Once upon a time for a brief and shining moment, the editor owned the only Alfasud in the U.S., as they were illegal aliens here. But while he remembers the car very well, there are a few things he had long forgotten or simply never knew about the Alfa from Naples…
By Pete Vack
1. How to adjust the valves. Since the 1930s, Alfa Romeo has had only a few different ways to adjust the valve lash. The first was Jano’s unique but complex notch type method. The Giulietta featured removable inserts under the cup which came in a variety of thicknesses.
But the Alfasud had a handy way of adjusting the valve clearances. The camshaft had two lobes per valve, and one could insert a special tool between the cam lobes to reach an adjustable cups located on the top of the valve. Not having to remove the cams to adjust the valves was a nice feature.
Valve Adjustment on the Alfasud.
2. The new plant at Naples… Pomigliano d’Arco..was a new construction but Alfa Romeo had a facility there for years beforehand which produced aero engine parts, diesel engines, small industrial vehicles and there was also an engineering training school. There was an abandoned airfield near the existing plant, and that’s where the Alfasud facility was built.
3. The Alfasud was preceded by the ungainly Type 103, an 896cc DOHC inline four placed transversely upfront. The Type 103 was designed shortly after the Mini was introduced in 1959, and was almost as small as the famous Mini 850. It was considered again when the Alfasud was being planned but deemed too small and underpowered.
T103 was similar to the Mini but with a classic Alfa four.
4. Those rubber toothed belts that quickly replaced the traditional duplex chains were reportedly first used on a production car by the German Glas company in 1962. However, according to Hull and Slater, the 1959 DOHC Type 103 used the toothed belts on the prototype.
The Alfasud Flat Four with toothe belts.
5. All early Alfasuds rusted. For some reason there was no rustproofing on the original series of Suds, and it wasn’t until 1976 that the company got serious about rust protection. In the meantime owners had to cope with leaky windows and rust popping out everywhere. And I thought it was just ours!
6. The neat little four door with the Kamm tail was designed by Giugiaro of Ital Design. The Alfasud Sprint was even better looking and didn’t rust. The Sprint inherited the 1300 cc engine from the Trofeo kit and it was also designed by Giugiaro.
7. There was a delightfully charming Giardinetta Alfasud produced in 1975. The rear seats folded completely flat to provide a reasonable and useful carrying capacity. The rear window area was large, allowing excellent all around vision. Anyone out there have one of these Giardinettas?
Alfasud Giardinetta.
8. The new Naples plant was really new, with automated welding machines that could cope with 200 spot welds in a few seconds, computer controlled machinery for the engine blocks and camshafts, and sported a complete test track with two banked turns. The days of the hand built 2.9 chassis were long gone.
i had one of those stations in the seventies.my first alfa actually. 1.2.the head gasket blew.my first head gasket job.after that people started to come to me to fix there’s.don’t know what became of it but it rusted plenty the couple years i had her.coming round a corner the lower a-arm just broke off from rust.what a blast.it had foam inside stamped metal.what were they thinking?(:>)
I owned three Suds between 1978 and 2004, two Ti’s and a Sprint which I kept for 16 years. My first Sud was also my first foreign car purchase – previously I’d only bought British! I thought they were super little cars, handled beautifully and made exciting noises – the rumble of the flat four accelerating and the rat-tat-tat of the exhaust on the overrun. They did rust but so did other makes at the same time and the Sud was such fun you felt it was worth the trouble to keep it on the road. They converted me into an Alfa enthusiast, which I still am.
I well remember the ‘Sud as a young panel and paint man in the mid-seventies. I was employed in the bodyshop at Hexagon of Highgate, who were probably the biggest Alfa main dealer in north London at the time. The bodyshop was down the hill at Kentish Town, where they had established a production line through the shop to handle the non-stop queue of warranty claims.
AlfaSuds only a few months old were coming in with holes big enough to put a fist through and I am not exagerrating when I recall the times I lifted the front ‘guard off by hand without bothering to undo the bolts, a good grip under the wheel arch and pull upwards, the fixings at the bottom had already gone and what was left of the flange along the top soon gave way.
