Alfa Romeo
September 3rd, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
June 24, 2010 marked the 100th birthday of Alfa Romeo. The FIAT group, into which Alfa Romeo was integrated in 1986, didn’t seem to care in the least about the event. That left the organisation of this special occasion to the MAC Group – an Italian event managing company – in collaboration with RIAR, the Italian Alfa Romeo Register. Because the 
intended activities for the event were shortened month by month it was up to the other European Alfa Romeo Clubs to organise something. And they did – with some 2500 Alfa Romeos spending the weekend in and around Milan.
The Journey to Milan
Along with my partner, Claudia, we travelled in our 1977 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super Nuova – which has been a family member for 21 years. The Alfa Romeo Club of Germany had arranged a whole week for us, starting in Hanover, and we picked up more and more cars into the convoy as we approached Varese, north-west of Milan.
In the weeks before, we had permanent rain and temperatures with little more than one digit (we call this early summer), but when we travelled to join the others near Karlsruhe, the sun came out and summer finally found its way to us. The drive over the Alps via Grimsel and Nufenen Pass was fantastic. Read the rest of this entry »
June 30th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
Alfa Romeo’s iconic roadster first appeared in 1966 – badged as the Duetto – and, following a name change to Spider, would remain in production until 1994. This month, we look at the last-of-the-line Spider Veloce of the ’90s, with a brief look at an early round-tail Spider from the ’60s for the purposes of comparison.
When considering classic sports cars with long production lives, most would point to the evergreen MGB. However, there is one sports car contemporary with the MGB that actually remained in production for a decade longer – the Alfa Romeo Spider. Indeed, the Spider even made it into the new millennium with the front-wheel drive Spider, which ran from 1995 to 2006. And the Spider name lives on today, with the Brera-based Spider.
During its long existence, the classic RWD Spider – which began life badged as a Duetto – competed directly against British sports cars from MG, Lotus, Austin-Healey and Triumph. By the time it entered S4 guise it was competing against Mazda’s MX-5 and, if it had remained in production for a few another year or so, it would’ve found itself pitted against the BMW Z3 and MGF. By comparison, the Spider’s previous rivals had either been consigned to history or, like Lotus, had moved much further up market. Read the rest of this entry »
June 21st, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
In 1979, Eoin was privileged to be able to drive a truly famous racing car – the ex Tazio Nuvolari Alfa Romeo P3, a car that had also been raced in New Zealand by Les Moore, Ron Roycroft and Bill Clark.
Up there on the nose is a familiar badge – a black prancing horse on a yellow background: Ferrari. The clues start coming together. A P3 Alfa Romeo with a Ferrari badge. A pre-war works car entered by Enzo Ferrari in the days before he built his 
own cars. In fact, it is the very same car that Tazio Nuvolari drove to glory that July day in 1935 when he won the German Grand Prix on the Nürburgring, defeating the massed might of the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union teams. The Führer was most definitely not amused. It was one of the feats that feed the Nuvolari legend. A great man in a great car in 1935 – and I was being offered a drive in 1979.
Today, this most famous of all racing P3 Alfa Romeos is owned by Jon Shirley in Washington State, but 40 years ago Christchurch collector, Bill Clark, had rescued it from near scrap and commissioned its total restoration.
A Turn at the Wheel
The first thing that caught my attention was the long, lithe bonnet with its ranks of louvres. It glistened bright, shiny, toffee-apple red, almost rippling in the sunshine like the flanks of a just-groomed stallion. The P3 Alfa Romeo monoposto has always been a car that is visually stimulating. It oozes vintage action. Close to, it was smaller than I had expected. The seat is an over-stuffed club armchair. The drainpipe exhaust marches down the side. Read the rest of this entry »
May 7th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The vast windswept landmass near Northampton – an RAF bomber base during World War II – has been known to the motor racing fraternity across the world for over six decades as Silverstone.
The perimeter roads comprised the 4.7km track that hosted the first post-war British Grand Prix in 1948. That was one of the few major events of the year not won by the dominant Alfa Romeo Alfetta 158s – because they didn’t show up. Alfa 
announced it would give 1949 a miss and tragically, during the course of that year, all its drivers lost their lives – Jean-Pierre Wimille, Achille Varzi and Carlo-Felice Trossi.
When the inaugural world championship was announced, Alfa dusted off the Alfettas and returned with a new line-up – Italians Giuseppe Farina, Luigi Fagioli, and an Argentinean of Italian descent who’d arrived in Europe two years earlier, Juan-Manuel Fangio.
Blown or Unblown
The first Formula One provided two choices – either a 4.5-litre normally aspirated option, or 1.5-litre supercharged. Alfa’s 158 hinted at its take – a 1.5-litre straight-eight, under-square engine uprated from 261kW (350bhp) at 8500 rpm through a four-speed gearbox in 1948, to 276kW (370bhp) at 9300rpm in 1950.
