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Welcome to the Classic Italian Cars website for the enthusiast |
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Written by Henk Heath
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Saturday, 07 July 2007 09:54 |
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Virtual Club for the Enthusiast
Dear Visitor to our website
Thank you for your visit, you are most welcome in our world of Italian car fanatics! Since the earliest day of the motor car people identified with a certain marquise, be it Ford, Chevrolet, or any of the exotic British cars like the Aston Martin, Austin Healy and others.
We like Italian cars, the greatest of them all! Be it a Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia or any of the famous makes. These Italian cars were all classics in their own right!
Since days gone by people formed clubs around certain cars, being groups of like-minded car lovers. Whilst these clubs played an important role in promoting the interest in a particular make of car the main beneficiary of these efforts were in fact the manufacturers. The clubs were in fact regarded as an integral part of the marketing of the specific marquise. Experience has also shown that car clubs, or for that matter any kind of club, had a serious down-side in that it brought into play the personal interest factor. Clubs are run by committees, consisting of chairmen, events organizers, treasurers, social affairs organizers and whatever. These positions are filled by individuals and hence internal politics come into play.
What we want to do is to create a cyber club of Italian car lovers across the board. We believe that there is room for an Alfa Romeo lover from down-under to interact with a Lamborgini owner in the US to share ideas and motoring experiences in general. We believe that experiences can be shared from Finland to Australia.
How will this work?
Firstly, this site aims to be a club without any member subscription or fee, with no committee and no office bearers. There will be no internal politics of who likes who, no bank accounts or anything that goes with a traditional club!
Secondly, we aim to generate the activities of the club by member input. This means that any person registered on this website can publish an activity and invite others to attend such an activity in that particular area, for instance a breakfast-run to a local hotspot.
Thirdly, the website could be used to foster new friendships. As an example a member residing in the Netherlands would like to undertake a tour of Germany in his Lancia. Such member could then put his / her itinerary on the website and invite members in Germany to meet at a certain place or venue. This is all possible by placing details of such an event on the blog on this site.
It could be local or international. What we want to achieve is interaction by all lovers of Italian cars and the enjoyment of driving a classic Italian car. We also invite you to send us photographs of your car(s) to publish in our blog. The pictures you currently see there are from my Alfa Romeo collection and I sincerely hope that you will send us photographs of your cars. Just to show our intention of going local, national and international, a short message to my Dutch friends. As I have been out of the country for many years I do not claim my Dutch to be anywhere near correct but hope that the message is clear.
Hallo aan al mijn Nederlandse vrienden. Ik zou graag dat jullie meedoen aan deze website om er een reuze sukses van te maken. Met vriendelijke groet uit Zuid Afrika.
Robbie Stutterheim |
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Last Updated on Friday, 11 September 2009 13:14 |
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Written by Henk Heath
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Saturday, 07 July 2007 09:54 |
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Have you ever heard of an Automatic Guilietta manufactured anywhere in the world. I own a 2.0 Liter Guilietta manufactured in South Africa in 1984. |
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Last Updated on Friday, 11 September 2009 13:17 |
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One of the Best Alfa's ever build |
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Written by Henk Heath
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008 10:11 |
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Officially formed in 1910, the company then known as A.L.F.A. (Anonima Lombardo Fabrica Autombili) flourished until 1915 when mining industrialist Nicola Romeo, looking for a profitable investment, joined ALFA and the Alfa Romeo marque was born. Alfa's early successes shined brightly in the late 1920s and early '30s. With the brilliant automotive designer Vitorio Jano at the creative helm, and racer Enzo Ferrari running the company's racing unit, Alfa Romeo won almost every major motor competition in Europe. From hill climbs to Grand Prix, Le Mans and Mille Liglia, Alfa's cars set standards by which others were judged. The early Alfas were considered to be among the world's ultimate road cars, even surpassing Mercedes, Maserati and Bugatti. After World War II, Alfa shifted its designs to smaller, four-cylinder cars with an eye on mass production. Twin-cam engine designer Orazio Puliga's work first appeared with the introduction of the Giulietta in 1954.
Available in several variations -- a salon, a convertible and two types of coupe -- the Giulietta made a huge leap in redefining sports-car standards of that era. Following are some highlights from the Alfa Romeo line during its heyday.
- The Guilietta -- The mainstream small salon featured a 1290 cc, 53 bhp engine. The success of this model turned Alfa into a mass production manufacturer.
- The Guilietta Sprint -- The coupe version of the Guiletta appeared in 1954 and generated 80 bhp.
- The Guilietta Sprint Speciale -- Based on a shortened Giuletta floor plan, this coupe was attractively sleek, low and fast -- generating 100 bhp and capable of reaching a top speed of 125 mph.
- The Guilietta Spider -- A Farina-styled convertible with the same engine as the Sprint, the Spider was slightly faster thanks to a lighter weight. Alfa produced a convertible model every year after the introduction of this automobile.
- The Guilietta Ti -- This was a tuned version of the salon and was capable of generating 74 bhp. Introduced in 1961, this became the most popular of the models. Fifty-thousand were built between 1961 and 1964.
- The Giulia -- Another step in Alfa's evolution came with the introduction of the Giulia in 1962. This model also came in coupe and spider designs, which were mostly carryovers from the Guilietta predecessor. The salon, however, was a new design. But all had a new name and, more importantly, a 1570 cc engine with a 5-speed gearbox. The Giulia models would ultimately form the backbone of the Alfa line, with sales surpassing 400,000 in 1972.
- The Veloce -- While the Giuletta and Giullia were crucial to Alfa's history, the model most commonly regarded as the classic Alfa Romeo is the 1750 Veloce 105 series released in 1967.
- The Duetto and The Spider -- Derived from the Battista Farina designed Duetto (introduced a year earlier), the Spider had the same round-tailed body and was essentially indistinguishable from its predecessor. With its alloy engine-block, twin camshafts chain driven from the crankshaft, aluminum/cast-iron cylinder liners and aluminum head, the new 1779-cc engine propelled this rear-wheel drive, five-speed model to a top speed of 115 mph.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 September 2009 19:08 |
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