We’ve moved! Giuliettas State of the Union

Welcome to the new giuliettas.com! I’m sure many of you noticed over the last few years that more advertisements were creeping into the site, and they were getting more intrusive and frankly more annoying. Well, that was the price of free, and as all the tech company privacy news has made us aware, free is usually the most expensive way to go. (steps off soap box). The new site will be much more adaptable for adding features, so I plan on moving all the pictures hosted on flickr to the site and more. Let me know in the comments if you find anything broken.

New staff member Thunderball will be approving all requests.
Continue reading “We’ve moved! Giuliettas State of the Union”

Market 559: Sprint Speciale 10120*00512 sold through Gooding & Company

Giulietta Sprint Speciale 10120*00512, 00112*15369 This car sold through Gooding & Company during the Monterey / Pebble Beach annual fancy carstravaganza I seem to miss every year. Estimate was $90,000 – $120,000 and the car sold for $67,200. Add buyers premium of 12% (I think this is right) and you get a price paid of $75,264. I’m not sure what to make of this sale price. I have seen wrecks sell for $50,000, though not in the last few years. Even with the incorrect 1600 engine, racing stripes, and patina, I’d have guessed a sale price in the low end of the estimate. Is the market soft, or is this car not as good as it looks?

The racing inspired stripe will definitely have put off some buyers. Paint is as ain’t cheap as it ever was, so if you don’t want the stripe it’ll cost you. I’d drive this thing!
Continue reading “Market 559: Sprint Speciale 10120*00512 sold through Gooding & Company”

Show and tell: Spider 750D 00104 freshly restored

Giulietta Spider 750D 1495*00104. Oliver in Germany spent a great deal of effort restoring this car and recently had the opportunity to show it at the museum”Kunstpalast Düsseldorf”.  The exhibition is “PS Ich liebe dich” (PS I love you), a group of 28 famous cars out of the 1950s – 1970s. The show ends February 10th so I’m late to report this!

A beautiful car!  Probably nicer than the day it was made.  VA is Varese I believe.  I see some serious cars in the background.

Continue reading “Show and tell: Spider 750D 00104 freshly restored”

Market 228: Unfortunate Sprint 101 22315

Update 2/4/19: This car has turned up in Los Angeles without having had reconstructive surgery.

IMG_20160924_153334

Update 8/27/18:  Has anyone seen this car in the last 8 years?  Side grills have a Wallace and Gromit feel I didn’t notice before.

Update 7/1/10: This car was sold for $7100 after 21 bids were placed.  Not such a bad deal for what appears to be a very complete, original and solid project car with a bad nose job to fix.

Giulietta Sprint 10102 22315. This car is on eBay right now out of New York or possibly Montreal.  Other than some unfortunate modifications it’s a pretty original solid example.  Would be kind of fun to leave the modifications and use it as is for a few years to upset concours judges and the like.

Screen shot 2010-06-23 at 8.07.11 AMKind of has a Facel Vega feel or maybe something garish from Ghia on a 1900 platform -but interpreted by a drunk from a small picture in the back of a magazine.  That Bertone badge placement next to the passenger side headlamp is really horrible.

Continue reading “Market 228: Unfortunate Sprint 101 22315”

Market 547: Spider Veloce 11643 – long stalled project

7/20/2018: This car is back on eBay after nearly two years. Where is the market now?  If I was, err, well, actually no – there isn’t much of a circumstance where I would buy this because I have a lot of projects I could do in 20 minutes I can’t seem to find time for.   Seller has an 80% feedback rating.  Does that matter?  Not if you do the homework you should do regardless of the sellers feedback.

Someone is going to buy this and it will be a lot better car than it seems like it is in the pictures.

11/04/2016 (sorry euro-date folks): Giulietta Spider Veloce 10107 1495*11643, 00111*30278 (1960 TI engine).  From the Daniel J. Rapley seemingly never ending stockpile of Giulietta projects and available now on eBay is this 1960 Spider Veloce.  Original engine is missing, but a Veloce item is said to be available.  Car is complete and straight enough to be a good candidate, but a chunk of change will be required to get the rockers in good shape.  Why do I call it a long stalled project?  That silver respray appears to be quite old, and yet never to have seen the light of motoring day.

spider-veloce-11643-front-left-corner

One wonders where this has been hiding?  I am frequently surprised by the continual coming-out-of-the-woodwork of Giuliettas.  This car looks decent at first fluch, but the rockers are pretty bad, and when you dig into the rockers – you are starting from the bottom.

