75 (Type 162) 1985 - 1992

We bought this 75 in October 2004, after the car found me. My wife and I had daily Alfas at the time, but after the sale of our Alfasud Green Cloverleaf, there was a classic Alfa sized space in the garage. I was told by two stalwarts of AROC that I just had to buy this car to save it from being left to a life of non-use. I test drove the car and didn't even haggle, but paid the full asking price of £1,250. At purchase the car had 104k miles, and by early 2025 this has risen to a little over 146k miles.

With two young daughters at the time, it ideally suited the role of family classic. Now that the girls are in their 20s, they somehow don't seem to want to join us for car events, but the 75 has worked its way into the family, possibly as a forever car. I did consider selling it a few years ago, but that was a short phase of insanity.

Our 75 is actually a Twin Spark LE (or Limited Edition). Alfa produced 3,500 LEs (give or take a few here and there), and ours is numbered 3435 (apparently the LE number corresponds in no way with the order of manufacture).

As a Twin Spark the engine is Alfa's long-lived all-alloy twin cam, but with a Twin Spark cylinder head (eight spark plugs, two distributors, two ignition coils etc). Peak power is 148 bhp @ 5,800 rpm and Peak torque is 186 Nm @ 4,000 rpm. When new this gave a claimed 0 - 62 mph time of 8.2 s and a maximum speed of 127 mph.

The transmission is a 5-speed manual transaxle with a limited slip diff.  There are also in-board rear brakes attached to the side of the gearbox.

Although our car is an LE is came to us fitted with 15" Revolution RFX alloy wheels with 205 50 15 tyres. The original LE 14" alloys came with the car, but were (and still are) in need of a major refurb. After 20 years it is probably also time to refurb the RFXs.

The body is claimed to be a 5-seater and there is a useful 380 litre boot capacity.

When we got the car the material on the driver's Recaro seat was badly worn, which is very common. I started the search for some replacement material. First stop was Alfa, who were not able to help. Second attempt was Recaro who couldn't help either, but passed me onto a company in Leicestershire who managed to supply me the last metre of Monza fabric that they had in stock. I then stripped down the front seat and a friend who was a tailor in the MOD reproduced the seat cover with my very rare material. He also resisted the urge to put gold buttons on it.

Soon after we got the car, the heater matrix sprung a leak. A friend was able to supply a serviceable second-hand item, so all I needed to do was replace it. This was much easier said than done. I found some useful looking instructions on the internet, but they were in Dutch. A Dutch friend, who was also an Alfa owner, translated them for me and I started the job. In total the replacement took me 18 hours, as the whole dash has to come out.

By early 2010 it was time for the 75 to have a bit of a tidy up body-wise, and all four wheel-arch trims were removed to reveal some corrosion and the front and rear screens were removed to do some repairs around the frames. It was back on the road for the Alfa Centenary celebrations in the UK that year.

In 2018 the engine was getting a little smoky, so it was time for a cylinder head removal as the culprit was the valve stem seals.

Whilst driving to the the car's previous owner's, 90th birthday lunch, I heard a bit of a rumble from the middle of the car, so I nursed the car home, and set about changing all three donuts and the central bearing - not the easiest job without a ramp, and if you are slightly prone to claustrophobia. I did feel that it was a bit of an accomplishment though.

The 75 is used a lot in the UK, but between 2009 and 2023, it has also had a number of continental trips to the Spa Classic 6 Hours motor racing weekend, at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium.

On some of these trips there has been the opportunity for some 'Discovery' laps of the circuit with a few other classic cars. The 75 feels really at home on this wonderful circuit, especially on a sunny Autumn evening.

One downside of going on such a trip in the 75, is that when we go out in the evening the 4-door 75 is the chosen transport, especially as other members of the group seem to turn up with Spiders or Coupes.

The 75 is reasonably standard, but there a few modifications worth mentioning.

When we bought the car it had a CSC tail-pipe, the end of which fell off at some point. As I loved the sound of that exhaust I bought both the centre and tail sections of CSC pipe from EB Spares.

After a few 'Discovery' laps of Spa Francorchamps in 2016 it was obvious that the suspension was getting a bit soft. Rather than replacing with standard, the suspension was replaced with a set of Koni Yellow shock absorbers and an Alfaholics fast-road handing kit, which consists of a 29 mm front anti-roll bar and stiffer rear springs. The ride height was kept as standard though.