Central Sussex section member’s car of the month

It took me 18 months to find my Brera, I was searching for a particular car. It had to be one owner, always garaged, low mileage and Alfa Red. Also a 2.2 JTS engine and of course must be in very good condition. I found the car I chose in 2021.

I consider the Giugiaro designed Brera a design like no other for its period. I wanted a 2.2 JTS coupe as I considered, like many others, that this the perfect touring car for 2 people. The Brera I found was a one owner car and when I saw the car and lifted the bonnet it was in perfect shape, which was evidence that the owner had really taken care of it.

I have serviced the car putting in better oils than the standard Petronis oils and always used Castrol Edge engine oils. I Dinitroled the under side of the car helping to reduce any rust problems. I have not needed to modify the car in any way as it had all the extras I wanted. To maintain the pristine condition of my Brera It is only driven for 6 months of the year, on average 3000 miles during the better summer weather.

The inspiration to buy a Brera came from my youth (60’s-70’s) when I rebuilt an Alfa Romeo Guilleta Coupe Sprint Veloce 1300 with 5 on the floor, which I  used to compete as an amateur in rallies. The car reminded me of the Guilleta but as it is front wheel drive it does handle quite differently, but I can handle that.

With my wife Carol, we have taken many trips in our 4 years of ownership. We did a tour of the Derbyshire Dales, a tour of the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland and many AROC events like the Eastbourne Car Show and the National Alfa Day at Bicester. I often get praise about the condition of the car which pleases me.

I have always loved owning Alfa Romeos, the Giulietta’s, and the Alfetta Coupe Sprint Veloce I owned when living in Belgium, in which we drove all around Europe in. Although quite different, the Brera suits my needs now and I enjoy every minute driving it.

Stan Bailey’s Giulietta.

Having recently progressed to a Giulia Veloce, I consider this is a good opportunity to pay tribute to my Giulietta 1750 tbi cloverleaf, the car I had cherished for the previous 3 years.

I traded up a 2.4 Brera for the Giulietta in 2021. It was time for a change as I wanted to move away from a diesel engine, despite the Brera being such a beautiful looking car which I loved owning.

I saw that the dealer who had sold me the Brera had a very low mileage 2012 Giulietta in excellent condition for sale but I didn’t know much about them. The shape was not as appealing to me as the Brera but nevertheless I thought I’d give it a test drive. Well that did it! Once I felt the performance of that manual cloverleaf engine I was hooked. I think I can safely say that if it had been anything less than the 1750 tbi engine I wouldn’t have been interested.

The first thing I did was to have a modified turbo feed pipe fitted on the advice of Kevin at Sussex Alfa who said he had experienced a few blown turbos due to the inadequacy of the standard pipe.

Apart from that, the only time it ever went to the garage was for an annual service and for new tyres. In my three years of ownership I never had the slightest problem with the car, it even returned a decent 40-42 miles to the gallon on long motorway runs. It was my daily driver but my mileage is modest so it still only had 48,000 miles on the clock when I sold it.

Appearance-wise, I had the wheels refurbished and painted anthracite grey, much more attractive with a red car than the standard silver rims in my opinion. When I asked the refurbisher for the colour code so I could get a spray for any future scuffs he said he didn’t know, it was a colour he got from Ferrari. The gloss finish was really excellent, nothing stuck to them so they always looked clean.

I also changed all the badges to red ones and to continue the colour theme – and for a bit of fun – I gave it a cherished number plate AR..RED which attracted lots of attention at shows and on the road.

I did find however that the car attracted the unwelcome attention of boy racers in other small-medium-sized hatchbacks who wanted to play games at the lights or put their vehicles to the test. I tried hard to resist but got drawn into a few duels, each time vowing never to be baited again. But I can say that my successes were in excess of my losses!

To sum up, my Giulietta was one of the most reliable and fun cars that I’ve owned, and for me a Giulietta can be nothing other than RED!

Stephen and Anne’s S2 Spider Junior

Oct is the 10th anniversary of our S2 Spider ownership. The car came to the UK from Germany in 1989, after changing hands between 3 owners and hardly turning a wheel, and never being registered, it finally found a home with an owner in Bristol. Peel’s Motorkraft in Bristol were given the job of a full bare metal respray in 2013. Sadly, the owner, a Mr Worle died, his nephew putting the car up for sale as part of the estate in 2014. It was at this point the car was bought and transferred to West Sussex. Whilst the bodywork had been beautifully restored, most of the mechanics still needed overhauling or replacing.

The Spider Junior is a ‘budget’ version of the more common Veloce Spider, they were made for the Italian market with either a 1300 or 1600 engine and more basic features for the purpose of keeping the cost of the car under the luxury goods rate of tax applied at the time. Our Junior left the factory with a 1600 engine in April 1972. At some stage whilst in Germany and shortly before shipping to the UK, it acquired a 2000 engine.

During our ownership I have restored, rebuilt or replaced every mechanical component in the car, other than the engine. The gearbox has been rebuilt using all original bearings and the back axle has been replaced with a LSD version to match the 2000 engine and improve cruising speed. Not just the mechanics, the interior of the car has been retrimmed, and I fitted a new hood in 2023.

In 2019 we joined Ken Carrington’s Andiamo Milano AROC tour to Milan and beyond. It was with trepidation we drove onto the ferry that morning, the newly rebuilt rear axle had only covered just over 100 miles, so little time to gain confidence in it! We need not worry though as the entire trip went without drama, only a broken weld on the air cleaner, fixed with gaffer tape and a duff sparking plug giving cause to liberate the tool kit.

During that trip we drove on the roof of the Fiat Lingotto building, did some circuits of the Balocco proving test track and visited the Blue Team private Alfa Romeo collection.

Part of the pleasure of owning an Alfa Romeo classic car, for me, is the involvement of the repairs, maintenance and improvements I have undertaken in the last 10 years. It’s not for everyone, admittedly, but getting into the soul of our classic Alfa Romeo with spanners gives me great pleasure.

Here our S2 Junior sits at the top of the Grande St Bernard Pass.