Continue reading “Market 547: Spider Veloce 11643 – long stalled project”

Market 558: Sprint Veloce 750E 04159

Giulietta Sprint Veloce Alleggerita 750E 1493*04159, 1315*30598.  RM Sotheby’s will be auctioning this charming fellow at Monterey this year.  I can’t say much except wow.    I wonder when a Giulietta like this will break free of the “the last one sold for X, so this one should sell for X + 10%” thinking and sell for an unexpectedly large sum because two really rich guys just want it, value be damned.  Any of you want to mentor me in starting a business?  Being a Technical Program Manager in Semiconductor Capitol Equipment is just not cutting it if I can’t make a play for this.

front side

When I was in Italy I kept an eye on the sky just after sunset.  I can’t help but think that the Bertone palette was all about the evening sky.  I’d be afraid to drive a car this low in the back.  I like.

Continue reading “Market 558: Sprint Veloce 750E 04159”

Market 557: “Guila” SS for the brave

Giulia Sprint Speciale 10121*38XXXX.  This car is on eBay right now.  It is among the worst maybe sort of still viable cars I’ve had the pleasure of writing about.  I saw this car in person maybe 8 years ago in southern California.  I have some pictures somewhere from then, but can’t seem to find them.  It is very rusty, and very crunched.  Come to think of it I sourced the hood for this car that you see on it and I a few other parts.  Netflix or Amazon should sponsor a show rebuilding a car in this condition. Anyhow.

201806270654-10121381XXX-6

Incomplete, rusty and crunched.  Any one of those three is a challenge.  Any two should give one pause, and three should cause one to run a four minute mile in the opposite direction forthwith.  At least it has its drivers side marker light.
Continue reading “Market 557: “Guila” SS for the brave”

Market 556: Sprint Normale 22352

Giulietta Sprint 10102 1493*22352.  This car is available now on eBay from longtime classic car dealer Gullwing Motor Cars out of Astoria New York.  It is a fine looking driver condition Sprint, with room for improvement – mainly little detailing jobs, especially in the engine compartment.  The description says it has a Sprint Veloce engine installed but the picture of the engine compartment shows a single down draft carburetor,  cast iron exhaust manifold and other normale spec items, so either the block is Veloce and the rest is not, the pictures are out of date, or they are confused.  Asking price is $56,500.  If it does have a Veloce engine installed, and includes the original as stated, this is probably a decent deal.

01

Good looking car.  It looks like a recent European import to me based on the front marker lights and the overall appearance.  Rims are Borrani – considered more desirable than Fergat rims.

Continue reading “Market 556: Sprint Normale 22352”

Borgo Di Carpiano

The Borgo Di Carpiano is an Agriturismo inhabiting a restored castle/church/village in the hills between Gubbio, and Perugia.  There was only one room open for one night while we would be in the area, and it was a bit of a drive from Gubbio, but we decided the drive was worth the experience – especially considering you typically have to book a year or more in advance to stay.

The buildings were impeccably restored over seven years from a ruin, and every detail is perfect.  The owner Riccardo is a great car guy with a collection of Fiats.  We talked cars as best we could, and I learned that the Borgo is a destination for lot of car enthusiasts from the US and UK.  I am probably ruining my chances of being able to get another room, but then, you are probably going to go to Milan or Rome if you go to Italy, so we shall see.

IMG_1882

Umbrian destinations all seem to be this evocative rough stone construction.  You really feel like you’re somewhere else when you’re here. I love the ancient Italian door.  I’ll be posting a big set of Italian door pictures when I get back.

Continue reading “Borgo Di Carpiano”

Giuliettas In Gubbio Italy

We drove from San Sebastiano Curone to Gubbio yesterday – lot of driving, but worth the effort. Gubbio is a very old city in Umbria, it evokes a heavy sense of life and history I am not used to. A feeling of the small cycles, days, moons, seasons, lives, centuries, civilizations contained in many many many years, and what can be achieved by generations of hands altering the land. That clock still runs, sons and daughters take the places of mothers and fathers, over and over until whatever end if any there will ever be.

Not a lot of old cars on the streets of Italy, perhaps the message got around that they ought to be preserved indoors, out of the elements. What I have seen are well cared for drivers.  I’ll post some here and… I am now, after years of probably stupid reluctance on Instagram.  There is probably a link I can embed, but I haven’t figured it out.  Search giuliettasdotcom and ask to follow!
IMG_1781

Rufus thought this Citroen H van espresso bar was neat.  Only really good coffee I got in Annecy.  Not that the other cups were bad just nothing exceptional.

Continue reading “Giuliettas In Gubbio Italy”