[Collivanfan]

Hi all,

I recently bought one of the four surviving ex-AR Inc Romeo 2 service/training school vans, chassis # 13410, which is now in England.

The vendor told me that it was previously owned by a Bill Werner in California but I have no other information whatsoever about it. The factory archives have little information & I do not know of any Colli archives.

I have seen the reference in the Buyers Guide book & the photos on the back of the "Enjoying Your Alfa" publication, & Alfa BB correspondence from earlier this year. Maybe there was a magazine article written on them?

Any information or photos on this or the other 4 vans used by AR Inc would be most welcomed, either here on the BB or via a PM.

Best wishes,

Tony Stevens
England

Romeos & Giuliettas

 

[Il Vecchio]

Hi,

Bill Werner owns (or used to own) Alfa Only in Los Angeles, California, 0101-323-662-3916.

Back in '82 or so, I was involved with two of the ARI service vans, which were owned by Dave and Lorie Skora. One was in good shape but had had the front clip cut off, the other was complete but very rusty. I wonder if any of them are yours?

 

[velocedoc]

I traded Dave and Lorie a freshly painted and rebuilt Alfetta from the front to the back for the Alfa Van. They were going to give it to one of their mothers as a transportation car. I owe Tony an Email about the van.

Bill Werner had one of the other vans. It was on blocks last time I had any word on it, but then it was sold to someone else. I think that was the van in someones storage on top of something posted here not to long ago.

There were only 5 vans that traveled around to various dealerships.

 

[Fritzi]

Tony - I don't remember if I had sent you these pictures a long while back but this is the service van that was mentioned here on the BB several times from Dirk in los angeles. 'not sure if he still has it but I took a lot of pictures of it since I wanted to buy it at one time.

Patrick

 

[Fritzi]

some more......

it was missing the engine but had the transmission still installed - last time I saw it a yr or so ago, the roof had been badly dented when they lifted it up on a podest....

 

[Fritzi]

another one.....

this Romeo3 was for sale maybe a couple yrs ago from Michael Harper in LA - who sold the blue/grey Romeo2 with the roof rack 2-3 months ago on ebay

when i talked to the owner back then, he said it had been an original factory van but re-painted in white some time ago

unfortunately, most of the original inner cabinets were gone

cheers

Patrick

 

[Collivanfan]

Tony - I don't remember if I had sent you these pictures a long while back but this is the service van that was mentioned here on the BB several times from Dirk in los angeles. 'not sure if he still has it but I took a lot of pictures of it since I wanted to buy it at one time.

Patrick

Hello Patrick,

Thanks for your post. This is the high-roof, now in England, condition is largely as you describe, minus engine etc, also minus wheels - it was sent over on Range-Rover wheels, which did not fit properly, I never thought to queastion what "will be on wheels" meant... Fortunately I have most of the missing items.

First job is to use it as a pattern to make up the interior for my other Colli high roof which is currently being restored.

Keep in touch,

Tony
England

 

[Collivanfan]

this Romeo3 was for sale maybe a couple yrs ago from Michael Harper in LA - who sold the blue/grey Romeo2 with the roof rack 2-3 months ago on ebay

when i talked to the owner back then, he said it had been an original factory van but re-painted in white some time ago

unfortunately, most of the original inner cabinets were gone

cheers

Patrick

Hello Patrick,

This white high roof van differs from the 5 original Colli high roof service vans.

First, as you say, it is 3rd series, & therefore '66. The 5x Colli vans were 1960.

Second, it is by Bonfanti, not Colli. Yoi can see the remains of the Bonfanti badge below the front door in front of the wheel.

So I do not think that it was used by AR Inc, but I might be wrong.

It would be nice to know what happened to this one after it was sold on eBay, probably in 2003 or 2004, & to get the chassis number.

Best wishes,

Tony
England

 

[dretceterini]

I don't think Mike Harper-Smith ever owned the white van; at least he didn't when I last lived in Los Angeles, which was about 4 years ago now. I would tend to agree with Tony that it was never an AR service vehicle. It MIGHT have been a service vehicle for a particular Alfa Romeo dealership. This is a later van (circa '65-'66), and as far as I am aware, by that time, AR was using the Giulia Colli wagons. I think Dirk's yellow van may have originally been a bus or taxi.....

 

[velocedoc]

Do we know the serial numbers of the vans that were built? The Fusi book never got into those genre of vehicles, desiring to stay with the automobiles.

I would like to know the serial numbers of the existing factory vans to know how close they are in serial numbers to see if they were sequential.

I wonder if AR would have this in the archives as to how many were built and which 5 were shipped over to corroberate the serial numbers that we have here.

 

[Collivanfan]

Christopher,

My Colli service van is #13410, I would expect the others to be fairly close to this as they were probably sent to Colli for conversion & fitting out in a batch.

My experience with the archives is that for remote enquiries, it only works in one direction, from the chassis number.

The meat of their reply to me said "... chassis number 13410 originally corresponds to a Romeo 2, specially made for driving school, engine series AR 04001, manufactured in Milan, Italy, on 29th November 1960 & sold to Alfa Romeo USA.... Engine 1290cc or 1158 Diesel.... body colour is unknown because it gone out of factory without any colour".

I visited the archives when Elvira was at the helm, &, frankly, I seemed to have as much Romeo information as they had. It is well documented that even the total Romeo production numbers are not known.

I must get in touch with the owner of the van which is in Europe to get his chassis number.

Tony Stevens
England

 

[velocedoc]

Tony could be the one that starts a chain of events that eventually will lead to finding production numbers to all the Romeo 2 vans? Hmmm. Amazing that they have this detailed information on your van! I would wonder if they know this about all the Romeo 2 vans that were built? Might be kind of fun finding out where these vans were destined. I just can't imagine being taken to the hospital in one of these vans as a ambulance conversion.

 

[ital_speed]

I think Dirk's yellow van may have originally been a bus or taxi.....[/QUOTE]

In the driver door pocket there should be several registration cards from the 1960's that indicated that it was owned by "alfa romeo, USA" with an El Segundo, CA address. I left all of those papers in the car when it was shipped. hope they are still there.

 

[Collivanfan]

Hi,

I haven't noticed the registration cards, but then I have not yet thoroughly gone over it. The van is currently in storage about 50 miles from here, I will have a look next time I am over there.

Thanks for the info,

Tony
England

 

[PAUGNUT1275]

Tony,
When you say "The guy in Europe" do you mean the man who bought my Van and the Bertone Spider prototype? As I recall, ours had a wierd VIN attached by the state of Arizona. I don't recall if it was the actual # or some other # assigned due to lost title or something. I still need to get you or post the pictures of ours when we had it. All the photos are up at the other house. There is probably a file of the tranfer of title, also. I'll try to remember to dig that stuff out.
Keith G. in Ct,USA