1959 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider

[Plastheniker]

Hi,

if you ask people for the Italian car today the answer will be very likely Ferrari or Lamborghini.

In the sixties or earlier, however, the answer would have been completely different. At least up to the beginning seventies Ferraris and Lamborghinis were so expensive and so unreliable that they were (at least in Europe) toys for a few super-rich enthusiasts completely unfit for more than occasional use. Maseratis were much more durable and reliable but on the same high price level.

The Italian marque of those days was Alfa Romeo. Today it is hard to believe that Alfa Romeo built an incredible number of highly desirable and sometimes even breathtaking cars. The steep decline of Alfa Romeo around 1970 was caused by poor quality, incompetent managements, the interference of the Italian government and finally the takeover by Fiat.

One of the most attractive post-war Alfas was the Giulietta/Giulia Spider.

Introduced in 1955 as the 1.3 litre Giulietta it was renamed 1962 as the 1.6 litre Giulia. With a curb weight of less than 900 kg and up to 112 hp it was a fast car with excellent roadholding.

I built my model from a Protar kit. Probably the same kit was sold by ROG some years later. My memories of the build are very vague. I suppose I built the kit about 15 years ago. I don't remember major issues (opposite to a disastrous Protar kit of the Mercedes W196 GP).

Anyway the kit made a nice model of a very attractive 1:1 car.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Plastheniker

[Deathgoblin]

Excellent job! The paints flawless. Beautiful car.

[Erik Smith]

Beautiful little model of a great looking car. I like the color choice - red was, it seems, overwhelmingly popular.

Great paint and interior detail. Fabulous model.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Erik Smith

[1959scudetto]

Excellent model, Jürgen - I have already admired your fantastic, clean truck models as well as your Revival race cars.

These are way beyond my abilities ( I also would not have the patience to spend several hundreds of hours with one model)

But even with this simple curbside kit you show us all excellent craftsmanship - from the paint to the photos.

BIG THUMBS UP !!!

[bbowser]

Very nice! Great rendition of a little seen car.

[peekay]

The word "superb" gets over-used but is totally appropriate here.

[Modelmikey]

Nice clean build, really nice interior detailing.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I owned one of these wonderful, exquisitely balanced cars up until the mid 1980s, and your beautiful model reminds me how incredibly stupid I was to sell it. Very very nice, sir.

[o-man]

Great work. Great to see more classis foreign cars on here.

[lordairgtar]

Truly an awesome model of a great car. Thanks for the color choice too.

[cobraman]

Very sharp .

[jtsimeral]

Great subject to build. It is nice to see and such a great job too!

Jerry

[martinfan5]

Very nice, and in my color too

[Danno]

Beautiful!

[PappyD340]

WOW, another top shelf build Jurgen, I just love seeing your builds!!

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[sjordan2]

Great job. I would give anything to have my '59 Giulietta Spider Veloce back. It was a Hoffman-prepared short wheelbase version. But the Webers were a bear to keep tuned. I had to keep a couple of spare grilles around because parallel parking seemed to invite people to back into it. And you're right about the downhill slide of Alfa quality -- I had 4 of them, and the worst was the '77 GT Sprint, the only one I bought new.

This Protar kit can't be a '55. It has vent windows on the doors, and a later steering wheel and taillights -- probably a '62 transitional version just before the Giulia appeared.

[Plastheniker]

Thanks for your comments so far!

I am really envious of those having owned (and driven!) such a beautiful car.

Skip, as always in questions of automotive history you are right.

The Protar instruction sheet said 1955, and in the pre-web era I had to rely on books. All books that I used, even a very comprehensive Alfa Romeo monograph by a renowned German author, state wrong years of manufacture in the captions of Giulietta Spider pictures (I have just checked this). Therefore I was mislead. BTW even in the web most captions are wrong.

This is obviously correct:

The Protar kit shows a 1959 Giulietta series 101 II. Its most significant features were windup windows, fake side vents, reflectors integrated into the backlights, a closed glove box.

I am going to edit my topic if possible. Skip, thanks a lot!

[slusher]

Gorgeous model...

[sjordan2]

It gets very complicated to sort out what features belong to which year of Giulietta Spiders, since the earliest ones sold in the US were dealer-imported (mostly Max Hoffman) with some modifications for the US market. The Giulia upgrade(62-65)with 1600 engine had a cheaper vinyl interior on the dash top and seats, as opposed to the pebbly leatherette seats and crackle-finish black dash top of the earlier Giuliettas. Many more differences.

But even under the best of circumstances, anyone who owned an Alfa for any length of time spent a lot on maintenance. You could expect to replace the water pump, clutch, etc at least once, plus a few valve jobs and, as I mentioned, the Veloce version dual Webers needed constant atttention. Don't know about the non-Veloce version with a single Solex carburetor.

Another nice little occasional surprise...the spark plugs were mounted vertically on a horizontal plane between the cams. Splash enough water inside and you're literally dead in the water with submerged plugs.

Edited December 18, 2013 by sjordan2

[surfjunke]

Beautifully built! Very clean work.

The Italians made some really classy cars in those days.

[dino246gt]

Beautiful build, great color choices, love it!