Well its now 30 years since i purchased my 33 from Talbot Motors in Collingwood.
Since that day, my life has changed, i become someone who is interested in cars, to a absolute car nutbag, "You cannot call yourself a car enthusiast unless you have owned an Alfa" - Jeremy Clarkson.
Who would have thought that the sometimes derided 33 could have lasted this long, but if you look after it, with correct servicing, it will look after you.
It still brings a smile to my face when i drive it, and a frown, when the speedo stops working, but turn on the wipers and it works again, if it was a good Italian speedo, it would work, but being a French Jaegar, what would you expect.
The expensive to produce boxer motor, has a character all its own, and smoothness and beat, that seen production from the 1200 Sud in the early 70's, all the way to the mid 90's with the 1700, 16 valve in the 145-146 series.
The 33 was Alfa Romeo's biggest selling model, with the series 1-2-3 running from 1983 till 1994, as an Alfa Dealer once told me, the 33 kept his dealership going, no one were buying the expensive cars in the early 90's, but were getting into 33's at $25g, and he points out, he still services them today, Alfa produced over one million cars.
They are now getting a bit thin on the ground, being scrapped due to poor airconditioning and heavy steering and electrical issues and not being looked after properly, they can become an unreliable money pit, when was the last time did you see a 33 on the road, except for some old bloke driving between Rossana and Kilsyth everyday?
Still on full registration and original engine block, but on second hatch, as they are a bit prone to rust.
Spare parts are getting a bit rare, but with help from club supporters like Italian Automotive Spares, you can still get consumables.
Between 1987 and 2002, it did double duty as a Sprint car for TWO drivers, with the owner being outdriven by his more talented co driver, which the more talented brother was called 'Michael' and the less talented owner driver being called 'Ralf', go figure.
It was sometimes suggested that i actually owned two 33's, a road car and sprint car, but it did double duty, with little complaints.
Here is to many more enjoyable years motoring, Colin.
Well done! Did Mick Fuoco sell you it? He sold me my first Alfa, a 75 Red Twin Spark in 1988, and i've been hooked since!
Congratulations Colin! What a great car. I look forward to seeing you on the road for many years to come. Snap...Crackle...Pop!!!
Col Col , I had to go and get a box of tissues half way through reading that post. Well done, I think your 33 got the winning ticket when it comes to owners.
Gully
Col, are you sure you don't want to trade it on a Camry? ;D
shouldnt you be holding a party or something
after all its 33 years since the 33 first was sold
the 33/33 event
Congratulations Col. Nice post and lucky 33 to be chosen by you 👍🚗
I actually used to wonder about being called 'Ralf', i thought it was something to do with a character called 'Ralf-mouth', who was a loud mouth, [just like me], then one day i was helping put the cars on the grid, at Winton,when the timing chief, asked me over the headphones, who was in the 33, was it 'Michael' or 'Ralf'?, someone replied, "it must be Michael, because 'Ralf is putting cars on the grid", then the penny dropped, it was like having Ayrton Senna as your team mate, Colin.
So enjoyable to read Col and shows your appreciation of the Alfa Boxer! My Sud also came from the Talbots stable (Peter Hayman).
To be fair, Ralf was not a bad steerer - just had a better brother.
Back in 86, i purchased my 33 from Talbot Motors in Collingwood, some of the other Dealers i remember were,
1. Alfa City in Peel St. West Melbourne,
2. Henly Motors in Bourke Rd. Camberwell,
3. Henly Motors in Burgundy St. Heidleburg, [short time],
4. Fairdale Motors, in Whitehorse Rd. Blackburn,
5. Straightway Motors, in Nepean Highway, Mentone?,
6. Clements Sporting Cars, in Ormond?,
7. Max Kirwin Alfa Romeo, Plenty Rd., Bundoora, [short time],
8. Berwick Alfa Romeo, in Berwick,
9. Gil Gordon Alfa Romeo, Geelong,
10. Peter Stapleton Alfa Romeo, Ballarat,
11. Bennica Motors, Surrey Hills,
Thats all i remember, but feel free to add any more that i may have missed, the Alfa Romeo landscape has sure changed, but we still are passionate about our cars, Colin.
