction they sell closer to 10-12.000 GBP.

So WHAT is the market price now, I ask?

I'd view it this way. A top drawer 308GTB (non fiberglass) seem to make around 25k, so the same condition Montreal should be somewhere around 30/35% cheaper imo. Now, I'm not implying the Alfa is a worse car by 35-40% compared to the Ferrari, I just reckon to get punters to buy the Alfa it needs to be a reasonable amount cheaper. So, I'd value an excellent Montreal at £15k'ish.

[Touring442]

Compare the Montreal with a half decent FHC V12 E Type or 2.4 litre 911, and it's not expensive. It's a car from Alfa Romeo's final 'hero' years and like so many undervalued seventies hero chariots (the 3.0CSL is another) it's finally finding its feet.

£25'000 is also asked and paid for some of the better Mark 1 Escorts - fathom that out if you can.

[Johnboy Mac]

Touring442 said:

Compare the Montreal with a half decent FHC V12 E Type or 2.4 litre 911, and it's not expensive. It's a car from Alfa Romeo's final 'hero' years and like so many undervalued seventies hero chariots (the 3.0CSL is another) it's finally finding its feet.

£25'000 is also asked and paid for some of the better Mark 1 Escorts - fathom that out if you can.

The problem there is the cars you've mentioned were very popular in their day (new) and are just as popular today, the Montreal wasn't & isn't. Imagine looking for body panels,some trim, a crankshaft or an injection system for the Montreal. I'd doubt those parts are as easy to get hold at reasonable money compared to say parts for an E-Type or 911.

Escorts! Somebody knows something I don't. Drove a £20k one last year.........wasn't even a 10k car imo.

Edited by Johnboy Mac on Thursday 26th May 21:37

[Touring442]

The E Type was cheap and cheerful and the 911 was a fairly serious sports car so they had (and have) their markets sewn up. I wouldn't really want to own either. The Montreal was something a bit different for the well moneyed set, and retains that aura of mystery today. Given that you can spend £25'000 on something new with a Vauxhall badge, I still don't think it's expensive. But it has to be absolutely mint and the best of it's kind because they are an acquired taste - but a very good looking and intriguing one.