I’ve had a few Alfa Sprint Speciales over the years, including the ex-Briggs Cunningham one, but the SS on this page has always been “the one.”As a very late-production Sprint Speciale, it is also the 19th-to-last example of Alfas famed show car for the road ever produced. Not to mention its stunning Verde Muschio paint over ts Tobacco colored interior, a unique and elegant combination I have never seen on another SS.
Purchased new by my friend Rex’s dad from Knauz Imports in 1965 it had remained in their family since new, and I always admired that and how incredible the car was. In fact this very car was the first Sprint Speciale I ever saw when I was a budding Alfa enthusiast nearly 30 years ago. As every SS aficionado has experienced, it was the arresting beauty of its aerodynamic shape that captured my imagination. Inspired by the Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica (B.A.T) — concept cars designed by Bertone’s Franco Scaglione—the SS was introduced in 1957 as a “halo” version of Alfa’s ground-breaking Giulietta. That stylish shape enveloped a truly wonderful GT that, as I wrote about in “Road & Track” Magazine, “(that) begs to be driven at eight-tenths or better … open the fresh-air vent in the driver’s footwell and let that magnificent Weber induction noise into the cabin, where It’l blend with the ripping-silk exhaust note. It’s a feature Alfa unknowingly invented long before cockpit sound tubes became common in modern cars.”
So in late-2011 when Rex finally decided to part with the SS I jumped at the chance. It is completely original and unrestored, just the way it left the factory. I have no way of knowing but I have to think that this was the last remaining, unrestored, one-owner Sprint Speciale In the word. 1 do know that we are incredibly honored to be the second family to be caretakers of this charming little flying saucer that I’ve always loved.