Snap, crackle, pop :D ;D great read Colin, I think I remember reading somewhere that Joe bought his 164 brand new as well, a 164 I purchased recently had a Beninca decal on the rear window, are they still a dealer or just mechanical/service shop?
I ended up having every 33 model except the wagon, I even had one of the very first single carburettor ones at one stage, had the headlight wipers on it before they went to jets, apparently I read that this particular model was not intended for Australia but England and only came here because Australian models were not ready at the time, I think my favourite 33 off memory was a 1987 Ti 1.7 twin carburettor, had red carpet in it, a real fun zippy model, my last 33 before I went all V6 for my personal fleet was a 1992 Permanant 4, since purchasing that 33 Colin, what other 33 or Alfa Romeo models have you had up till now?
Dealer Guide July 1989...
Victorian Dealers May 1985...
Hello VeeSix, had only one 33, a 84 TI, also had a 'loaner' car for about 4 years, that was my favourite Alfa Romeo, a genuine twin carb, Sud, that i looked after for my brother, my other car is a 2002 Alfa Romeo 156 JTS.
Bennica Motors in Surrey Hills only do servicing now and haven't sold new cars for about 30 years, highly regarded by their regular customers.
Joe Bennica used to drive a 33 as well, up to about 5 years ago, but now has a 156 JTS, i know that for sure as he passes me sometimes on the way home from work, on the Eastern freeway.
The first 200 1700 cc 33's sold in Australia had mechanical tappets, as they hadn't finished the production of the hydraulic tappets on the early 1700's, very rare motors, as i spent years looking for the big bore Boxer motor for the Sud, Colin.
The 33 like the sud was an important political tool in Italia at the time, as the north ie Milano was the leader in made in italy , the alfa plant in Napoli was the political answer to bring some employment and stability to the mezzogiorno area del bel paese. Problem was that a lot of farmers not used to having mundane 9 to 5 monday to venerdi jobs found the transition difficult and production especially for the sud was problematic and hit many hurdles , this underlined the sud's and 33 exceptional design quality. Movies have been made of the struggle to bring the North ( alt'italia thinking to the south ) The Sud and the 33 will go down in Italian History as a awakening of Industrial revolution and should be applauded ....
When the farmers in the South were processing their crops, the car workers would go and work on the farms, instead of Suds as they were paid more.
On youtube, when you look at films of the Pomigliano De Arco plant building Suds, there are car workers everywhere, even in the 80's building 33's, there are still a lot of workers there, but you see a clip of the plant now building Fiats, and there is hardly anyone there.
This plant also built the ill fated, worst Alfa Romeo of all, the ARNA, Colin.
Quote from: colcol on April 01, 2016, 09:16:36 PM
When the farmers in the South were processing their crops, the car workers would go and work on the farms, instead of Suds as they were paid more.
On youtube, when you look at films of the Pomigliano De Arco plant building Suds, there are car workers everywhere, even in the 80's building 33's, there are still a lot of workers there, but you see a clip of the plant now building Fiats, and there is hardly anyone there.
This plant also built the ill fated, worst Alfa Romeo of all, the ARNA, Colin.
That reminds me Col, how's the Arna project progressing? ;)
if you want to see a cinegraghic explanation of the
north and south ideology
you must see Benvenuti al sud
yes its subtitled but after 5min you dont notice it
unless you are dislexic ( sorry to all lexus owners you do realise its toyota with the letters jumbled ((dislexusia))
but it is the funniest movie you will watch it more than once
Gary, the ARNA project is stumbling along at a Glacial pace.
Back in '86, the Alfa Romeo bodyshops were Rugolo Motor Body Works in Ascot Vale, and Cambro Motors in Clayton, i don't know if these 2 places are still going, as they were advertisers, but dropped out years ago
Buying spare parts was a lot different then, instead of buying online, you would go to an Authorised Alfa Romeo Dealer or Independant Spare Parts supply houses, one of them was down in West Melbourne called 'Auto Ricambi', which i think was Italian for Original Spare Parts.
