[GTVdrifter]

The twoliterlover has had this 102 cast iron sedan since 1972. It recently had the engine, transmission, and hydraulics rebuilt and reinstalled. It was nice to see another one recently listed on BaT, but my dad drives this car as his daily driver these days. I figured it was time to post some pics.

-Tom Nuxoll (Jay's son and similarly infected with the Alfa disease)

 

[GTVdrifter]

 

[matt164]

Excellent post, thank you for sharing. Nice line up of Alfa sedans you have. Berlina looks in great condition also. The 164, what spec is this?

 

[AR1959]

Hi Tom,
Very nice and what a great way for a father and son to spend time together. I really miss Jay's input on this forum. Both the technical input and his anecdotal stories made great reads. I have one of the early two liter spiders that he once owned, here in Denmark. I had a trip organised for traveling through the US North-West/Canadian South-East, starting in Seattle, last summer. I would have liked to visit your father in Bellevue as part of that trip (something we discussed years ago when I still frequently traveled to Seattle where my then employer has a research facility near Lake Union). Corona messed up these plans before I even contacted your father. I hope for more luck next year.
Gr., Pieter

 

[1978alfa]

Great pictures.
I'm not familiar with the 102 era engines.
The exhaust header is really cool!
What is the device on the passenger side of the engine below the fuel pump?
Thanks for sharing!

 

[DPeterson3]

Great pictures.
I'm not familiar with the 102 era engines.
What is the device on the passenger side of the engine below the fuel pump?
Thanks for sharing!

The element below the fuel pump is the oil pump.

The sedan engine has a number of differences to the Roadster and Sprint. I can understand why they chose a single two-barrel carb, but would have thought lowering the compression would have just raised cost with no benefit.

It is a lovely car.

 

[ballough510]

GTVdrifter It was my car that did not sell on BAT, and your dad has been a big help to me in understanding the significance
of these sedans and just how rare they have become. Mine could be a daily driver except its too hot in Florida. Your father
in my opinion is the leading authority on these cars. If I was a bit younger and not so arthritic I would build an engine like Don Peterson has in his spider, maybe lower it just a bit and blow some minds.......
Thanks Tom for sharing the pic's of your dad and his sedan!!
RML

 

[twoliterlover]

Excellent post, thank you for sharing. Nice line up of Alfa sedans you have. Berlina looks in great condition also. The 164, what spec is this?

The 164 is 94LS automatic with 253,000 miles

 

[twoliterlover]

Hi Tom,
Very nice and what a great way for a father and son to spend time together. I really miss Jay's input on this forum. Both the technical input and his anecdotal stories made great reads. I have one of the early two liter spiders that he once owned, here in Denmark. I had a trip organised for traveling through the US North-West/Canadian South-East, starting in Seattle, last summer. I would have liked to visit your father in Bellevue as part of that trip (something we discussed years ago when I still frequently traveled to Seattle where my then employer has a research facility near Lake Union). Corona messed up these plans before I even contacted your father. I hope for more luck next year.
Gr., Pieter

Pietr from Denmark. Long time no see. You have Dolly Croscetto's car bought specifically for her by her husband. But when he died she moved from Seattle area east of the Cascade Mountain range and Tom and I helped her sell it. We had to borrow a pickup from Jack Brooks to pull a trailer that distance and ran out of gas on he way, felt we were stranded, but suddenly discovered it had a switch to a second tank. I drove the car for a while to make sure it was in good shape but drove it to Idaho and back (1000 miles) and had a second flat tire about twenty miles from Seattle on the way back. When the buyer who piously said he was going to keep it forever suddenly found a British buyer at double his own purchase price I was called upon to give affidavits as to the actual VIN. Like my sprint her original title had been issued to the prior owner (Bill Harding, I believe) under the motor number. I still have a copy of her original title under 0020400450 (clearly the motor number because VIN numbers are AR10204*?????*) showing Dolly's signature on June 17, 1989. It could not be shipped to England until the title was changed. The car later was feathered in Thorobred and Classic Motors magazine before you bought it. I suspect you paid four or five times what Dolly sold it for in 1989.. I hope it still runs good and that you you are enjoying it. It's worth a lot more now than when you bought it. I am amazed what they now bring on sales.