A windscreen sub-contractor came in every morning to remove all the glass from the latest patients, which were then put to one side with the car’s registration details written on all pieces for later retrieval, and then he would replace the glass in whichever cars had emerged from the paint booth ready to go. This was necessary as the edges of the shell under the ‘screen rubbers rusted badly too.
Most popular colours were red, followed by that slightly pinkish CapoDiMonte white.
The boredom of such repetitive work was occasionally relieved by a stray Lancia which had caught the rust bug too, or other more interesting projects such as a Maserati 250F that took up residence there for a while, customising a Wood & Pickett Mini, re-shelling a Scimitar GTE, and repainting various Astons etc that came through.
We were told at the time, that the rust problem was due to Alfa being bullied into a dodgy deal to buy cheap Russian steel, and then, when the Naples plant was closed down by strikes a lot of unfinished cars and parts were stored outside for up to a year.
A great shame the rust reputation severly limited it’s sales in the UK market, as it was a fantastic car to drive and deserved to succeed. Today a good solid one would be worth restoring.
Thanks for the memories!
Chris Martin
In 1977 I went on a trip to “Mecca” with Fred DiMatteo and a group of other Alfisti’s. My partner and I rented a car and drove to Naples to tour the AlfaSud factory. There were labor problems at the time, so we were picked up at the gate and given a driving tour of the factory. We were let out where the technicians were primping the new 1600 Alfa Sud for the press the next day. I asked if it was possible to go for a test drive . We were accorded a test driver, myself, partner, and the head of public relations at the time piled in a new Alfa Sud 4 door and away we went. As we approached the track there was a long sweeping curve to get onto the track. As we went into the curve, having been in autocrossing/Solo 1, I knew the car could do far more. I said in my broken Italian to floor it. Well from that moment on until the end of the test drive, he drove the car flat out all the way around the track. When we got back, the PR guy and my partner were white as sheets, and I was grinning from ear to ear. I still to this day want an Alfa Sud Sprint coupe, just because of that test drive. The USA really missed out on a great car once the rust issues were resolved. I suspect most likely it was some of the same Russian steel that was used in the Alfetta’s at the time, that caused a lot of the rust issues.
Did you know that in South Africa we managed to build at the factory an Alfa Sud with two engines one in its normal place up front and one in the trunk , both engines had gear boxes and were connected by rods to the gear lever.
Problem of the gear rod was the very low ground clearance since it had to run under the rear engine and I still remember driving the vehicle and hitting the ground that would change the gear for me.
Sorry! the picture of the T103, is a picture of a joint venture with Renault this design, coincides exactly with the renault R 8, i saw this prorotype while visitning
the Arese museum, as a matter of facts, at one time Renault, was the official importer of the italian manufacturer Alfa in France for a while!!
**the valve adjustment system,was originaly from the Fiat, this is how you adjusted
the valves on the twin cam, 4cyl, belt driven engine, a special tool was available
from the manufacturer, as a matter of facts, the valve shims of various thickness, were similar as to the ones of the Dino ferrari & Ferrari Daytona for years, I had
a selection of shims in my toolbox, I had purchased the Fiat 124 feactory tool & modified it to suit the DIno ferrari!!
Hi,
Nice website here.
I still owe and use an Alfasud Ti bought in 1980.
Hey there.. you say they all rusted, well… mine has no rust 🙂 … nice car.
Regards,
Noel
Hi
From South Africa
I just bought a little SUD at low low price and want to fix it to make heads turn
The valves are clattering a little can someone please tell me how I can set these
My SUD has no rust and she still has lots of power
regards Willie
I had 3 Suds so far in my lifetime of. The first was in UK when I was a student. Lovely car with lots of juice but rust in all the wrong places. My second was in Malaysia where restoration hit a snag and I lost my engine to a less than desirable mechanic. At a time when I least expected & in my late 40’s the bug hit me again. Now I have my 3rd one and its fun restoring it, the 2nd being a donor vehicle. Something about this car that grips you. Shame about the choice of metal but viva le’ Sud.
I had the privilege of driving Evan’s Alfasud in the 1977 AROC convention autocross in Aspen Colorado. It was a real gas to drive; FWD and it felt like the inside read wheel was a foot off the ground at times. I knew Evan well from the Capital Chapter of AROC in the mid-70s. Great guy. Hello Evan if you read this.
Thank you.
Paul Levin