Alfasud (Type 901) 1972-1989

From the production registers held in the Centro Documentazione Alfa Romeo, Arese. Italy, this car came off the production line on 26 May 1983.  Apparently tt was originally destined for the Belgian market as a right hand drive car arriving in December 1984.  Instead it was registered in England on 7 September 1984.

It was sold by Dove of Northampton Ltd. to the first of its 10 owners so far (2024).  It spent the first 5 years of its life in Northamptonshire before moving briefly to Hertfordshire.  It then spent the next 10 years in Sciliy used only when its owner was on holiday there.  Returned to England it spent a couple of years in East Sussex before moving to Northern Ireland for a brief period.  Sold on again it arrived in London where it was garaged for 3 years before moving up to Manchester where it was again in use.  It has lived in a garage in Surrey since March 2019. It comes out for regular outings and going to the shops (the long way round).

When Geoff first got the Sud it had the original fixed seatbelts at the rear, spread over the seat, and slowly retracting inertia reel seat belts in the front.  Being safety conscious he searched on line to find replacement belts.  FTDS-seatbelts.co.uk were located in West Byfleet, only a few miles away.  The old belts were removed from the car and taken along.  New inertial reel belts were chosen (black with a red line along the length) and FTDS fitted them to the buckles.  He also opted to put in inertial reel belts for the back seats at the same time.  (These are fitted at an angle that is not recommended for use with child seats, but are fine for adults and booster seats.)  Now the belts look smart and most importantly work as more modern ones do.

In July 2019 the Sud went in for its MOT.  It failed unexpectedly on the horn and the windscreen wipers not working, although they worked fine on the way down. It turned out the MOT station had never encountered a Sud before and didn't know its 'quirks'.  So here they are 

• Horn - operate by pulling right hand stalk towards you
• Wipers - twis right hand stalk
• Washers - press end of right hand stalk
• Heater fan - move right hand stalk down
• Lights - controlled by left hand stalk
• Main beam/dipped - button on left hand stalk
• Handbrake - works on front wheels

Once the MOT centre had been educated it passed!

When the car arrived, after a wet drive down from Manchester, it seemed to be running fine but when it went for service it was noted that the distribuor was no aligned correctly.  The consensus was that the engine had been apart before and the dustributor had not been aligned correctly when put back together.  This concerned Geoff so the decision was taken to have the engine and gearbox rebuilt.  At least this could be done in 2021 when the parts were avaialble, if not easy to source.  Bianco Auto Developments took on the work.  This turned out to be a good decision, a main bearing had been put back incorrectly, so the crankshaft not being lubricated and needing to be machined.  If left it would have failed. 

Since the engine rebuild the following have also been done -

Fuel pipe replaced with braided fuel pipe, all fuel hoses replaced

Silicone coolant hoses replaced original

Clutch slave cyliner replaced

Boot release cable replaced

Rust arond the lower edge of the windscreen treated and resprayed

Inside of the bonnet resprayed

Nearside front wing re-aligned and resprayed.

In 2021 we went to National Alfa Day at Bicester.  It rained.  Turned out the sunroof leaked and the passenger seat was very wet.  So Kim had to sit on a plastic bag all the way home.  Needed to find someone who could replace the seal on the sunroof which had deteriorated over the years.  More Google searching to find Surrey Sunroofs.  they were given the basic information that we could find on the sunroof eg it was a Britax Thermax toughened glass measuring about 74.5 x  39cm.  The company sent someone out to look at it and do their own measurements and commissioned a new replacement seal.  It was dually fitted and hasn't leaked since so Kim is happy.

Make:                     Alfa Romeo

Model:                   Alfasud Ti 1500 series 3 RHD

Type :                     901 G5C

Cylinder capacity:  1490cc

No. of cylinders:    4

Type of fuel:           Petrol

Petrol supply:         2 twin choke Weber carburrettors

Wheelplan:            2 axle rigid body

Doors:                    3 door hatchback

Seats:                     5

Length:                  3978mm

Width:                   1616mm

Height:                  1370mm

Kerb weight:          895kg

Exterior colour:      Grey Nsida metallic  (Grigio Nsida metallizzato)

Interior colour:      Red black cloth (Panno nero rosso)

Equipment:            Pioneer KP-5400 Cassette car stereo with LW/MW tuner