New Member Introduction

[smashcat]

Hi all, I registered a while ago but haven't got around to posting a "hello" yet so thought it was time. I moved from South Africa to the UK 2 years ago and brought my Sud with me.

I've owned and driven Suds since I was 16 back in Zimbabwe and my current one is a 1976 S1 ti manufactured in SA. Unlike the UK ti's, it is a 4 door as they only used one body shell for all models in SA. Originally it was a 1200cc but it now has a 1500cc twin carb motor from an S3 (was marketed as a "Superhatch" in SA).

I bought the car about 6 years ago, some 4 years after it had been restored. She runs beautifully and apart from a sticking/weeping front calliper, is mechanically excellent. There are a few tiny rust bubbles starting to appear in the usual places and over the last 2 years or so a whole lot of tiny blisters have appeared all over the body work. I don't think they are rust but could be some problem with the respray it had 10 years ago only manifesting itself now. So, will need to get it resprayed at some stage and hoping you all can point me in the right direction.

I'm looking forward to attending any meet-ups in my area (Herts) and to meeting other Sud owners.

A few pics:

[alfasuddriver]

Hi Smashcat, welcome to the forum! You have a nice Alfasud there. Will you be taking it to some of the Alfa shows this year? They tend to be very enjoyable for us Alfa addicts!

[Kegsti66]

Welcome Smashcat,
What a lovely looking Sud you have there.
Looking forward to seeing it and you at a meet some time.
NAD looks like we may try and get another Sud gathering. SAD is another chance, maybe.


ps. love the cat looking out the window as well

[smashcat]

Hi Smashcat, welcome to the forum! You have a nice Alfasud there. Will you be taking it to some of the Alfa shows this year? They tend to be very enjoyable for us Alfa addicts!

Thanks alfasuddriver, yes, I would love to take it to a few shows, I will be attending to a few mechanical issues with the front brake callipers before summer so that it can be reliably driven.

[smashcat]

Welcome Smashcat,
What a lovely looking Sud you have there.
Looking forward to seeing it and you at a meet some time.
NAD looks like we may try and get another Sud gathering. SAD is another chance, maybe.


ps. love the cat looking out the window as well

Thanks Kegsti66, I will keep an eye on the forum for details and will definitely make an effort to attend any gatherings.

We brought the cat over from SA as well as the Sud!

[KevJTD]

looks a great car, be really nice to see it (and the owner of course ) at some shows this year

[smashcat]

Thanks Kev, looking forward to meeting a few other Sud owners this year.

[Fiatchris]

Hi mate, 4 doors rule! Use mine every day, in fact just shifted a big steel frame to work in mine this morning, looking forward to seeing it!

Chris

[smashcat]

Hi mate, 4 doors rule! Use mine every day, in fact just shifted a big steel frame to work in mine this morning, looking forward to seeing it!

Chris

Yep, 4 doors rule, not that we had any choice in SA, they were all 4 doors!

[Veesix75]

Seats look interesting, any more pics?

[Alfasam]

Hi there, and welcome to the Forum.

Is this by any chance your car pictured when it was in SA

I have a large collection of Alfasud related pics on my external hard drive and thought I might have seen the car before.

Lovely 4 door Ti by the way. Are the matt black window surrounds original? A nice touch, similar to what Ford used to do with the MK1 Escorts in Australia circa 1973.

[smashcat]

Seats look interesting, any more pics?

Sorry, not many decent pics, these were some I took quickly with my mobile for insurance purposes.

The seats were re-upholstered about 10 years ago. I'm pretty sure that's not an original Sud colour but works reasonably well imo. The rear seats are like new and really comfortable.

Another seat pic:

[smashcat]

Hi there, and welcome to the Forum.

Is this by any chance your car pictured when it was in SA


I have a large collection of Alfasud related pics on my external hard drive and thought I might have seen the car before.

Lovely 4 door Ti by the way. Are the matt black window surrounds original? A nice touch, similar to what Ford used to do with the MK1 Escorts in Australia circa 1973.

Wow, amazing, yes that's my car back in CT the day I collected it! I have lost these pics so would love to get them again. I don't think the black surrounds are an original scheme, at least not on SA models, I think they were done when it was re-sprayed.

[Alfasam]

I checked my hard drive and only have the four pictures of your car. If there had been more pictures on the forum they were copied from I imagine I would have saved them along with the others. If you would like me to send you copies of the pictures please Private Message me your email address through the forum.

I am very glad I saved these pictures now, it was because I really liked the car.

I found some more pics of SA Ti's, the bright blue one was for sale on Gumtree a few years ago, I tried to buy it but unfortunately the vendor had already taken an offer.

Do you know anything about the factory at Brits that assembled the Sud Ti, Sprint and Giardinetta? Would be fascinating to know more about the Sud in South Africa.

[Kegsti66]

Noticed they all seem to have the light coloured interior.
Wonder why they never had the rear spoiler.
Blue and pale yellow looks refreshing !!
How old were the photos ?

