In 1988 I purchased a 1971 Alfa GTV 1750 (Euro spec) to replace my MGB/GT that was, well, not great. The Alfa was a revelation. Not only was it lightyears faster it also sounded a lot more exotic, and handled and stopped like a supercar- at least compared to my tired old MG. I loved that 1750 GTV and drove the wheels off of it that summer between my three jobs and other stuff you’d suspect a kid with a newly-minted drivers license and a sports car do. Until I crashed it into a cop car that is. It is a long story, one that is typically retold during any family gathering or high school reunion, so if you go to one of those with me you can hear what that story has become over the intervening years. Some of it is actually true at this point because yeah, I totaled an Alfa and a cop car in one fell swoop.
And while I tried like heck to save that 1750 GTV it just wasn’t meant to be. I ended up taking the insurance check and looking for a replacement. I found it when this 1972 GTV 2000 was traded in to the local Alfa dealership at just the right time. I traded that insurance check and the Euro Weber carbs and intake setup off of the 1750 for this car. A New Mexico car by way of Minnesota the 2L was something my 1750 was not: rust free. Sure it had a list of problems a mile long, but hey, it was a couple thousand dollars and a pair of Webers- I couldn’t be too picky, especially since rust-free Alfas weren’t growing on trees in Milwaukee.
I drove this car all through high school, learning about Spica fuel injection and other Alfa intricacies along the way. Did you know if you heat up your engine oil in a pan on your mom’s stove it helps the car start better in the winter? Neither did my mom until she couldn’t figure out why her cookware smelled like Castrol. Whoops. I relied on what little money I had and the kindness of Alfa friends to keep this thing on the road and looking reasonably good. The paint job you’re looking at was done by me in 1989. Still looks pretty good I think, too. As time went on, full-time employment and life meant I drove the old GTV less and less, especially after I discovered how nice GTV-6s were…and the succession of V6 Alfas meant the old GTV saw a lot of time stored in my family’s barn. Then my garage. Then my first shop. And my second shop. And the third shop. So when I was staring down the barrel of my 40th birthday I dragged it out and actually paid an Alfa guru to do a proper rebuild of its rode hard and put away wet 2L and trans, something I could only dream of doing on my old grease monkey and hot dog selling income.
And I washed it.
Other than that it is the same old Alfa that I put about 30,000 miles on as a teenager. Even though the statute of limitations has likely run out on most of the idiotic stuff I did I’m still pretty certain I’m happy this car can’t talk. But mostly because I don’t want to get yelled at for leaving it sit for so long. I really don’t have a good excuse for that.
