Peter,

For the past year I have been researching the history of my SZ 00114 and although I have made a little progress it is still not enough to write a complete story. Pete, I guess the purpose of this E mail is just to say thank you for your help and to let you know how I made out researching the car. My first real verification came from the Alfa Archives:

Dear Mister Goodman,

With reference to your request we are informing you as follows. According to our documentation files, the chassis number AR 101.26 * 00114 originally corresponds to an Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ, manufactured on the 6th February 1961 and sold on the 2nd May 1961 in Turin Italy.
The body colour is grey. No further information available about this car.

Yours, Sincerely,
Marco Fazio
Automobilismo Storico Alfa Romeo Archivio Storico

Your contact with Marcello Minerbi was the most helpful. Looking at the pictures and the list of past owners that I had received from Bob Cozza's partner in Italy, Marcello recognized one of the names, and even felt he had seen the car. He E mailed me as follows:

I finally I was able to "catch" Edoardo Genuizzi. Here the news: the SZ n° 00114 belonged to him and he rented the car for some races to Causio and Serena (vice and President of the Italian Racing and Sporting Association, CSAI) in the Eighties. The car won the Three Hours of Magione driven by the guys mentioned above and was tuned by Chiapparini near Milano. Then Genuizzi sold the car to Cupellini of Bergamo. I hope these news could be helpful, let me know if you need some more.

Sincerely,
Marcello Minerbi

Looking at the names in Marcello's E mail it seems like a who's who of Italian Vintage Racing. All of that makes Bob Cozza's original story more credible. After I bought the car Bob informed me that it was owned by the family of Sig Luraghi the President of Alfa Romeo. According to Bob the car was actually owned by Dario Luraghi the brother of Sig and registered in his daughter's name.

While I have not been able to verify the Luraghi connection I am still working on it.

Best Wishes,
Jon Goodman

The Alpine A110 and friends

Dear Sirs,

In addition to your splendid article on the Alpine A110 I can make a few remarks which may be interesting.

Giovanni Michelotti not only designed the very first prototype Alpine, but also the Dauphine-based A108 Berlinette, which was the predecessor to the A110. The restyling into the A110 was done by a French student in industrial design, called Serge Zuliani. I have never found any trace of this designer, I doubt if he has ever done anything automotive since this work for Alpine.

Including the versions produced in other countries (Spain, Mexico, Brasil, Bulgaria) I have counted 21 types of Renault-engines which have been used 'originally' in A110's. OSI has built at least two restyled A110's of which one is broken up, I have seen some specially produced parts.

The old type window-winders etc. as illustrated in your article are sourced form the Renault Floride/Caravelle, these are replaced in later A110\'s by more modern parts. In A110's parts from lots of (old) Renault-types are used, and anyone who wishes to restore an A110 or replace any small parts meets a challenge like a giant jig-saw puzzle. I know the answer to many such questions.

I have owned my 1977 Spanish-built A110-1400 (ideal engine for this car, never used by the parent company!) for 20 years next month and have driven it (fast) mainly in little rallies etc. over 120.000 kms. By then it was the realization of one of my schoolboy dreams. In all those years (and before) I have delved deep into Alpines history.

Kindest regards,
Bart van den Acker, freelance automotive journalist, The Hague, Holland.

Ron Mitchell's Alpine A110.

Hi Guys,

I've been wanting to congratulate you for some time on the amazing quality and effort you put into your site and articles.

I was born in France and even though I am an avid Italian driver, I've always loved the Alpine A110. I never thought they were imported here until last weekend when I saw one at Cars and Coffee in Irvine, California.

I will get one over here, either from France or Mexico. I still think the 1300G is one of Gordini's best but it's hard to compete with the 1600.

The interior of the car is exactly what the car was meant to be, a rally car. I love the shape, the overall balance. The busy nose can be explained if you look at what the A110 was up against at its time, the Djets. It would be nice one day to see these two cars in an article especially since the Djets would have been better cars if Renault had chosen them instead of Redele.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Nicky Nickster

Old Abarth drawings

Hi, Pete!

I still find myself missing seeing my old dubble bubble. I remember that someone with the old Abarth Register offered a set of blueprint looking drawings of the basic car shape. Do you know anyone has such a thing. Reduced it would enable me to begin work on a model. I haven't found one for sale so hand-build seems the way to go. Love the on-line magazine. Please keep up the good work. Your old pal,

Lee Walker

Lee, I think I sold my set of prints with my Abarth 750. But we’ll see if we can find them again.