Maserati’s 4CLT/48 was a great customer car, but the 1.5-litre four-cylinder produced a modest, albeit reliable, 194kW (260bhp) so wasn’t a contender in the major events, while the French answer was the 4.5-litre straight-six Lago-Talbot producing 209kW (280bhp) at a mere 5000rpm. Read the rest of this entry »
April 29th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
Around a month ago it was announced that Zagato was building a new TZ3 Stradale and now the Milanese design house has revealed the first photos and details of its newest creation.
Zagato’s TZ3 Stradale is an Alfa Romeo bodied sports car based on the platform and mechanical hardware of the hardcore, but out of production Dodge Viper ACR. Power comes from the top-spec Viper’s same 447kW 8.4-litre V10 engine mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox and a full race-spec suspension. The TZ3 Stradale uses an all new and all carbon fibre body with the most distinctive design feature being the classic Kamm-tail layout. While this coachbuilt Viper doesn’t actually use any mechanical pieces from Alfa Romeo, its design puts a decidedly contemporary spin on years of collaboration between Zagato and Alfa.
The TZ3 Stradale is Zagato’s second and final tribute to the 100th anniversary of Alfa Romeo (1910-2010), which started in 2009 with the presentation of the 8C Competizione-based TZ3 Corsa that took out the Villa D’Este Design Concept Award in 2010. Read the rest of this entry »
February 1st, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The February issue of Classic Car magazine has just hit bookstore shelves and comes packed full of articles and news on the NZ classic car scene. So grab a copy before it sells out.
In this month’s issue we have a special feature preparing enthusiasts for the NZCC Classic Car Weekend on later this month (Feb 13). We have a fascinating article on two intrepid Kiwis who took an 805c Mini on an epic 3500km historical re-enactment of the classic 1958 Liege-Brescia-Liege Rally for small capacity cars. Our motor man Donn Anderson finds out if there will ever be a classic Suzuki and the Telford family show us their rare Mustang Mach 1. This month’s cover car is a stunning Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint Zagato, which uses a six-cylinder Alfa engine in a body penned by Zagato. We also get a close look at a highly original 1920 Buick and our man in the field Trevor Stanley tours around the central South Island. We take a nostalgic look back at the 1971 NZ Saloon Car Championship in the first of two parts and our Motosport Flashback sections concentrates on the same year.
All this and loads of news, competitions and information on the NZ Classic Car scene so grab a copy of Classic Car magazine before they’re all gone.
January 29th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
THIS COMPETITION HAS EXPIRED
We couldn’t find a model of the fabulous 2600 Sprint Zagato featured on this month’s cover, instead we’ll look at this new addition to AUTOArt’s delectable die-cast 1:18 range — a gorgeous model of the iconic Alfa Romeo GTAm. As we’ve come to expect of AUTOArt, the detail on this model is simply first class — from the superbly replicated interior, complete with wood trim, to the famous dohc Alfa motor.
Thanks to the good guys at Toymod, the AUTOArt distributor, we have one example of this Alfa Romeo to give away to a lucky reader. Simply click on the link below and answer the following question:
The ‘Am’ in this car’s model name has never been officially confirmed by Alfa Romeo, but one explanation is that it stands for Alleggerita Maggiorata. Translate this term into English?
Competition closes on February 26, 2010.
October 20th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
If you’re a art fan and a Alfa Romeo fan then this might just be something made perfectly for you. The same artist behind the three dimensional landscapes James Cameron’s movie blockbuster, ‘Avatar’, and the distinctive visual image of the film ‘District 9’ has created a unique set of limited edition prints to celebrate Alfa Romeo’s Centenary.
Called the ‘Snake and the Cross Collection’, the artwork by Federico Alliney is as creative and unusual as his cinematic work, some, such as ‘La Bella e La Bestia’ depicting Alfa Romeos in places as other-worldly as the visual feast of Avatar; some in worlds suggested by the cars themselves; others with interpretations of the their own historical place in Alfa Romeo’s history and some, such as the Alfa Romeo 
8C featured in ‘Dorian Red’, illustrating Alfa Romeo’s lasting legacy to the history of the car.
“It’s as if Alfa Romeo cars are linked to our inner self and to the essence of the earth,” explains the artist. “There is the most perfect encounter between aesthetics and mechanics. The mechanical elements do not seem to result from an engineering exercise but have their roots in a work of art which rises above the limits of its body and its invisible aura. This is the starting point of my research: to capture the subtle connection between the object and its soul which makes its shape resonate with the soul.”
“I wanted to transport the onlooker inside my paintings. For this intent I use a pictorial technique which I have developed as a movie designer, painting with light, superimposing layers of light and shadow which complement each other. The result of this treatment is then elaborated with pictorial techniques to make the smallest details stand out of the painting.”
Fully sanctioned by Alfa Romeo, each print is limited to maximum of 30 copies and, depending on reproduction size and mounting, ranges in cost from 195 Euros to 1095 Euros.
Read the rest of this entry »
Page 1 of 712345...»Last » 