Steve Coogan's Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider for sale
What could be better than a very lovely classic Italian sports car? Monkey tennis?
You don’t need to watch an interview with Steve Coogan to know he’s a massive car guy. The comedian left a trail of clues as tragic TV and radio character, Alan Partridge, that signalled he was cut from the same cloth as us. Clues such as the ‘what cars would historical monarchs drive?’ segment on Partridges radio show, and his disdain towards a caller suggesting Oliver Cromwell would drive a VW Phaeton. Then there’s the Castrol GTX puffer jacket he wears to a funeral in the first series of the show, and of course the iconic ‘they rebadged it you fool’ line on the Mini Metro.
Only a proper car person could write a character like Partridge, and we’d get to see that side of Coogan later down the line during his various appearances on TG, including a twin-test where he drove a Ferrari 575 Maranello against Clarkson in an Aston Martin Vanquish S (keep your eyes glued to PH Auctions over the coming weeks if you’re keen on the latter). Like Partridge, Coogan has a penchant for all things British. Whether he’s owned a Rover 800 or, perhaps secretly, a 100 is anyone’s guess, but recent sales including a gorgeous Aston Martin DBS V8 and an immaculate, early Jaguar E-Type. And now he’s selling the car you see here, which obviously doesn’t fit the British mould but is no less stunning and just as immaculate as the aforementioned Anglo classics.
They say you’re not a proper car enthusiast until you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo, and there are many cheaper (initially, at least) ways of making that happen, such as this rather lovely GTV 3.0 V6, but it arguably doesn’t get much better than a 1964 Giulia Spider like the one we have here. Though Giulia by name, the Spiders of the early '60s were essentially an updated version of the drop-top Giulietta (cue another: ‘they rebadged it you fool’). Which is a good thing, because while there’s no denying Alfa’s three-box saloon wasn’t a looker, it had nothing on the older, more curvaceous Giulietta.
Discussing the performance of a classic Alfa Spider is a bit like asking strangers how much money they earn. It’s a little uncouth. That said, the rebadging (and mild updating) did bring a more powerful 1.6-litre motor four-pot with 91hp - a whole 11 more Italian stallions than the Giulietta. None of that matters, of course - because just look at it. The dinky-yet-elegant promotions, the blood red leather seats, the mohair folding roof. Alfa has more hits than misses on the design front, but it hasn’t made anything as pretty as this in a very long time.
That being said, this particularly car has been treated to a considerably amount of restoration work and arguably looks better than it would have done new. The ad suggests it’s been kept in original condition for most of its life, bar a respray at some point from grey to blue. It was then sent to Italian specialists DTR European Sports Cars in Surrey for a ‘nut and bolt’ restoration, which included reverting it back to its original grey. Shortly after work was completed in 2017, it was bought by Coogan, where it was ‘enjoyed and well maintained’ in his (what is probably a very sizeable) private collection.
One final thing: notice where the steering wheel is? Not often do you see a classic Italian sports car with the steering wheel on the proper side, and if the ad’s anything to go by there are fewer than 70 surviving right-hand drive Giulia Spiders. Hard to imagine any will be as tidy as this particular example. It’s rare, beautiful, has at least one celebrity owner and is all yours for £89,995. Back of the net!
The Italians made some real stunners in the 60s and 70s.
I like the colour scheme especially the red interior, and a RHD one must be pretty rare as imported cars were expensive in the early 60s over here so buyers had to really want one.
£85k is a chunk of cash, but if I had that sort of money I'd rather have this than an RS2000!
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