History of Spider Veloce 1495.05883

Thanks so much for the Registry work, sorry I will leave your above question for the more qualified. The following is the letter I received from the Archivio:

Dear Mister Kearns,

With reference to your request we are informing you as follows:
According to our documentation files, the chassis number AR 1495.05883 and the engine number AR 1315.32128 originally corresponds to an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce, manufactured on the 2nd February 1959 and sold on the 3rd March 1959 to Hoffman Motor Car Co., New York, U.S.A.

The body colour is red.

Yours, Sincerely,

Marco Fazio
Automobilismo Storico Alfa Romeo
Archivio Storico

Level of originality: I purchased the car in an unmolested condition with the exception of one prior exterior repaint and is now currently under restoration. Included with the car came pages and pages of hand written documentation dating back to the late 60's.

We are pleased to offer this beautiful 1959 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce for sale. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce from legendary sports car design firm Carozzeria Pininfarina is a rare classic. This Spider Veloce we have here is a fine example of Pininfarina's great attention to style and design. Truly a superb classic car for your collection, and with fewer than 2,800 Giulietta Spider Veloce's produced it will certainly be a treasured addition.

This obviously is a sharp-looking Veloce. Its race heritage is still very much alive in this car. While it looks extremely nice there are a few imperfections. One brake drum stuck once when we hit the brakes hard. It eventually worked itself out but this car has had very few miles put on it over the years so there are a few mechanical items that could use some attention. (The brake drums on this car are almost the size of the wheels! The size of the brake drums coupled with the duel Weber carburetors show this car was definitely designed for racing.) The oil pressure gauge shows the oil pressure doing the opposite as what I might expect. The oil pressure is up around 60 psi when the engine is idling, but it drops when you take off in first gear. I'm not sure if that is a problem with the guage (hooked up backwards?) or if I have an inaccurate assumption of what oil pressure should do during "take-off". As far as shifting goes, getting into second gear requires some skills. The owner comments that you almost have to double-clutch it to get it into second. You can watch this in the test drive video. The owner has shifting this car nearly down to a science so he is able to work through this, but second gear is a bit troublesome.

There aren't many imperfections in the paint but it's not a quite 100% perfect. There are a few very light scratches in the paint. I took close-up shots of these and they are in the close-up gallery. The paint in the engine compartment and in the trunk appears to be original. This car is extremely solid. The lower rockers, wheel wells and floors look as though they have never had any rust. On the interior the original floor mat on the driver's side is torn. The floor mats are probably the original mats from 1959. The boot for the shifter is also original and not perfect. There is a little surface rust under the rear mat in the trunk from sitting with moisture at some point, but personally I would rather see a bit of rust showing than a layer of suspiciously shinny new paint covering who knows what. Like I mentioned the trunk has most likely never been painted. The rest of the car is rust free. The convertible top is in pretty good condition. There are two small tears where the top folds. The owner had actually never put the top up on the car since he owned it until we raised it to get some photos. It should work to keep you dry but this car is much more enjoyable with the top down anyway.

The odometer reads 62,643 and the owner is confident the mileage shown on the car is original. The car had been sitting in a barn covered in dust for years before the current owner acquired it - truly a gem of a classic barn find! The engine block number matches the ID plate on the bottom of the hood.

Thank you for your interest in this rare Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce. Please contact me if you have any questions. This car will be sold by auction on ebay starting Thursday, August 23rd at 9pm CST. Good luck in your bidding!