When Chris Thompson saw this beautiful '61 Giulietta Sprint in 1998, it wasn't nearly this beautiful. In fact, it was an abandoned project car rusting quietly in a Mexico City parking lot. But Thompson was looking for an Alfa to restore and, after a lot of reading, research and browsing, he'd finally found what he wanted. The motor was junk and there was lots of body and trim work to be done, but the price was right and Thompson saw plenty of potential. "We saw some old 2000 Spiders, but they were really expensive and needed a lot of work," he explained. "One day, my wife showed me a newspaper ad for a Sprint, described as an 'opportunity' at a slightly lower price. Most people go for the convertibles, but I always thought these looked really cool. I went to see it, and of course, it was completely un-roadworthy, but I bought it and dragged it home anyway. Then I got out a shovel and started shoveling money!" After three years, a lot of mail-order parts from IAP and the hard work of some very talented local craftsmen, the Sprint was ready for the road. A 1750 motor has replaced the original 1300; a swap Thompson says was commonly done in Mexico. "They'd always tell me that a 1300 couldn't get you over the mountain," he explained, "but I doubt that—there are mountains in Italy, too, you know! It's more likely that the 1300s needed to be overhauled and they couldn't find the parts!" Thompson wasn't looking for an all-original trailer queen, anyway. He was looking for something he could drive and enjoy. Now living here in Charlottesville, Thompson does plenty of both. "It does well on the road and in traffic, so it's very much a pleasure to drive," he said. "It's very light, and that's really neat. The roads around here are smooth and curvy and ideal for driving, so if you're motoring along smartly, you can tell that there's less shift of mass. I enjoy the heck out of it and it moves along pretty well! It stops, too, but with the car's original-style drum brakes," Thompson says, "it's good to be careful and plan ahead." "I've read the contemporary motoring press reports on this car and they say that the brakes are just amazingly effective," he laughed. "They do stop the car, but you it would be better to, um, anticipate your stopping needs!" In most parts of the world, a Spider would be the Giulietta of choice, but Thompson says he saw a lot more coupes during his 20-plus years living in Mexico City. That suited him just fine, because the Sprint is exactly what he wanted. "You see a lot of these down there," said Thompson, who served as First Trumpet in the Mexico City Philharmonic, "possibly because from mid-June to the end of October, it rains real hard every day. It was like monsoon season, so you saw a lot of coupes, some of them nice and some of them sitting in body shops for long periods of time." These days, Thompson prefers to drive the car in nicer weather, and he always enjoys the reactions he gets from people who see it on the road. They might not know what they're looking at, but they do like what they're seeing. He understands, because he still feels the same way every time he sees it. "I have to go out into the garage to indulge my cigarette habit, because that's not allowed in the house,' he said. "But the bonus is that I get to stare at my car! It's just such a lovely, elegant design. There's nothing too frilly about it, but it's not the raciest-looking car, either. There's just...something about it." |