But the reality was i knew that 'Auto Ricambi' was Italian for 'empty warehouse'.
In my efforts to re create the Monty Python, 'Cheese Shop Sketch', i went down there with a shopping list of parts such as oil, oil filters, petrol filters, air cleaners, brake pads, you know, consumables that sell quick, and they had nothing, the place is not there any more.
Also there was Peter Greenough Motors in Preston that did mechanical work only, and i hear he was good on 164 Automatics, he was there about 10 years ago, but not sure today.
The wreckers we used to go to were Monza Motors, Milano Motors, Florio Motors, Formula Uno in Geelong and ESP were just starting up, these days we still have Monza Motors and Milano Motors still on board as sponsors, please tell me any places i have forgotten about, Colin.
Bought the 1.7 8 valve hydraulic lifter engine for my Sud from Formula Uno. Recall paying $3k in 1994 for a 50KM motor fitted and have never touched the tappets since!
Think Dino Berti in Richmond was an authorised panel shop.
Remember an Alfa wrecker telling me that in the mid 80's, a phone call asking if there were any twin carb 1500's to be had, he said yes i have one for $3500 cash, next day he got to work and there was a bloke at the gate wanting to buy the motor with a trailer on car, to take back the motor to, going by the South Australian number plates, ....Adelaide, seems he had driven overnight to Melbourne to pickup the motor, they were so scarce in the olden days.
There is something very satisfying about changing the tappet shims in one of these solid engines, as opposed to a hydraulic engine, that when its done, you are happy, because that is one P.I.T.A. job you don't have to do for another year.
Dino Berti was a club sponsor, but i am not sure if he was an Authorised Repairer, but he did good work on my car, the paint is still there, Colin.
Quote from: colcol on April 03, 2016, 10:41:20 AM
Gary, the ARNA project is stumbling along at a Glacial pace.
Back in '86, the Alfa Romeo bodyshops were Rugolo Motor Body Works in Ascot Vale, and Cambro Motors in Clayton, i don't know if these 2 places are still going, as they were advertisers, but dropped out years ago
Buying spare parts was a lot different then, instead of buying online, you would go to an Authorised Alfa Romeo Dealer or Independant Spare Parts supply houses, one of them was down in West Melbourne called 'Auto Ricambi', which i think was Italian for Original Spare Parts.
But the reality was i knew that 'Auto Ricambi' was Italian for 'empty warehouse'.
In my efforts to re create the Monty Python, 'Cheese Shop Sketch', i went down there with a shopping list of parts such as oil, oil filters, petrol filters, air cleaners, brake pads, you know, consumables that sell quick, and they had nothing, the place is not there any more.
Also there was Peter Greenough Motors in Preston that did mechanical work only, and i hear he was good on 164 Automatics, he was there about 10 years ago, but not sure today.
The wreckers we used to go to were Monza Motors, Milano Motors, Florio Motors, Formula Uno in Geelong and ESP were just starting up, these days we still have Monza Motors and Milano Motors still on board as sponsors, please tell me any places i have forgotten about, Colin.
Rugolo fixed my '77 Alfetta sedan (AFA854) after I ran into the back of a Falcon panel van. Cambro rebuilt the front of my '72 105 GTV (LLG954) with new factory nose, left guard, and left inner skirt. Both did good work, I had the new nose panel for the GTV ($212 from Alfa City) but Cambro sourced the guard and skirt. That was around 1985.
Back in '86, Alfa Romeo had a good range of cars on sale, the mighty Sud, that sold a whisker under one million units, ended up Alfa Romeo's second biggest selling model, it was retired and the 33 filled its place, and this was, and still is, Alfa's biggest selling model, with over one million sold, the Sprint was being re engineered from being a Sud Sprint to a 33 Sprint, with updated under pinnings, which featured a working hand brake, the 4 door Alfetta, that had done sterling service since '72, had been replaced by the twin cam Giulietta and newcomer the V6 90, that was called the 90, because it would take Alfa Romeo into the 90's, but didn't quite, but made way a few years later for the excellent 164, there were some 2 litre Alfetta GTV's kicking around, and the flagship hero car, the Alfetta GTV 6 with the marvelous Busso motor.
