No Tme: 1971 Alfa Romeo 1750 GT Veloce
Back about 25 years ago when I bought my GTV, they were cool,old interesting cars you could pick up for not much money. Now GTV’s seem to be following the air-cooled 911 into terra expensiva. That’s great if you are a hedge fund manager, but for the rest of us, if we want to make our GTV dreams a reality, we will need to bring a little sweat equity. Find this 1971 Alfa Romeo 1750 GT Veloce for sale in Pacifica, CA for $7,000 via craigslist.
Some adult assembly required goes the old chestnut. In this case you are looking at a lot of assembly required, along with many days of tracking down hard-to-find parts. The sparingly worded ad says it’s only missing the front windshield and rear side windows but has everything else including the rare 1750 only parts like the “flying buttress” seats. I don’t see them in any of the pictures, so trust but verify, young Reaganite. You do get a disassembled engine with a crank-in-a-bag. Again, check the block number to see if you are getting a 1750 or a later 2000. Bonus question: how many pistons do you see here?
You do get a SPICA mechanical injection setup. Since this is a ’71 1750, you get the pump that is similar to the 2000 pump and not the one year only unique ’69 pump. Either way I would assume you will need to send it off to Wes Ingram for a rebuild. I would do this over a carb conversion, dollar-wise you won’t save anything and the SPICA is what makes Alfas in the U.S. unique. The bad rep they have is mainly due to prior cheap owners using ham-fisted mechanics in the days Alfas were cool, old cheap cars.
Rust never sleeps, but maybe it takes a nap now and then. I see the typical stuff in the pictures, bases of the windows, etc. There aren’t any of the trunk or the rockers so I’d assume you will find some there. There are a couple of shots of the door sills in the background looking like there is a tarot card warning you there is rocker rust in your future.
See a less sweaty way to build some equity? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
Gianni is Daily Turismo’s Pacific Northwest correspondent and resident Alfista. He’s owned his GTV for almost 25 years. Cue “The way we were”…
Too bad the front seats are gone. Doubt that they were flying buttress. Too new. I thought the larger tail lights were 1972 and newer! Doesn't look too bad though. I'd sure like to take it on. Love that dash!
Yeah, you are right about the seats. The bttresses were '69 only, the '71's had seats more similar to the 2000's. The large tail lights started with the '71's, but the license plate lights were still in the rear bumper. This car has the euro taillights, with orange indicators instead of red. Also the '71's had the larger side marker lights like the 2000's. This car has had them replaced with the smaller Euro ones. Who knows if the extra holes were filled with metal or bondo…
I've always wanted a GTV ever since reading the GTV vs 2002 article in Motor Trend Classic. Later, seeing them in person cemented the dream. Sadly, the price trend makes that unlikely.
Pacifica is a coastal town and you get a lot of rust on cars there due to the fog rolling in from the ocean and blanketing the area. Very likely there is much more rust to be discovered on this one.