Help tracking history on Very early GTV6

[Dna Dave]

Guys,

I have a Mar 82, split dash Gtv6 that i would love to track the history down on, she still has the Vic plates CPU 290, red non sunroof with tan leather interior, looks like its factory or dealer fitted as its has matching door cards and punched holes in the centre sections of the seats and cards.

The gentlemen i purchased it off, bought it from a Matt in around 97, who bought it off his brother, who bought it of Benninca's.

I am told it may be an early press car, it has a built date plate but no compliance plate, or holes showing evidance that there ever was, but i will have a good look when i get home.

The provious owner told me it was press car, that is bought in for press evaluation before release to market proper. That was the explanation for not having and never having a compliance plate.

I recall reading a story about the early GTV6's being registered as 2L's before the approval came through, could it be one of those??

I am thinking of restoring her.

Thanks in advance for any help

[kartone]

I owned one of the first five split- dash imported into Australia and registered as a 2-litre, however, not the one in the photo as mine  had a manual antenna mounted on the passenger side rear panel below the vent.

[Dna Dave]

Thanks for the reply,

By chance did it have a compliance plate? Also do you know the vin number?

Cheers

David

[Dna Dave]

This ones on the drivers side

[David Mills]

Dave, there are 9 pages  of earlier posts on this topic.  See Early GTV6 in this subject.

May answer many of your questions

Cheers

[Dna Dave]

Thanks David,

Just read it, some very interesting reading,

I was also trying to get history on my actual car which is Vin # 2024, it is briefly mentioned but was hoping that someone knows of the provious owner.

Cheers

[carlo rossi]

yes thats my old one
 
but i wrapped it around a tree and it burned !!!!
then rebuilt did a bank job in it and then raced it till it fell apart
Do i know this car ?
NO never seen it before
has anyone got info it surely

[GG105]

Well done Dave.

As I said in my Early GTV6 thread, there were between 35 and 50 bought in, none have compliance plates, all were red with, some with sunroofs, some not, grey or beige interiors, no intrusion bars in the doors and all were registered a 2 litres. They only had a drivers side exterior mirror when new.

I've owned two of these and everyone says theirs is a press car😎. ARA when they were at Matraville in Sydney had white cards for every car, which detailed their original owner. Does anyone know what happened to them? I'll ask Tony McKone.

Well worth restoring in my view.

Cheers
John

[aggie57]

Out of interest there is a very early RHD car for sale in the UK right now with the interim dashboard Alfa Romeo GB developed. Only 22,000 Miles, a very unusual car.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C991428

[Citroënbender]

Interesting link, thanks. I have to wonder how much of a line call the "refin vs patina" situation was, and whether passage of time may have favoured the latter.

Re the "press car" stories, I think many specialised imports have this tale appended in some form, the companion story is how the number delivered = number sent-x where x is the car or cars written off at unlading or in final transport.

[GG105]

Aggie, the silver car isn't really that early, but is interesting with the unique UK dash. Our batch of red ones were mostly built in January/ February 1982 and the real press cars, ie the Dulux car was built in 1981. I don't know, but suspect ours were fairly early in RHD production, hence ARAs move to import a batch of them for evaluation. From memory, they do have build plates.

Its also interesting that the grey has turned greenish, something I haven't seen on our early interior grey cars, unlike the later Recaro interiors which turn green or brown.

To anoraks like us this is all good stuff, however, the market currently prefers the later single piece dash cars. There was a time when when 2 litre 105 GTVs were worth more than stepnoses...

[aggie57]

True, with an early 83 registration its build date could be well before then. Alfa had a lot of trouble selling those early split dash RHD cars in the UK, well in fact they had a lot of trouble selling any new cars in the UK at that time what with a very deep recession playing out. They had fields of cars parked in the open for months and months, the Lancia Beta debacle was still fresh in people's minds and anything Alfa was closely linked to that experience.

I lived in the UK at that time and there was a view that Alfa built one or two batches Of RHD GTV6's with the split dash, shipped them to AR GB who essentially said 'no more'. It'd be good to know the chassis number of that silver car and compare it with yours.