The Sprint is back!

[Gary Williams]

Steve Smith bought this 1959 Sprint Coupe in 1974. With about 70,000 original, but hard, miles on it, the car had ended up in a wrecking yard ... under another Sprint in even worse condition.

Rescued and repaired, by 1978 the car was restored well enough to win an Alfa Club concours. Because it still had driveability issues (clearance problems with the new 1750 engine and headers, for one), it was only driven about 300 miles before Steve parked it.

Then life got in the way, and for the next two decades the car sat while he married and raised a family. Despite the mild California climate, it did not fare well. Finally, about 18 months ago it was pushed onto a trailer and hauled to Andy Shank for a new coat of 501 red.

Now the Sprint is returning to its former glory, with fresh paint, new interior, and lots of new bits and pieces. Last week Steve drove it for the first time in more than 20 years. In another week, he plans to drive it to Concorso Italiano, in Monterey.

When the car was in front of my house last weekend, I snapped some quick photos. They are presented here to celebrate its return to life. Hope Steve doesn't mind me telling his story, somebody had to do it.

[Gary Williams]

Rats! The engine looks nice, but not two times nice.

[italcarguy]

Nice, can't wait to see it next week. I'm sure he's happy he held onto it all these years. Is it a real Veloce?

[Gary Williams]

No, it's not a Veloce. The Veloce air cleaner serves a pair of Webers on a 1750 engine that has Shankle 8L cams.

[universible]

I can't wait to see it again...glad Steve had enough time to finish it instead of helping on everyone else's cars! Maybe this will get him to finally post a message here