[Sud 145]

What is the badge on the left rear quarter? Look at the size of the roof-rack on that little Fiat.

[Kegsti66]

Look at the size of the sun roof of the blue Sud !!

[Spacenut]

Superb! I love looking at early Suds. SA models always intrigued, mainly as the locals prefer "hot" versions of conventional European motors - hence Basil von Rooyen Little Chev, Ford Perana, homologation Alfa GTV6. I read there was a version of the 1300 Alfasud with twin 44 IDFs - that must have been a real screamer!

Looking forward to seeing some nice cars for real this year.

Lauren

PS - back seat looks very comfortable

[Alfasam]

Your right Lauren: there was a SA special edition called the Rally which looks like it used some Ti S2 parts (bumpers) and a tuned engine, it seems the engine was based on the 1286 cc block from the Sprint 1300 producing 64 KW DIN which is approx. 86 bhp DIN or 87 PS DIN. Similar to a 1350 cc Ti S3 twin carb.

The bright blue and white cars in my previous post on this thread also use S2 bumpers, so must be later models than Smashcat's - which has S1 Ti bumpers, as does the light yellow car that is pictured. It looks like Alfa Romeo SA used variations on whatever external trim parts were current on Italian manufactured Sud's at the time, in order to create their own unique model range.

I think they used a mix of locally made and imported interior trim parts. Items such as seats, door cards, rear shelf, centre console and steering wheel were all locally made and different to anything that was ever fitted as standard at Pomigliano D'Arco, althought the dash panels were standard S1 or S2 Ti. I imagine this was to do with import restrictions (or duties) during the 1970's when the cars were being assembled at Brits in SA.

Here is an old pic of a Rally. Sorry about the quality of it, but I have not found a better one.

A specification sheet for the Rally was posted on the Alfa BB forum a few years ago, here is the link:

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/attachm ... -rally.pdf

I wonder if anyone in SA has an original condition/spec Rally.

One interesting feature I can see in the Rally pic is the matt black window surrounds which are the same as the ones on Smashcat's car. Maybe this is where the idea for them came from when his car was restored in SA

Maybe Smashcat can tell us more about the Rally and if any still exist in SA

It would be great to see some good quality colour pics of one too.

[smashcat]

Alfasam, the Rally is like a unicorn, everyone's heard of them, nobody has actually seen one. From what I remember, it was a limited edition which did not sell well and I doubt there is a single one left. I've only seen pictures.

You are right, Alfa SA used a mish-mash of parts and trims to create their own versions of the sud all based on the 4 door shell. The S1 and S2 were reasonably well built but suffered from the bad PR that suds received in Europe regarding build quality and poor quality materials even though the SA suds used local, good quality steel. The selling price was also high compared to the competition at the time such as Datsun Pulsar (Cherry in the UK I think), Mazda 323, VW Golf Mk1, the hugely popular in SA Ford Escort rwd etc.

Sadly, by the time the S3 was released, Alfa had pulled out of SA officially even though a local consortium continued to manufacture cars for a few years from partial knock-down kits and tooling bought from Alfa. The early S3's were ok but, very quickly, build quality and material quality suffered and the later S3's (1981 to 1983) were rust buckets. There were stories of cars actually rusting before they even left the showroom. This killed off the brand in SA which has never really recovered. It also resulted in very few suds surviving today and even if you can find one, despite their rarity, they sell for next to nothing.

In the mid-eighties both my brother and I had S2 1.5ti's and it was cheaper for us to buy whole (running) cars to strip for the parts we needed than to buy the parts new! We would strip the parts we needed off the cars and sell the rest of the car to the local scrap dealers. A terrible waste looking back on it but nobody wanted them other than the few fanatics like us.

[smashcat]

Superb! I love looking at early Suds. SA models always intrigued, mainly as the locals prefer "hot" versions of conventional European motors - hence Basil von Rooyen Little Chev, Ford Perana, homologation Alfa GTV6. I read there was a version of the 1300 Alfasud with twin 44 IDFs - that must have been a real screamer!

Looking forward to seeing some nice cars for real this year.

Lauren

PS - back seat looks very comfortable

Oh yes, the locals loved hot, locally developed versions of European cars. The Chev Firenza got a 5.7l motor, the GTV6 got a 3.0l engine (still my dream to own one), the BMW 3 series got a 3.3l from the seven series and the last local version of the Sud was a S3 badged as "GTA", a 1500 with a twin 45's if I recall.

I can testify to the comfort (and room) in the back of an Alfasud, I dated my wife in the mid-eighties when I owned a 1974 1.2 4 speed S1. I shall say no more!

[PETROLHEAD]

the GTV6 got a 3.0l engine (still my dream to own one)

Yes, quite a dream that is, but possibly closer than you think?


This beauty, an original 3.0 got my vote for best car at last years Mitcar,

Stunning!

PS - that's Johnboy and my ol'man facing the wrong way behind the GTV, comparing hair piece neccessity! lol!

[Johnboy]

Lol
Yeah that gtv6 was a cracker and rare 3.0l from South Africa . Would love one too