The complete SVZ file

[jaycee]

Hi John, Great photos! Do you have anything about the 1951 race she won with a Fiat 1500, or was that some sort of rally? 1953, This would be during her 2nd championship on two wheels. Transitional to four wheels.
Did she drive her own cars or for someone, where does Racing Club 19 enter the picture? JC.

[jaycee]

Re, the SV lightweights. Martinue seems the Man with information!
There seems quite a lot of information scattered about various parts of ABB and other
Internet sites, it seems a pity not to get it all in one place like in this excellent thread.
These cars are also overlooked in early race information, photos etc, from my experience.
I suppose if you have access to Italian and European Magazines the information is out there maybe.
There seems some confusion about what constituted a lightweight Veloce as compared to Veloces that were built late in 1957 and also cars which were sold in different markets. There seems some doubt about numbers built.
I think the confortevolve cars went to markets were people expected wind up windows.
In UK they paid the money and suffered sliding perspex.
Later Veloces in the UK had wind up glass but no alloy frames, and were 65*** body nos, with few alloy parts.
To me a proper lightweight has 77*** body numbers, but other later Veloces had distinguished racing careers, they all should be acknowledged. JC.

[dretceterini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iicarJohn Sassi-Superga hillclimb 25 ottobre 1953. I don't recall now if it was Ada who told me that the Sassi-Superga 1954 was her first race. I have not found a record of her on the hillclimb in 1954, but I do have these photos of her on the 1953 event in a Moretti. She was 4th in the Turismo Internazionale 750 category in 5'33". I've not yet learned the chassis number. Only one other similar car was on the event, chassis N. 841, and it was 7th in the same category in 5'58.8", driven by "Merlo", perhaps Fortunato Merlo. The class winner was a Renault that did the climb in 5'02.8". The Moretti of Merlo was registered as a "Moretti 600" and it seems quite likely that Ada's car was also "600" but I have to acknowledge that the size declarations of Moretti cars were sometimes a bit at odds to what appears to have been reality. So, although we can presume that these were monoalbero engines (Turismo Internazionale), we really don't know yet what the engine sizes actually were. Something below 750cc in any case. As an aside, I have the very much rarer and far sexier "berlinetta 750 Mille Miglia" bialbero car numbered 823 but without the original engine, as found by my father Jarl. Each of the few photos I've found of the car has a different description of engine size. I am currently going with the "750" number that appears on a factory sales sheet as noted above in quotation marks. Interestingly, Moretti showed 750 bialbero engines beginning 1948 but it seems that it took until 1952 to actually get one into a functioning car.

[dretceterini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaycee Re, the SV lightweights. Martinue seems the Man with information! There seems quite a lot of information scattered about various parts of ABB and other Internet sites, it seems a pity not to get it all in one place like in this excellent thread. These cars are also overlooked in early race information, photos etc, from my experience. I suppose if you have access to Italian and European Magazines the information is out there maybe. There seems some confusion about what constituted a lightweight Veloce as compared to Veloces that were built late in 1957 and also cars which were sold in different markets. There seems some doubt about numbers built. I think the confortevolve cars went to markets were people expected wind up windows. In UK they paid the money and suffered sliding perspex. Later Veloces in the UK had wind up glass but no alloy frames, and were 65*** body nos, with few alloy parts. To me a proper lightweight has 77*** body numbers, but other later Veloces had distinguished racing careers, they all should be acknowledged. JC.

[iicarJohn]

Since the event has been discussed, here is a document that I prepared showing the entry and the few notes that I've taken about the event. At the moment, I'm not finding additional information in the correct files so they must be out for other reasons or waiting to be refiled. If anyone wants to fill the page out a bit, please feel free. Thought about posting Sassi-Superga 1953 as well, but that would be drifting pretty far afield from the thread topic, I think?

[iicarJohn]

Sorry. Once again, nothing Alfa Romeo ... but please be patient!

Here is Ada Pace, again in a Moretti, but this one is a bit more special. This is chassis 1298s, a bialbero 750 "berlinetta Gran Sport" that is very similar to approximately ten cars that came to the USA in the 1953/54 time period. One of them was on the cover of Road and Track and the story inside erroneously said it was bodied by Ghia. It was not!

Ada reportedly received 1298s as some sort of payment (from whom?) and sold it to collect the monies or perhaps to get something else? Haven't verified if that is true but I do know that it went on to Paolo Butti and was eventually destroyed ... but the paperwork survived. I've seen the logbook. This is a very wet day and this is the only closed car in the "Sport 750" event that included some cars that should have been considered "corsa 750". As with many events of the time, the organizers adhered only loosely to the general racing categories of the day as it was often considered more important to race than to be part of a championship structure. She finished 10th overall.

These photos, as with the Sassi-Superga photos above in the thread, came from the Bertazzini archives that have been dispersed in many directions.

