Vídeo: Dueto: Alfa Romeo 1900C SS e Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce

🗣️ Transcrição automática de voz para texto.

The car we have with us is the Alfa Romeo 1900C SS. It’s an Alfa 1900 with bodywork by Touring, it’s the last model with Touring bodywork, which essentially represents a special version of what was Alfa Romeo’s first mass-produced model. Here we have a 1961 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce, a model that when it was released, came in various versions like 2+2, Sprint, Sprint Zagato, Sprint Speciale, and Veloce, which is exactly the model we have here, which gave it a bit more performance, as it had Weber carburetors and added another 11 horsepower, bringing it up to 90 horsepower. The 1900 tells a very interesting story about Alfa Romeo because, in the period before the War, Alfa Romeo was essentially a tailor brand, making cars in small series, very sophisticated, with six to eight-cylinder engines, all of them not accessible to the average consumer And that style of car after the War practically had no market, all the competitors like Delahaye, Delage, and other similar brands eventually succumbed to the post-war period, but at Alfa Romeo, they prepared for this transition. During the War period, during the conflict, a model was being prepared that was said to be Alfa Romeo’s great revolution, designed by Wilfredo Ricart, which was the Gazelle. It was a two-liter six-cylinder engine, but it was meant to be a front-wheel-drive car, with a streamlined body, it would have been a completely disruptive thing in the automotive sector. But then, at one point, almost towards the end of the conflict, the Portello factory was destroyed, and the entire project suffered a major setback, the factory needed to be rebuilt and the budget to develop such a special car was limited. At the same time, another almost cultural and political phenomenon occurred because Wilfredo Ricart was very associated with Il Duce, and so at the end of the War he was not someone who was well regarded, especially within the company but also throughout the country. So, Wilfredo Ricart left Alfa Romeo and it was Orazio Satta Puliga who took on the project to rebuild the brand. His whole idea, the entire concept of the car, was much more conventional, although, naturally, as Alfa Romeo always was, with much more sophisticated engines than most competitors. They wanted was a saloon car, a fairly large four-door car, a car in the medium segment, a family car with the longitudinal twin-cam engine as seen here, with rear-wheel drive, but for that time, it was a rather sophisticated engine. Then the mass production of the model began, and from there the more sophisticated versions started to arrive. The 1900 TI began to win races, like the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, achieving great results, and it created a a very interesting slogan that was "The Family Car that wins races." From then on, and based on this sophisticated mechanics, the bodywork versions started to come in, which in essence was also a bit of what ended up happening with the Giulietta. Following this model, which is like the older brother, perhaps a bit a bit bigger and heavier, even though it runs a bit faster in a straight line than this one, this car follows a bit of that sportsman spirit, on one hand a car already built with some quantity, it wasn’t produced in a small series and handmade, but it’s a car that already brings this more sporty component, so despite having this name Giulietta and, despite having this romantic and almost feminine look, because it really is a very beautiful car, it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In this case, we are talking about a 1300 which, being Veloce, has 11 more horsepower, so it gives 90 horsepower, it had an advertised speed of 185 km/h which was quite impressive for its time and it’s a car that, with all its mechanical structure, with its carburetors, with the monocoque structure, with rear-wheel drive, such a small car, weighing around 800 kg, could compete with Porsche at the time in competition, and sometimes even in countercurve races, against Ferrari with three-liter engines, or other much more powerful models than it, which you wouldn’t expect to be rivals for this little rocket. In this case, the Alfa 1900 was also a bit of downsizing compared to the norm at Alfa Romeo, most engines were almost all 3.0 L, this was a 2.0 L engine, so, for the time, it was still considered a small engine for a car of this kind, but quickly, even in the family version, the sporting potential was realized and naturally, Alfa Romeo didn’t want to disconnect from that more sophisticated market of those who create a car to their liking. So, the normal process was to pass the special versions to the coachbuilders. Almost all the major Italian coachbuilders took the 1900 and made their versions, some more bizarre and others more conventional. The Touring house made three generations of the 1900. Alfa Romeo produced the base, which was a shortened chassis of the 1900, that’s why this car is called 1900C SS, where the C stands for "Corto" (Short), then there were two versions of engines: there were the 90 horsepower engines, there were the 100 and later the 115 horsepower engines, which were called the 1900 Super, hence it being C SS (Corto Super Sprint). Aside from being a more powerful engine, with 115 horsepower, the bodyworks began to evolve, this is the last bodywork created by Touring, always designed by Touring’s in-house designer, who was the son of the founder, Carlo Anderloni, and this car is known as the Two-Window Coupe, because it doesn’t have any rear windows for the back seats, it takes full advantage of this mechanical potential, with a five-speed gearbox and this engine we’ve talked about, and it adds a tubular structure, with a very light bodywork, with many components in aluminum, which made the car especially agile for its time. In any case, this car is from 1956, the model was released in 1954, by this time there Giulietta already existed, and by this time the Giulietta was winning many competitions with a great potential for development and the agility ended up compensating somewhat for the less power. An interesting curiosity about this Giulietta: the normal version was by Bertone, but the Veloce version was by Pininfarina, which is the case we have here. And as you say, quite rightly, this is a super agile car, super fast for its size and for its time. Even to this day, it performs great, it’s a very fun car to drive, whether just cruising with the wind in your hair or racing with it. But it’s a car that is way ahead of its time, it has a perfect gearbox, it’s a super smooth gearbox, it has a super smooth steering, it has this boat-like feel with this suspension when we turn, it almost feels like a little boat turning left and right, so it’s really a car ahead of its time. it has a very unique way of driving, but it has the smoothest possible engine, this 1300 engine has an absolutely wonderful sound, an Italian song and it’s a car that never goes out of style. This model, the 1900 Touring used, initially, the column shift, like all Saloons, but in later versions, towards the end of production, it started using the floor-mounted gearbox, and in this case a five-speed gearbox, which is extremely advanced for the time, anyone who has a modern car today can drive this changing shifts, without any issues, even more easily, curiously, than in the Giulietta. These cars, despite being very sophisticated and very exclusive, ended up competing. The 1900 took part in many races, even today if we go see the Mille Miglia, we see some cars like this one in competition, because it was the car chosen by those who could afford it at the time. This particular example has a very interesting history, it belonged to Vicente Canas Mendes. He was the first owner of the car. At the time, he had a great taste, he was a civil engineer and he had a great passion for travel and he traveled across Europe with his wife, covering many kilometers in the Studebaker. At one point, after many trips and with the car a bit "tired", he decided to buy something more sophisticated, something that he could travel in more comfort and more speed. And as life was going well the initial idea was to buy a Ferrari, a gentleman’s GT, essentially, and so he set off with his wife to Italy to choose a Ferrari, but he didn’t find anything available, and surprisingly he found this car ready and available for delivery in Italy and bought it. He then lived many years always accompanied by this car until the end of his life he took it to Mozambique, where he worked for a few years. Then, after the passing of his wife due to illness, he came to Portugal and continued to use the car long past the normal lifespan for this car. His nephew remembers him driving, very well and very fast, and he remembers being a passenger and seeing the car going almost 200 km/h. And then, after the death of this first owner, the car was offered to the Museu do Caramulo, by the family, who in the meantime took the car for a complete restoration that it has been maintained to this day, simply with maintenance.