Blast from the past

[AikenDrum105]

I remember when hunting around for  a first car  having a look at an 80's giulietta at Straightway on St Kilda Rd.   Where I was educated that it's 'Julietta',  not 'gillyetta'...   Perish the thought !    Didn't manage to close the deal on that one - it was pretty ratty,  had a dash switch to turn off the thermo-fans  (bit of a sprint giveaway there..)  and they wanted a bit much for my spend - they had space to store it, so didn't need to flog it I guess.   

Ended up with a Pug 504 eventually after passing on a visually nice series 1 alfetta sedan I saw also  (which had rotten floors underneath...)   

Learnt a lot about driving in that 504 - very forgiving car.  no power,  needed 2nd-and-a-half gear,  but was fully independent and discs all round.  A mate with a hot Torana could always beat me up the mountain roads,  but could never beat me down the other side....

[pasey25]

This is fast becoming my favourite thread.

keep the stories coming.

my 75 TS (since sold) was from Straightway. I used to get it serviced at Alfa Melbourne in Peel St back in the early 2000's. That site is now up for lease.

I remember the Max Kirwan dealership in bundoora. I always looked to see if the 33's on display had a green or gold cloverleaf as a kid. The site is now an aldi

i'm now working a few doors down from where Talbot were in abbotsford. That is now a Suzuki/Hyundai dealership

[Tony Raditsis]

Bought my first Alfa from Clemens Sporting Cars in Oakleigh.  3 YO white Sud 4 door.  Fell in love after the first corner, thinking 'how long has this been going on' after driving my 72 Charger 75 Honda Civic.  Thought it was the perfect car (drove like a go-kart and i thought the interior was very classy in grey velour) until I wrapped it around a tree.  The subsequent 33 TI was OK but not as good as the Sud.

Remember getting the Sud serviced at The Italian Job and Charlie having a go at me for not have a 'real Alfa'.  Whatamean it's not a real Alfa says I.  'That's a real Alfa' as he points to a beautiful light metallic green 105 GTV2000 in the driveway.

I reminded Charlie of this conversation as we were walking thru his factory last year, looking for a part and he points to a Sud telling me what a great car it was.  "No way would I have said that" he tells me. 

[colcol]

I remember Salerno Motors in Huntingdale or Chelternam, because it was on the way to Braeside, where we used to go and collate the Alfa Club Magazine at The Late Brian Hormans Printing Factory, on the way home at about 11 pm, i would stop and have a look in the place. Delta was close by, i used to wonder if they were both owned by the same person.
The Max Kirwan Alfa Dealership was on the city side of the Plenty road and Greensborough road intersection, the Aldi place is on the opposite side, the former Max Kirwin site is now a Caravan or pool place or something, i will find out the next time i go past there, i used to go there on the way to Mario Panozzi's house, where he used to sell used Alfa Romeo parts from his garage, before he shifted in to his warehouse in Thomastown.
Does anyone remember Florio Motors in Lalor or Thomastown?, closed up about 1990, that was in the days, when you would look for wrecking yards in a phonebook, remember them?, kids ask your grandparents, Colin.

[aggie57]

Was Salerno the place under the overpass on North Rd?  That's where we bought Fang, our "1.6" Alfetta GT club car.  Very cheap at the time but for good reason 

[pasey25]

The Max Kirwan Alfa Dealership was on the city side of the Plenty road and Greensborough road intersection, the Aldi place is on the opposite side, the former Max Kirwin site is now a Caravan or pool place or something, i will find out the next time i go past there,

it was indeed a long time ago so I may well be wrong. The aldi site was definately a dealership in a previous life, but it did pass through a lot of marques and there were and are a number of dealerships on the city side so my memories of where exactly it was might be melding into one.

[Joe Garra]

In my relatively short (25 year) Alfa ownership, I've purchased my 75 TS from Mick Fuoco at Talbots, traded that in on a 164 from Talbots, then traded that it on the 164Q that was in Alfa Melbourne's showroom in Peel Street, (salesman was Warwick Jolly) which I still have. Then purchased a 33, and an Alfasud from them. Next the Sud was traded in on a yellow spider at Lance Dixon, which was traded in on a 156 Wagon at Trevor Stanley in Geelong, which was traded for a 159 wagon at Zagame's , which was sold, and then the Giulietta at Lance Dixon.