[jaycee]

Post 319 Confortevolve.- not lightweight.
I didn't mean to make out that they were! Maybe some were and some were fully steel.
I always thought that the confortevole were the transition from lightweight to normal bodied all steel panelled Veloce. It seems to me that depending on where these cars were sold determined the spec. I'm not aware of any that came to the UK, but heard 20+ years ago that in Germany some lightweights had wind up windows, so I presumed that your average German who wanted a hotter Sprint wanted wind up windows. Someone said much the same about the USA, that not many completely lightweight cars ie *77***bodies came to the uSA, but I stand corrected if this is not so.
I seem to remember that Martin Swigg bought one from Ron Francis here in UK because he coudn't find one in the USA and few were imported. If they built so many 77*** bodied lightweights why didn't more survive because in my somewhat limited experience and knowledge, many UK ones survive of the ones imported.
They were always known of and somewhat treasured even when the values were low, if that was the case everywhere else, for instance the ex Bonnier cars survive, but there seems only a few out of France, Spain/Portugal, Germany, Holland, and the Dutch had a longtime enthusiasm for Alfas, why are there not more survivors? I know someone in Switzerland who found his in France. Where did they go to? Are there a lot in basements in Italy?
I always suspected that they never built as many as is said, I know what the prod figures say, but for a model with 3 times that of others ie SZ/TZ they seem to have fewer surviving. What does the Italian Giulietta Register reveal on this matter? J
ps What do I know? just interested!

[curami]

Putting in order some files, I found these two pictures
Who? the second one De Leonibus SVZ Conrero tuned
Where? May be Pontedecimo Giovi
When? 1959
the SVS wears Imperia license plate

[iicarJohn]

Hello Andrea,

I cannot be terribly precise, but 01819 Scaglietti was re-registered in Imperia around January of 1959. I received the plate number from Lorenzo Boscarelli in the 1980's but have not researched it myself. I will PM the plate number to you if you want it but generally do not share such information publicly for fear it might eventually complicate our studies.

As far as the De Leonibus car (02289) goes, the Turin plate was issued in about September of 1958 but I have not researched it. It seems likely it was re-registered by Toselli so that he could sell it. I have two events in 1959 where De Leonibus ran the race number #162. One was the Coppa Asiago, held 21.6.59. A photo appears in Alfa Romeo Veloce on page 39. The other is the Pontedecimo - Giovi, held 20.9.59 and a photo appears in the Conrero book on page 59. I do not have the race numbers he used at a few other events in 1959, but five other 1959 events are somewhat documented and he did not use the race number #162 in those. Not conclusive, I am afraid!

As you'll note from recent postings, I have finally scanned and organized a good portion of the small but interesting part of the Bertazzini archive that I was lucky to acquire many years ago before we met all too briefly. If you have needs, please let me know.

All the best.

John de Boer

[curami]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iicarJohn Hello Andrea, I cannot be terribly precise, but 01819 Scaglietti was re-registered in Imperia around January of 1959. I received the plate number from Lorenzo Boscarelli in the 1980's but have not researched it myself. I will PM the plate number to you if you want it but generally do not share such information publicly for fear it might eventually complicate our studies. As far as the De Leonibus car (02289) goes, the Turin plate was issued in about September of 1958 but I have not researched it. It seems likely it was re-registered by Toselli so that he could sell it. I have two events in 1959 where De Leonibus ran the race number #162. One was the Coppa Asiago, held 21.6.59. A photo appears in Alfa Romeo Veloce on page 39. The other is the Pontedecimo - Giovi, held 20.9.59 and a photo appears in the Conrero book on page 59. I do not have the race numbers he used at a few other events in 1959, but five other 1959 events are somewhat documented and he did not use the race number #162 in those. Not conclusive, I am afraid! As you'll note from recent postings, I have finally scanned and organized a good portion of the small but interesting part of the Bertazzini archive that I was lucky to acquire many years ago before we met all too briefly. If you have needs, please let me know. All the best. John de Boer

[iicarJohn]

Here is Ada Pace in her Giulietta SV "lightweight" (well before it became lightened even more) at the Sassi - Traforo del Pino (more commonly known as "Pino-Sassi", run 1956 in place of the Sassi-Superga) of 28.10.56. She won the 1300 Turismo Speciale category. She also ran a Fiat 600 earlier in the 750 Turismo Nazionale category and finished 3rd in that class. Sorry, but I don't have a photo of that ... for you Fiat 600 buffs.

[iicarJohn]

Don't have a whole lot of images from this event, but this is a nice one of Ada Pace in 01849, before the crash that inspired the Zagato rebody. It raced again early in May ... but this is where my photo collection ends on this car.

[iicarJohn]

I suppose I should post a shot of an SVZ at the Rallye Sestriere 1958?

[curami]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iicarJohn Don't have a whole lot of images from this event, but this is a nice one of Ada Pace in 01849, before the crash that inspired the Zagato rebody. It raced again early in May ... but this is where my photo collection ends on this car.

[curami]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iicarJohn I suppose I should post a shot of an SVZ at the Rallye Sestriere 1958?