We were still waiting to see if Alfa Romeo would bring in the ARNA, but it was a no show.
In early 86, Alfa Romeo were still owned by the Italian Goverment, but were starved of funds to push forward future models.
There were unsettling rumors, that Ford were interested in buying Alfa Romeo, just as they were 20 years before in purchasing Ferrari, but just like with the Ferrari purchase, Fiat didn't want a Multi National car company coming into Italy, so they purchased Alfa Romeo to stop any competition.
Fiat didn't like that Alfa Romeo had made the Sud and the 33 to compete with the smaller engined Fiat models, they were tough on motor scooter maker Vespa, when Vespa started making small cars in the early 60's, they made it hard for them to sell them in Italy, they most likely viewed Alfa Romeo's Pomigliano De Arco plant, churning out small cars, the same way, Colin.
So anyway, when i purchased the 33 in 86, at the same weekend, my boss purchased a VL Calais, and i was derided by everyone for purchasing an unreliable Italian car and i should have purchased a local car.
Much to my delight, the Calais was new, and had heaps of trouble with engines, gearboxes and so on, he ended up selling after about 6 months, after about a year, i had my 1st problem,with the 33, the speedo, which would sometimes stop working and then come to life, this is a problem that i have had constantly over 30 years with my 33.
Its a problem that really annoys me, because the superceded Sud had a good reliable if slightly jumpy Italian speedo driven by a cable, but the 33 had a electronic speedo.....that was a French Jaegar.
Everything went wrong with it, including the gearbox sender, the wire going to the dashboard, the wire from the dashboard to the binnacle, the binnacle connector, the instrument printed circuit, the speedo itself and wait for it, the speedo needle, which warps in the Australian sun, and rubs on the facia and won't move and tells you you are only doing 60kph, when you are really doing 80kph, cause the needle has jammed.....its true i tell you Officer.
The last problem i had was during its 30th anniversary week, the speedo caught St. Vitas Dance, and worked only on a part time basis, but turning the lights or wipers on, would get it to come back to life.
I was not looking forward to replacing the speedo assembly, due to cranium damage inflicted by the 33 dashboard, but decided to replace the [French] gearbox sender, and the speedo came to life.
Moral of the story is that speeding fines are not waived because your speedo is faulty and the French have a lot to answer for.
Car is good now and the 33 is set for many more years of fun motoring, long after its use by date has expired, Colin.
Hey Col, how did the dealership treat the faulty speedo as i imagine 33 still under warranty , i guess 12 months warranty in those days ..
I have add to such a great story
its just not the french the japanese and koreans have caught the electrofluenza as well
my mate has a i45 Hyundai after 12 months the sunroof has stopped working dealer will fix but if it found that someone
tried to fix it earlier it will be a $3000 bill (of course he tampered with it wouldnt you)
Now he has a choice if it raining he can use wipers but not headlights
So night time becomes a toss of the dice Wipers? headlights? which one
back to the dealer over 6 times they have no idea
So Moral of the story is all manufacturers after years of success gradually cut enough corners
to a point where things stop working and generally it is caused by 6 or more short cuts combined
but which combination?
Jaguar Triumph Rolls alfa fiat renault yes and even mercedes and BM not to mention porsche (look up IMS bearing)
they all get to this point generally when the company is at its height and the accountant says he can increase the bottom line :)
So one little erractic speedo you got off light
Lombardi, back in the day it was a 3 month warranty, as the 33 was second hand, it was out of the new car warranty.
I took it to a dealer and he rolled his eyes, as he knew about the endless 33 speedo issues and sent me to an auto electrician.
It was a good one that is no longer going, he used to fix Alfa Rome speedos, he was the go to man, Alfa Romeo Australia wouldn't help him, so he went to Italy and nutted out how to fix them and where to get the parts, so he didn't have to pay a premium through the Australian Concession, yes and he fixed the Speedo and then something else in the chain went wrong.
I was so P.O.ed about it, i purchased a SUD speedo, speedo cable, gear for the final drive and was going to convert it back to a mechanical one, but never went through with it, i persisted with the French engineering, Colin.