 

[twoliterlover]

The element below the fuel pump is the oil pump.

The sedan engine has a number of differences to the Roadster and Sprint. I can understand why they chose a single two-barrel carb, but would have thought lowering the compression would have just raised cost with no benefit.

It is a lovely car.

Don, I believe what he was looking at and wanting a name for was the right idler arm of the steering system. You are correct that the oil pump is below the side fuel pump but once cannot see it in the picture. Finally, Don, the intake valves are set tighter that for the spider so it is less horsepower and uses less gas.

 

[twoliterlover]

GTVdrifter It was my car that did not sell on BAT, and your dad has been a big help to me in understanding the significance
of these sedans and just how rare they have become. Mine could be a daily driver except its too hot in Florida. Your father
in my opinion is the leading authority on these cars. If I was a bit younger and not so arthritic I would build an engine like Don Peterson has in his spider, maybe lower it just a bit and blow some minds.......
Thanks Tom for sharing the pic's of your dad and his sedan!!
RML

Sorry, RML, that you felt you had to sell your outstanding car. You were right not to let it go at the high offer on BAT. Luckily it does not get so hot here in Seattle. I suspect the lack of seat belts worries you too, as it does me. It was not a worry in the distant past when I first got it in 1972. I believe I could adopt seat belts from the Alfetta series. How much younger would you have to be to enjoy the car?. I still enjoy mine at age 85. I must tell everyone what a great son I have to suddenly decide to redo the entire car for me starting on Father's day. What a wonderful present. I confess he has energy that I don't even think I could have once had. I have a wonderful garage with a lift but now do very little in it. I have finally retired after 55 years of practice as a lawyer, but am still sorting mess on my desk and stored filed. Enjoy you car. Treasure it. Take it to the National Convention and be prepared to show it off. It is really one of two and a half in the country. Tom Zat has the third with a smashed front in Wisconsin, but he drove my car both from a National Convention in Seattle to Alfa Heaven and then an Alfa Owner Magazine article entitled "The Cast Iron Cowboy Rides Again" covered his trip bringing it back to me two years later at the Portland Convention. I realize your car was in great shape when you got it, but mine was painted black with a brush. The headliner was handing down. The left front was damaged so badly one had to hold tightly on the steering wheel to keep it from diving into the ditch. We called it our Mafia Staff car. I started looking for a two liter sedan once my Honeymom and I had five little kids under the age of five and they would no longer fit in my spider. Worst problem was that a floor box had been installed and the seat would not let the reverse fully engage so that reverse finally did not work at all. Luckily I found a 2600 berlina with a bad rear end at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma to get the right transmission and the column shift linkage (especially the shift lever that had been broken off). But I had to get chrome parts from Durbin, South Africa when a fellow Alfa lover drove to strip an abandoned car there for me. Hang on to you car. You are a treasured and blessed Alfa owner. Enjoy. Wish I could get a neat set of floor mats like yours.

 

[ballough510]

Jay ....... your the best.
God Bless

 

[AR1959]

Pietr from Denmark. Long time no see. You have Dolly Croscetto's car bought specifically for her by her husband. But when he died she moved from Seattle area east of the Cascade Mountain range and Tom and I helped her sell it. We had to borrow a pickup from Jack Brooks to pull a trailer that distance and ran out of gas on he way, felt we were stranded, but suddenly discovered it had a switch to a second tank. I drove the car for a while to make sure it was in good shape but drove it to Idaho and back (1000 miles) and had a second flat tire about twenty miles from Seattle on the way back. When the buyer who piously said he was going to keep it forever suddenly found a British buyer at double his own purchase price I was called upon to give affidavits as to the actual VIN. Like my sprint her original title had been issued to the prior owner (Bill Harding, I believe) under the motor number. I still have a copy of her original title under 0020400450 (clearly the motor number because VIN numbers are AR10204*?????*) showing Dolly's signature on June 17, 1989. It could not be shipped to England until the title was changed. The car later was feathered in Thorobred and Classic Motors magazine before you bought it. I suspect you paid four or five times what Dolly sold it for in 1989.. I hope it still runs good and that you you are enjoying it. It's worth a lot more now than when you bought it. I am amazed what they now bring on sales.