[colcol]

In 1980 there was a Alfa Dealer called Donington Motors at 899 Nepean Highway in Moorrabin, unknown if they were a Franchised Dealer or just a specialist.
Hollywood Motors, Alfa Dealer early on, as Furniture Retailer Franco Cozzo would say, "In-Foot-is-gray", in the 80's was a Honda Dealer.
Lightburn Company in South Australia, was a distributor for Australia?, they assembled some Alfa Romeo Models there in the 60's, alongside 'Australia's worst car ever', the Lightburn Zeta, also made car jacks, washing machines and concrete mixers, they still make concrete mixers, "Lightburn, mix with the best", Harold Lightburn was the owner of this operation and thought he could export the Zeta, when he couldn't and they auctioned of the remaining unbuilt Zeta's, and someone purchased the fibreglass bodies and used them as dog kennels.
Alfa Romeo's started selling well, by this stage and by 1972, Alfa Romeo Australia, was established in Beuauchamp Rd. in Matraville, where they stayed until 1992 until they closed down, Colin.

[GTV-074]

Alister I think the one near the overpass in North Road was Delta Cars but as I mentioned I am pretty sure that was their 2nd location (could well have been on Nepean Hwy near Straightway originally).

Salerno Motors was on the corner of Clayton Road and Dandenong Rd (we bought our auto Berlina there) but I am pretty sure they were somewhere else before that location.

I'll have to dig out some of my 'archive' and see what that throws up!

Any one remember going to Italian Job at their original location on the corner of Toorak Rd and Bourke Rd? ....

Col, what Alfa's were assembled here? I was under the impression that no Alfa's were ever assembled in Oz.

(see Barry's comments here http://www.alfaclubvic.org.au/forum/index.php?topic=5213.msg28810#msg28810)

Cheers.

[Paul Gulliver]

Any one remember going to Italian Job at their original location on the corner of Toorak Rd and Bourke Rd?

There's a Budget rent a car there now . It used to be a collection of old tin sheds down a lane way. I remember buying a spare wheel for my first 1750 GTV  there about 1976   

[aggie57]

Alister I think the one near the overpass in North Road was Delta Cars but as I mentioned I am pretty sure that was their 2nd location (could well have been on Nepean Hwy near Straightway originally).

Yep, now that you say that it sounds right. Thanks. We bought that GT in a pretty rough shape and got a roadworthy somehow, in the basis that the car was for track use only. Which it was but anyway......!

We thought it had a standard 1.8 engine but when we pulled it apart some time later to do the rings we found it was in fact a 1.6. I can still recall offering up the new 1.8 rings to the block and having them overlap......

Anyway, it worked out well as late cast 1.6 engines were sought after whereas nobody wanted a 1.8, so when we wanted to put a 2 litre engine in (from a perfectly reasonable Berlina that Dave Crump found somewhere) we sold that 1.6 complete for decent money to someone who put it into a Giulia Super for a round Australia trial re-run.  Everyone won.

[colcol]

In the olden days of the 60's, it made good economic sense to assemble cars in Australia, as there were massive import duties to pay on imported cars, 65%, if i remember rightly?.
So if Lightburn industries already had an underused production line, then they may of built some 105 coupes, as cars were a lot easier to assemble back then.
In the olden days of the Bathurst 500 mile enduro, the cars running had to be assembled in Australia, and you would have Studebakers, Mercedes, Triumphs, Volkswagons, Simcas, Hillmans, Morris Coopers, Hillmans.
A few car enthusiests turned up one year at Bathurst in Porsche 911's and they didn't comply because they were not locally assembled.
Later on at Bathurst the local assembly laws were relaxed, to allow a bigger mix of cars, even Fiats were then able to compete.
Does anybody remember Formula Uno the wrecker in Geelong?, it was setup in a what looked like a ex car dealer or furniture showroom, and he had a massive amount of bits for Alfa Romeo's, he seemed to be a bit slow on answering his phone, you would ring 4 or 5 times before he answered, one day i neede something and his phone wasn't answering, so i drove down to Geelong and the place had closed down.....well missed place on the Alfa Romeo landscape, Colin.

[Paul Gulliver]

Formula Uno the wrecker in Geelong

He was always a handy guy for 164 bits in the early 1990's when no body was wrecking a 164's.

[aggie57]

For a while UNO was where all the Alfa wrecks went. He had some amazing stuff and prices could have very good.  I've still got a 75 air con compressor and bracket in the garage that came for there.

[colcol]

The Max Kirwan Alfa Romeo site in Bundoora in 1984 was a number of things after that, currently it is a ex car park bomb site, across the road from Aldi, with Alfa Romeo Dealers coming and going all the time, it does nothing for the stability of the Marque, i hope the current new Alfa Romeo Dealers are in for the long haul, and Alfa Romeo - Fiat - Chrysler need more than 2 models to represent our hallowed Brand, Colin.