From the ridiculous to the sublime …
trust me on this one!
Here’s the ridiculous. (Note the driver’s helmet.) Check out the gallery for the sublime. Photo by Ted Williams. Click here and here for more. (The second link tells the story of “The Speed Demon of the Pampas.”)
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- Here’s the entire range: ridiculous to sublime. In the foreground is the LeMons racer of the Ecurie Ecrappe team, taken at the 2008 Concorso Italiano.
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- Another view of the Ecurie Ecrappe car, which sports a driver’s seat once used in a race car driven by the real Juan Fangio, not the imposter shown at the top of the page.
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- Jay Mackro’s 1966 Sprint GT, media blasted and about ready for paint.
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- Jay’s Sprint is shown about to go from shell to rolling sculpture.
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- We’re not biased in favor of red GT’s on this site. No siree, not us. But isn’t Jay’s ’66 GT a beauty! This one is painted San Marina Red, an Acura color.
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- Jay fabricated a clever luggage shelf for the GT’s back seat, a mod that others are now adapting.
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- Under the hood of Jay’s ’66 is a 2L motor that looks as good as the rest of the car. His car has a hydraulic clutch, ATE brakes, “flying buttress” seats, and numerous other mods.
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- Ahhh, Giulia! Jay’s Spider looks fine parked alongside southern Californias historic Ortega Highway. Under the hood is also a treat. See the next photo.
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- The 1963 Spider of Jay Mackro has bored liners and 1750 pistons, giving it 1650cc; Webers with Weiand air filters (an appropriate speed shop addition for a SoCal hot rod); late model tranny; and more.
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- Damon Ladson, from Maryland, sent us this beauty shot of his 1982 Spider.
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- Here’s Damon in the Spider, next to his sister-in-law’s VW.
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- Glenn Ackermann’s ’86 Graduate is a San Francisco Bay Area car. He says on a good day he can cruise the nearby wine country and pretend he’s in Tuscany or Umbria.
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- I expect this will be debated, but Glenn writes about the virtues of California wines: “Actually, the wine is generally better here (than in certain well-known regions of Italy), but that’s a whole ‘nother issue …”
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- Ron Taylor, from Australia, shares photos of his cars, including this 1986 Spider, which the factory sent to Australia to be converted to right-hand drive. Ron writes: “All the injection stuff is gone, wiring harness, computers, etc. Interestingly, two things are possible with this change. You can retain the injection head with a small modification, and use a Euro 105 inlet manifold. These are things I was told I couldn’t do. Of course the computer ignition goes too, so I replaced that with a Bosch electronic setup.
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- Ron writes that he replaced the original Spider fan with an electric unit mounted behind the radiator. He tried front-mounting the fan and found that it just didn’t provide adequate cooling.
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- Hey, why’s that steering wheel on the wrong side? Because Ron Taylor lives in Australia. and that’s how they do it there.
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- Ron Taylor’s GTV V-6.
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- This is the Spider of Rolf Skala, from Vancouver, British Columbia. When last heard from Rolf was threatening to put a SNO sticker on his single racing scull, which he rows out of Vancouver Rowing Club. We’d like to see that, but no photo has arrived so far. Send me your address, Rolf, I’ll mail a sticker.
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- Active Oregon Alfa Clubber, Roger Dilts belongs to this1972 Spider.
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- Roger Dilts’ Spider used to belong to Oregon racer Denny Pillar. Not surprising, then, to find that the car has Dellorto 45s, Euro cams, high compression pistons, headers, Rugh springs, Bilstein shocks, Carello light covers, Panasports, and a bright Corvette yellow paint.
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- The interior of Roger Dilts’ Spider.
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- Roger’s car is a beauty. We had a lot of time to admire it while following closely behind on a couple of Oregon Alfa Club tours.
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- The pristine Alfa 75 of the Rev. Graham Middleton, pastoring in Barrie, Ontario, when he sent this photo. It’s definitely the most cool ministerial car I’ve seen in my 60+ years of church involvement. Rev on Rev!
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- Robert Landman writes: “I do hate red Alfas.” Because this is SNO, and WE love GTs, we welcome him anyway. Robert has several GT’s, including this 1968 1300 Jr. he bought in Holland.
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- Graham Allen, from Christchurch, New Zealand, bought this 1969 GT Jr that looks good in the picture. Check out the next three photos.
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- Graham’s car may have looked good in a picture, but it needed a full-on restoration, and that’s what it’s getting.
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- Wish I’d had one of these when redoing my GT. This is Graham’s car, on a roll with its restoration.
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- The interior of Graham Allen’s GT. We’re still waiting for the after photos.
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- The Giulia Spider of Joel Stein, from Florida.
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- Joel Stein’s GTC. Mine could have looked like this, except I sold it as a stripped body and a trailer-load of parts. Heavy sigh!
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- Is there a better way to end this gallery than with this photo of Joel Stein’s sublime Sprint Speciale? Can’t think of one.