Always Looking For Another- Alfa 1600 GT Veloce

There are a myriad of reasons as to why someone chooses a particular model of car to restore, probably as many reasons as there are restorers, and it’s more often than not something related to a childhood or early driving memory of the car. When Gary Pearce decided he might like to attempt a restoration, there was only one model that would be appropriate…

As a 17 year old who was attracted to European sports cars and who was making a very good living as the member of a successful rock band, in 1970 the decision was made to purchase his first car. To his parents’ displeasure he acquired a 1967 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT Veloce for the grand sum of $3000. It is unclear whether the parents’ displeasure came from the fact that Dad’s brand new Holden Kingswood had been purchased for $2200, or that the 3 year old Alfa was already starting to rust. The car sparked a lifelong love of the marque for Gary, and he certainly enjoyed proving to his Holden-owning mates that the little 1600cc car could indeed do 115mph. In 1970, an all alloy twin cam engine, five speed gearbox and four wheel disc brakes were the preserve of pretty special cars.

That his early experiences with the car turned Gary into a lifelong devotee of the marque is clearly evident upon entry of his garage, although to call this a garage is perhaps underselling it slightly, it is more like a shrine/studio. Amongst the memorabilia in a glass case, and the TV with Alfa videos on constant loop, the award winning GT Veloce that is the subject of this tale shares space on the carpeted floor with Gary’s other concours winning car, one of only 99 rhd GTCs ever made (the convertible version of the GTV), a Group S race-prepared GTV 2000 and a stunning green Montreal. Perhaps it’s true that Alfa does indeed stand for ‘Always Looking For Another’.

When the time was right to tackle a restoration, Gary just happened to spot a GT Veloce in a neighbour’s carport as he was out for a run near his home in 1999. The very same model as his first car, it was too good an opportunity to pass up, and since it was only ‘slightly’ rusty, and with only ‘slight’ panel damage, this GTV was acquired and became the project car. Anyone who has owned an older Alfa will no doubt have a smirk on their face at the mention of a ‘slightly’ rusty car, because we all know there is no such thing. These cars can have some nasty rust traps for the un-initiated, including but certainly not limited to the triple layer sills, the area below the rear parcel shelf, and the base of the A pillars, all quite difficult to find if you don’t know what to look for.

The long process of dismantling the car in preparation for restoration began, and as so often happens during this process, another Giulia was acquired for various parts, as well as other bits and pieces when they popped up for sale.
In the meantime, someone else in Melbourne had the same idea of restoring a ‘slightly’ rusty GTV. Upon dismantling this car it was found to be worse than first thought, but not beyond saving, so the decision was made to do a full strip and rebuild. Costs soon escalated on this project and the owner was keen to offload the car. The work was being done by Leo Parra at Extreme Body Works in Dandenong, which happily enough was where Gary was having some work done on his car at the time. Gary had the opportunity to take over the project in place of continuation of his own car and eventually decided it was the better option. It seems like that was an excellent decision, as not only had the car been completely stripped, down to separating the frames and skins of the doors, boot, and bonnet, but it had already been rust proofed and zinc dipped.

While the body was off being expertly manipulated back into shape, a job which took more than two years, Gary set about the difficult task of tracking down the rest of the parts needed for the finished product. Right from the start Gary was determined to make this a car that could at the very least be regarded as a ’new’ car, if not something even better than the factory turned out in 1967. As such, every single component was taken apart, and every part had to be either brand new, or an old part refurbished to a new standard. This was to be a true ‘nut and bolt’ restoration.

As the car was exactly the same as the one Gary had owned in 1970, he knew exactly how he wanted the car to turn out, and he knew exactly what equipment was standard at the time. Some genuine parts for these Alfas are getting very rare indeed, so the search took Gary literally years, and thousands of phone calls and emails. Many parts had to come from overseas, such as the original type Magnetti Marelli rubber cased battery. Gary spent years locating one of these, and when finally it was located, it had to be gutted and sent to Australia as just an empty case with a battery built inside it to suit when it arrived in Melbourne.

