Anyone here ever driven an alfa romeo giulietta spider?

What did you guys think? Compare to an early MGB please.....My brother likes them.....

I haven't driven one but I have seen one on the vintage circuit and known others who own them. MGB would not compare well IMHO. Alfa approaches a poor man's Ferrari Maser or Lambo IMHO. All the quirks but the engine and handling design are on a par with the true exotics...in the day at least. Fiat is another story entirely...

AzMarc,your brother has exquisite taste, listen to Robert, he is correct. Road&Track at the time said....no car has any business being so desirable....even the German mags praised the Giulietta. It was considered the bench mark of it's class. The Veloce had 1.14 hp per cubic inch.It has a 1290 cc all alloy DOHC sweet 8000 rpm engine(red line at 7000 but you ignore it). Here is a good site http://www.alfabb.com/....and a photo of my1958 750 series Veloce.
Marc please keep us informed.

btw pardon me, I know I have posted this photo before...but I get Alfa narcissistic....

Try one for size...literally ...first.
they tend to suffer from the long arms / short legs seating position.

Electrics are typically Italian meaning on a par with Lucas.

Engines are fine unless abused - don't rev them cold and keep up with the servicing.

Gearboxes and drive lines a little fragile. Not suited to ham fisted or ham footed drivers. If you can't match revs and double (de) clutch don't expect the trans to do it for you.

Body is also typically Italian. Expect rust and indifferent paint work and suspect trim.

Driving is very sports inclined. Lots of power but lots of revs needed. Fantastic for Sunday morning blasts through the hills but daily driver is a bit of a pain. Handling is good but other cars are equally so.

Alfa owners can be a little like Porsche owners. They forgive the car any and everything simply because it is an Alfa. Blather on about mistique and other subjective claptrap endlessly.

Just my thoughts. A couple of Alfa owners in my family as well.

Pete.

Oh, be still my heart!!! In 1964 i had a 1959 Giulietta Veloce. Also had a TR3 at the same time. The TR would leave the Alfa at the light (displacement rules) but in every other way the Alfa was the bomb! Significant body roll under hard cornering but that was just the signal to push it a bit more. It had alfin brakes so hard braking was not as big a bugaboo as with some other drum brake cars.

Well Peter may be the pragmatic hereon but Wayne more closely captures all I know, saw, heard. They are fantastically quick, well bred, classic unto themselves. And as far as ownership comparisons, I believe you could lump almost all German car owners under the Porsche precieved ego...
My other group of mostly pre Countach Lambo owners are much like the group making up this forum and include my friend from Canada Bill Spohn also on this forum. So much for stereo types....

...what can I say, other than blather on about it's twin cam engine was most definitely not made by MG.

Oh, and "bello bambino Giulietta"

Wyatt,

Do you still have this car? It's gorgeous! And I have to ask about the barn... is that yours and are those your automobiles?

Haaa.. Daddio, don't I wish..........that's at Gilmore Car Museum...where I bought the car. If you have not made the trip to Mad Dogs and Englishmen British car show held every July at Gilmore in Mi you are missing a real treat. Just a beautiful place and a wonderful show.

When is the show? If my car is actually running at that point, I'd love to go. I'll even bring us some "Canadian" beers so you and I can have a cold one together.

Gilmore is one of THE finest venues in the midwest I have had privledge to attend. Not the nicest weather but a sight beholding....one of the true classic collections around and free for the price of the show admission as I understand. The ONLY thing missing would be a tribute to Crosley...THE first post war sports car maker and I will brook no argument to the fact...!
:thumbsup:

Just what I suspected.....Now he has got me researching them and boy I would love to test drive one.....just beautiful looking cars.....

Oh there is no comparison. I'll take my old Alfa any day.

My father regularly serviced and repaired several Alfa Romeo GTV 105's and Giulietta Spiders ( like in the movie "The Graduate" ) in the sixties and seventies, and I think I drove most, if not all of them a number of times. They were really in a different league to the MG's (including in price). Beautiful smooth torquey free-revving engines, slick 5-speed transmissions (though with a longer lever, that worked in a somewhat slightly vertical plane if I recall correctly), softer suspension than an MG, but they handled and cornered very well. The driver's seat in the Spider didn't go back far enough for me I seem to remember. I think the parcel shelf impeded the Spider's seat's rearward movement if my memory is right. They were very reliable cars as long as they were regularly serviced. My father, who tended to be critical of the engineering in many of the exotics he dealt with, clearly liked these cars a lot. (Feelings he didn't share about the MGA Twin Cam for example, or aspects of the many Jags he looked after.)

I had one many years ago. Nice looking car:thumbup:, nice engine:thumbup:, nice gearbox and rear axle:thumbup:, inside with the charm of public transport:thumbdown: and rapid growing rust everywhere:thumbdown:
Putting both the cars inside the garage, I sat down in each one and thought the B was more that kind of a perfect tailored suit to my egonomatrics than the Alfa was and sold it soon. Bad idea, I should have stored it:eyeroll:

Marc I have lots of photos of my alfa, I have it in the shop for a strip and paint if you need to see something

Peter, very kool kar....

So now I am checking out the Duettos (1600 Spider).... Boat tails......

here....http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/2006/09/01/hmn_buyers_guide1.html