Hi Jay,

How nice your are back at the AlfaBB! I have my 2000 Touring Spider since 2011. I had been looking for an Italian classic for some years (on top of a few decades of dreaming!). I coincidently stumbled over one of your former 2000 Touring Spiders in a classic car garage opposite of the place where I worked back then. The model was unknown to me at the time, and I instantly fell in love with the shape. The body was in a very good shape and I was very pleasantly surprised with how it drove. By that time, I had read several driving tests from the period, in which none created the enthusiasm that for instance the Giulietta Spiders created at the time. I drove it for some years with great enthusiasm, but at a certain moment it developed a crack in the engine head that got wrongly repaired. I took it of the road a while ago to give the engine and brakes a major overhaul. I also collected several original and reproduced parts over the years that I got installed. That is nearly finished and I look forward getting it on the road again in the new season.

With respect to pricing....ouch, you are so right! It got sold in 2004 at Bonham's by a previous owner, who had done a major overhaul of the car. It fetched GBP 16,100 (incl. premium) at the time.....an absolute bargain considering today's prices (even compared to what I payed for it!). The car was featured in Classic and Sportscar Magazine in 1990, before it got restored. It was offered for sale in the same magazine for GBP 17,950.

Gr., Pieter

 

[twoliterlover]

Pietr, Why didn't you ask me for a different twoliter head? I have five extra. And the engine number given in he article is incorrect. The VIN is AR10204*00081* but the engine number (the number in which it was originally titled in the US) was 0020400450 (No AR at start and no "*" at end). Anyway, the German club has several two liter spiders, and I believe even the factory demonstrator that had the sportiva engine. Nice to hear from you. Jay

 

[AR1959]

Hi Jay,

Good to know you have some spare engine heads. Frankly, I thought you had sold all your excess cars and parts to a garage in Holland (Jan Sleutel?) a couple of years ago. I asked for help on the AlfaBB a while ago, but either prices were absurd, the head was in bad shape or I was just too late wrt heads offered at the time. In the end I had the original head repaired. I hope it holds. If not, I will contact you. Maybe you still have the original head that belongs to my engine? My car has a head without any firing script on it, so I assume it is from a 1900 originally? Or is it possible that the first heads did not have the script?

Yes, you are right. The engine number mentioned on the Bonhams site is incorrect. It has engine number AR00204.00026, which is the original engine according to the AR Automobillisimo Storico.
Gr., Pieter
PS if you still have any paperwork that belongs to my car.....or maybe the pouch with booklet, card and the likes.....I would be very much interested to complete the paperwork belonging to the car.

 

[tubut]

Speaking of 102 Berlinas, here's a piece of history few people know about (from this web site): The first 3 pictures show the master model for the 2000 Berlina, made by Stola (Torino) in 1955, the 4th picture shows the master model for the FNM 2000 JK Brasil, made in 1959, which went into production in 1960.

 

[IRONBLOCK]

When I first bought a Two-liter Roadster in 1989, the first thing I did upon returning home to Georgia from Huntsville Alabama was call Jay Nuxoll -The Two Liter Lover! We must have talked on the phone for over an hour and it was our first conversation. It is hard to believe that 31 years have flown by. Jay and 'Honey Mom' opened their huge house up to several of us 'Alfa addicts' when they had the national AROC convention in Seattle about 25 years ago. Tom, a young man at the time, was soon entrusted with multi-million dollar cars; which made Jay very proud.

The engine and transmission look great, as does the rest of the car.
Thanks for sharing Tom and Jay.

Mark