An example of the dedication needed to finish a car to this standard is the search for original tyres. It’s pretty hard to find a 1967 pattern tyre in 165-R15, but luckily Gary eventually discovered that Michelin will do a run of any of their old tyres, but only once they have a sufficient number ordered. Gary got lucky and only had to wait 14 months for his to be delivered, and he was smart and ordered a couple of sets, because the next run may not have been for another three years.

Probably the most difficult part of the project was the dash. “The only new dash I could find was overseas and about $2000. All the others around were good second-hand, but whichever way you look at it they’re all 35 years old,” recalls Gary. “I firstly had the dash re-covered in black vinyl which finished looking similar to the way GTAs looked in 1966, but I kept searching for a better solution to having a close looking wood grain dash. The Dash Doctor in Clayton, who is unfortunately out of business now, provided me with the solution with a woodgrain appearance as installed in modern cars. He had the contract for doing some factory Mitsubishi Veradas I think.”

“The trouble is the process required the dash to be suspended in water and the finish is applied under pressure. Of course the original cardboard type dash would have disintegrated or at the very least distorted, so the way around it was to have a fibreglass copy made and have that coated. I found a perfect condition dash, made a negative mould and then formed up a new dash. I had 3 units made so I could pick the best one and sold off the others. I still have the mould for future jobs if I need to. Of course the total cost was at least as expensive as the new old stock dash I found in Italy, but at least I got some change back for the other dashes.”

The final assembly of the oily (or not so in this case) bits was done by Lee Lanzillotti of Knights Automotive in Dandenong. Lee rebuilt the mechanicals, and then bought everything together to be fitted to the completed bodyshell, which I can only imagine was a stressful job. Not only could no scratches be tolerated, obviously, but this car had to be as tight as a brand new one – no rattles, and everything fitting and working perfectly. It was obviously a great job, as this car has won two Alfa Club Concours in Melbourne, and one at Autoitalia in Canberra. The car would have won many more in Melbourne but winning cars are not allowed to re-enter the next year. Gary has also won this event with his GTC.

I’ve driven a few old cars in my time, but nothing had prepared me for driving this car. Gary’s original aim was for this car to be just like a new one, and from where I was sitting he’s done a superb job. Everything feels as tight as a drum and there is no sloppiness to any of the controls. Which is what you’d expect I guess for an essentially new car that has only covered 1500 miles in the six years since it was completed, and has been driven in rain only once. Gary admitted that he spent months underneath the car with a toothbrush to clean it up again after that mistake.

Often when driving a classic car some allowances need to be made, and some things are forgiven because it’s an old car and ‘they all do that’. It might be something as insignificant as an ashtray that doesn’t move as smoothly as it should, or a doorhandle that sticks slightly. I’ll admit that I’m a big Alfa Romeo fan and have three of my own at home, so I was prepared to forgive this 42 year old car almost anything. As it turned out, no allowances or excuses were needed, the car was absolutely magnificent and was nothing like I had expected. The weighting of all the controls are perfectly matched, the gearchange is absolutely intuitive, and unlike 99.9% of other GTVs the synchros were perfect, with not one hint of undue noise. The steering is excellent, with little effort required, and with as much feel as you could ever want this side of a racetrack. The only thing that dated the car to me was the steering wheel, which by modern standards is very large and thin-rimmed.

On the road, it has no problem at all keeping up with modern traffic, helped no doubt by its real willingness to rev. As Gary points out to me now, and as he did to his mates back in 1970, these engines are happy to rev to 7500 in standard form. Although Gary was happy for me to ‘drive it a bit’ (I think his actual words were “Come on, you can go faster than that!”), I was happy just to take it easy in such a beautiful and well-loved car, but it was still easily capable of speeding past the other traffic on our short drive. The car gets a lot of admiring glances as we motor past, and it’s hard to tell if it’s the stunning looks or the sublime sound that gets their attention. It really is a wonderful sounding car, but doesn’t have that ‘raspy’ sound that many Italian cars produce.

And as Gary took the wheel of his multiple concours winning car, a car which took him many years and much sweat and toil to finish to the highest of standards, and which would arguably be one of the best 105-series Alfas in existence, he revved it to 6000rpm in every gear and hung the tail out around every corner, I could understand why Gary would choose this car to restore…

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