1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Speciale

Mike Glore has an interesting collection of automobiles. While it is mostly British, with an emphasis on Lotus, he also has two Alfa Romeos. Both were online purchases, and both came with unexpected challenges. The story of his Alfa Romeo JrZ was detailed in Vintage Road & Racecar in December 2018 (1971 Alfa Romeo Giulia Junior Z). The challenges in that story were mostly about getting a car from the Canary Islands to Louisiana. The story of his Sprint Speciale is one that emphasizes the difficulties in determining the condition of a car bought without a chance to inspect it.

The prototype for the Sprint Speciale was shown at the Turin Motor Show in 1957. The first production SS automobiles were announced to the press in June 1959. The Giulietta Sprint Speciale used Alfa’s 1300-cc DOHC engine. The 1600-cc Giulia SS was first shown at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1963. It is one of these 1600-cc engined cars that Glore sought out.

Encouraged by friends with Alfas and seduced by the lines of the SS, Glore began looking for a nice example. He found this one on bringatrailer.com, and it looked very good. The car had been rolled in a race in the 1970s, but it had undergone a two-year restoration. It was beautiful. Glore was impressed with the chronicle of the restoration: “The seller of the car was a school teacher and an excellent writer. He detailed all the phases of the restoration in great detail and harmony. I was the lucky/unlucky winner of the car.” The body shop that did the work on the car was world famous for doing SS cars and photos of the restoration showed other SS cars being restored. Glore bid and won the auction.

When the car was delivered a few weeks later, Glore noticed a rapid fall in the oil pressure during the 7-mile drive home. The seller knew about the problem and said it was the oil pressure gauge. Glore says, “I bought that temporarily. But I couldn’t stand to drive the car for only 10 or 15 minutes before the oil pressure started to drop.” He called an engine builder who is highly regarded by Alfa folks. He also said it was likely the gauge. Glore was still skeptical: “Being a machinist, I was able to manufacture a special dual port banjo fitting where I could pick up the oil pressure from the same port on the block that fed the Alfa gauge. When I hooked up the Pegasus certified, liquid-filled gauge, it mimicked the gauge on the dash exactly.” Problem! The restorer and seller were too far away to help, so Glore contacted a specialist who rebuilds Alfa oil pumps. The SS has a unique oil pump, and Glore didn’t feel comfortable with installing the rebuilt pump, having never done that before on an Alfa. The oil pump rebuilder recommended several engine guys, and Glore picked Mike Besic, in Illinois, near the oil pump guy. When Besic had space in his shop, several months later, Glore shipped the car to him in a closed container. Besic inspected the car. He removed the rear main bearing cap and found it completely worn; all the bearings were in the same condition. Besic rebuilt the motor, and found many problems, including the wrong cams for an SS, a chain tensioner worn beyond use, and a warped head. This would be an extensive and expensive rebuild.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but Glore says, “I really had no choice. I wasn’t going to sell the car in this condition, and I wasn’t going to drive the car.” He didn’t want just a non-running display car, so he had Besic rebuild the engine and sort the car. When he was done, the engine had good oil pressure and temperature and pulled well in mid-range. With a good running SS back in his possession, Glore and his wife, Alice, drove the car to Nashville, Tennessee, for the Alfa Romeo Owners Club national convention. The car easily cruised at 90+ with windows down, and there was no buffeting. “It is a true touring car.” It has a shape that is excellent for high-speed touring. “I love the shape of the car. It’s very unusual, it’s very stylish, and it’s my favorite Alfa.”

When Glore decided to bid on the car, he didn’t suspect anything would be wrong with the car after reading two years of articles about the restoration. The previous owner just picked the wrong engine builder, but he was a gentleman and volunteered to pay half of the cost to rebuild the engine. The moral of this story is that having your hands on a car you are considering buying is best. If that’s not possible, you do what you can to insure that the car is as advertised. Sometimes, you get bit.

Driving Impressions

I love the shape of the Alfa Sprint Speciales. Bertone did an incredible job with the design of this automobile – its shape is just sensuous. Sadly, I just don’t fit. In the early 1970s, I looked at an SS for sale in Alexandria, Virginia. I was looking for an Alfa coupe, and the SS was a good deal and was just so sexy. The owner opened the garage, I looked the car over, and then I got in. I had the option to drive the car, but my head was hard against the headliner, causing me to have to bend my head slightly. I realized that there was no need to test drive the car; I’d never be very comfortable in it.

Fast forward to today. I was visiting Glore to look at his Lotus Elan M100 that I was considering buying (1991 Lotus Elan M100). It was a good opportunity to gather photos and information about a couple of his cars for future articles – like this one. Everything about Glore’s SS was perfect – the color, the interior, the engine. It was a great car for an article.

With the exception of the headroom, the SS is laid out a lot like the 1963 Giulia Sprint I bought after looking at that SS in Virginia. Why is it that modern sports cars can’t be instrumented like these cars of the 1960s? Speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, water temperature, oil pressure, OIL TEMPERATURE! Oil temperature is such an important piece of information, but few understand that these days.

Back to Glore’s SS – one of the causes of my headroom issue might be the great seats in the SS. They had been restored and were thick and comfortable for my butt. But they were high, so maybe old worn seats would be best for me. The driving position is like most of the Alfas of that era – it was not the odd short leg, long arm position required of later cars. My Giulia Sprint was one of the first cars I could not drive with the seat all the way back – too far to the pedals. Glore’s SS was that way as well. I found my arms and legs fit comfortably on the steering wheel and pedals. All the gauges were visible, the shifter was in a perfect spot, and the radio was where the passenger could deal with it so the driver could concentrate on driving, sometimes making the passenger hang on to the grab handle.

Steering is hard at low speeds, but it lightens up as the car goes faster. Oh, and the sound of that car once started – delightful. Glore’s JrZ, previously mentioned, was a much lighter car, so the SS seemed somewhat slower than the smaller JrZ. Still, it was not slow. There was good acceleration through all five gears, and the car was comfortable on the typically poorly paved Mississippi back roads. It handled well, and had little lean in the corners. The engine likes the revs kept high, but the car pulled well even in fifth gear at 2000-2500 rpm. There really is little wind buffeting at speed, as Glore noticed in his drive to Nashville, due to its excellent aero shape with a coefficient of drag of only 2.8. Stopping is also quite good. This was the first year of front disk brakes on the Alfa coupes, and they worked very well. I remember my Sprint having decent brakes – three shoe drums in front – but the SS brakes were excellent.

Driving the Sprint Speciale was a treat. It had been a while since I had driven an Alfa coupe, and this one was a very nice example. Makes me wonder if I’d still have that one from Virginia had I fit better in it. Probably not – something else would have gotten my attention. Glore, on the other hand, keeps his cars, and I look forward to sharing more of them with our readers.

Specifications

Valuation