Re: New Alfas

[James Montebello <jamesm@domain.elided>]

On Tue, 10 Sep 2002, Ted Spradley wrote:
> You know, that's something I've thought about, too.  The old engines are
> "infinitely rebuildable", the gearboxes and live axles are rugged and
> rebuildable, even the steering and suspension are repairable.  It would
> be wonderful if there were a source for replacements for the one major
> part that just rusts away.  If somebody could take a rusty old spider,
> take it all apart, and make careful measurements of all the suspension,
> steering, and motor attachment points, and create a digital 3-D model of
> that in AutoCAD.  From that it should be fairly easy to build jigs to
> fabricate a steel tube frame that all the original spider mechanicals
> would just bolt onto.  Then somebody else needs to construct molds for
> making pretty little bodies, maybe something like an early '50s
> SIATA....
>
> Pardon me, I must have been daydreaming again.

No, not really.  There's an outfit in the UK that makes complete new
bodyshells for a few popular British sports cars (MGB and Spridget,
at least).  British Heritage or something like that.  They obtained all
of the old tooling from the original works and make a relatively small
number of shells each year from modern, high-quality steel.

The Pininfarina tooling is almost certainly still in existence, since the
cars were made until less than 10 years ago.  It only takes for someone
to twist FIATs arm sufficiently sell the tooling, and someone could go
into business making old Spider bodyshells.

Myself, I've long thought a 1750 or 2000 would make an excellent
drivetrain for a Lotus 7 clone.  There are several vendors of chassis
around, but the usual engine choices are 75-100lbs more than the Alfa
engine.  All you need is a custom propshaft and you're in.  The idea
of an Italian Lotus is simply too neat to not do.

james montebello
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