1960 Alfa Romeo AR 1493*23896

[Pat Garrett]

1960 Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce AR 1493.23896 Color:Red w/modified
rear seat area and checkerboard painted gas tank.

The time had arrived for Glenna and me to order our new Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce coupe, hopefully to arrive in time for our planned trip to Monza and the start of our vacation. We visited a local Alfa Romeo Dealer and started the necessary paperwork and transfer of funds, it seems the auto had to be paid in full before ordering. I requested a delivery date to allow for obtaining a U.S.Forces license plate before the start of our vacation. You could only have one vehicle with military plates and we had purchased a Renault Dauphine for transportation until we could save up the money for the Alfa. We had sold my first Giulietta, a 1957 Spider, before going to Naples.

The proposed delivery date came and went, so we drove the Renault to Monza. Returned home and still no Alfa. I had sold the Renault to another service person with the proviso that I would retain possession until my Alfa arrived. I made many trips to the local dealership and was finally told that the Sprint Coupe had arrived. This was on a Friday. The local office in charge of military plates only issued them on Wednesday, so I made arrangements with the dealership to have the Alfa at the Piazza Mergellina on the following Wednesday, when the new owner of the Renault would meet us for the changeover of ownership and the issuance of new plates for the Alfa.

Now the Alfa must have been transported down from the factor by train because it was a dirty mess when I saw it parked in the garage of the dealership. The exterior had been sprayed with protective coating which had collected dirt and cinders and the interior was covered with plastic, the floor mats were in a package
inside the car. They said they would have it cleaned up and ready to go by Wednesday for sure. On the appointed day, I drove by the dealership to make sure
the car was, indeed, on its way to the piazza or I would have to wait another week and would be without transportation as the Renault was being given to its new owner as per schedule, and you could not drive without plates. You can imagine my shock at seeing my Pride and Joy still sitting in its spot in the garage, still filthy dirty and no one even aware that it was supposed to be on its way to the piazza. I was furious, to say the least, I grabbed the first mechanic I saw, asked him if he knew where Piazza Mergellina was and did he know how to drive. Put him in the Alfa, banged the old mans gate guard bar up to the ceiling and told the mechanic to drive out. I jumped into the Renault and followed him to the piazza.

Once there, we got into line with all the other folks waiting for plates. After about twenty minutes or so, I noticed the Alfa mechanic was getting a bit agitated about something. I tried in my(?) best Italian to understand what he was saying but was unable to make it clear. He seemed to want to go somewhere and all I could get was "Customs House". He kept motioning me to get in the Alfa with him and go somewhere, which I finally did.

We left the Piazza and drove about four blocks away and stopped in front of a small office, went inside where there were two other fellows and a girl just sitting around and talking. The mechanic asked where someone was and was told that he would return in a few minutes. Just then a Fiat 600 drove up and a fellow with
a bad left leg got out and came in the office. Well, there was a flurry of activity as soon as he got near the door; all three people were just as busy as heck by the time he got inside. The mechanic started talking to him and he nodded his head while
looking me over then looking outside at the Alfa. Turning to me he asked, in English, what I knew about this. I explained my situation and my urgent need to not be without transport even for a week. He then grabbed some papers and told me
to come with him. We jumped into the Fiat and I was surprised to see that he had a hand clutch fixed to the gear shift to compensate for his bad leg. Off we went down to a large, one story, brick building near the docks. We went inside and he was shown into the office of a fellow dressed in a three piece suit. I waited in
the outer office, but could see through the door as the two men talked, they became quite agitated and at one point, the fellow in the three piece suit banged his hand down on the table quite hard, at which point my guy banged his hand down too, then turned and came out and told me to get back in the Fiat. We drove quickly downtown to the ACI (Auto Club Italia) where we went upstairs to the main office. There my guy went in to see the president, they had some words, and then a secretary ran out and quickly returned and handed my guy a bag. We left and drove back down to the brick building and went back into three piece suits office where my guy banged down the bag, three piece suit opens it, looks in, takes the papers, stamps them about twice, gives them to my guy and we go back and get the Alfa.

Now we drive the Alfa down to a dock, stop, and the fellow there stamps the papers about six times. I drive the Alfa to the end of the dock where another fellow stamps the papers about six or seven times, I drive back off the dock and the papers get stamped again, then we drive back to the brick building. Go in pick up the bag and drive back to the ACI office, return the bag then hurry back to Piazza Mergellina just as the lady is starting to close up shop, but she was nice and went ahead and issued me the plates.
I later learned that "Three Piece Suit" would not issue the custom papers until the Alfa was exported from Italy and he wanted three million Lira deposit to insure the whole deal. So we got the three million from the ACI, took it back to "TPS", exported the Alfa by driving it to the end of the dock and imported it when we
drove it back, then picked up and returned the three million lira to the ACI. ¸

That was the start of a long and beautiful relationship with a most wonderful automobile. I still have the certificate of originality for serial number AR 1493.23896. Does anyone know where she might be???

Pat Garrett¸
August 10, 1994
2468 Gum Tree Lane
Fallbrook, Ca. 92028

[tubut]

Interesting story, but how many threads do you intend to start on this topic? Why not add this to the other one?

[101/105guy]

What an absolutly fabulous story!

[alfa63]

Great story!!

[Pat Garrett]

Well, To answer your question, this will be the last post to this thread. I wrote the first on the fly while sitting here at the computer wondering where the coupe was. This last is what what I found in my archives that told a better story of the coupe. There are more stories that she generated, but, who needs more threads on one old Veloce coupe?

[PSk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pat Garrett Well, To answer your question, this will be the last post to this thread. I wrote the first on the fly while sitting here at the computer wondering where the coupe was. This last is what what I found in my archives that told a better story of the coupe. There are more stories that she generated, but, who needs more threads on one old Veloce coupe?

[rcess]

Pat,

I thought it was a great story. If you have more, please post them.

[tubut]

Pat:

There is no question in my mind that you're passionate about this particular car and possibly Alfas in general. But please, don't confuse the number of posts with the number of threads.

Multiple threads and cross-posting dilute the power of information because scattered data without structure or pattern becomes just noise.

In an ideal world (at least to me), all information relevant to a single car or model (e.g. your car as identified by chassis number) would be in one thread. Good examples of such threads are the 6c 3000 CM / Disco Volante thread where an unbelievable amount of information and photographic documentation was accumulated prior to the server crash at the beginning of this year (where many pictures were lost) and the Car identification thread about a car that has yet to be identified. The worst examples may be the umpteen "Will Alfa return to the USA" threads.

I simply tried to point out (admittedly with an odd choice of words -- my apologies if they were perceived as offensive) that concentrating information in one thread will get more attention and maybe even act as a magnet for those who might seek information about your car, as well as for those who are just lurking on AlfaBB and love to read interesting stories such as yours.

[willieboy]

I enjoyed the post, and not just because I have 1493*23926.

[italcarguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by willieboy I have 1493*23926.

[PSB]

Wow;
What a small world . Very cool you guys!
I think I need to post some Vin #s.