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This is part of the ItalianCar.net archive - go to ItalianCar.net now NEWS ARCHIVE The first… and the last - Alfa G1 meets 8C
Ahead of the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney this week Ateco Automotive (aka Alfa Romeo Australia) took the opportunity of showing off the very first Alfa Romeo - the Alfa Romeo G1 - next to the latest - the 8C Competizione. It's the first time it has ever happened and it could only have happened in Sydney: Alfa brought together the very first Alfa Romeo, the G1, and the very latest, the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, which jetted into Australia this week for the Australian International Motor Show. "These two remarkable cars share a unique bloodline, so it's more than appropriate that they are both bright red*," says Kevin Wall, General Manager of Alfa Romeo in Australia. "Both are two seat performance cars, both have big capacity engines offering breathtaking performance and both demonstrate Alfa Romeo's commitment to offering motoring excitement for more than 80 years." The Alfa Romeo G1 owes its survival to the fact that it spent many years holding up a farm shed in far west Queensland and then being used as water pump. Hidden away from the world for more than 25 years before being rescued, it survived, where other cars of its era were lost. Now fully restored, it is fully capable of breaking the 110 kmh speed limit, despite being more than 80 years old. The Alfa Romeo G1 and the 8C have never 'met' before because the Sydney-based G1 is the only one in the world (even Alfa Romeo in Italy does not have one) so it was not until the 8C Competizione arrived in Sydney for the motor show that they were able to get acquainted. As described in previous ItalianCar articles, the Alfa 8C Competizione is a fully 'productionised' prototype for a new model to be launched in 2006. Only 1,000 will be built of the 300 kmh super sports cars, but already six Australians have put their hand up for a chance to own the latest classic sports car from Alfa Romeo - at an expected price tag of around AUD$800,000. The 8C will be the centrepiece of the Alfa stand at the car show, which runs from 7-17 October at the Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre in Sydney. *the 8C is actually a metallic burgundy colour but we won't split hairs
A brief history of the G1 - and Alfa Romeo Then it was discovered by a couple of young jackaroos who decided it would make a fine 'paddock bomb' for rounding up cattle, chasing kangaroos and all the stuff that blokes do on farms. Eventually they managed to hit a tree and the damaged car was towed back to the farm where it was used to power a water pump. With its massive torque at low engine speed, it was ideal for the job and the work ensured that the engine remained in excellent condition even if the rest of the car was brutalised. In 1964 it was retired from pump duty and rescued by Alfa Romeo enthusiasts. The following year the car was bought by Ross Flewell-Smith who, against the advice of some experts who thought the car unrestorable, began to rebuild it, an exercise that took ten years. In this Herculean task he was helped by the fact that he discovered a second G1, a wreck, which supplied many of the parts that were missing. Most of the body was missing and, after experimenting with various styles, Flewell-Smith took advice from Luigi Fusi who was then curator of Alfa Romeo's museum. Flewell-Sinith's rebuild was good enough to win the 1977 Queensland Vintage Car Concours and to win the 1978 Australian Mile Miglia memorial run. In an historic race at Lakeside it was clocked at 86 mph, remarkable performance for a 1921 car, so remarkable, in fact, it was black-flagged for being so quick! In 1995, Flewell-Smith sold this car he had nicknamed 'Milly' from the 'Milan' on the engine black, to Julian Sterling who commissioned a restoration to his own exacting standards. All worn parts were replaced with specially-made components built regardless of cost. New tyres were supplied by Michelin, made from the original 1920s moulds, costing $6,000 for the set. The restoration was undertaken up to a standard, not down to a price, and the work was described in the 1998 edition of the Classic Car Yearbook as 'breathtaking'. Following a rationalization of Julian Sterling's car collection, the car was bought by Neville Crichton, the governing director of the new Australian Alfa Romeo importer, Ateco Automotive Pty Ltd. The Alfa Romeo G1 and its place in Alfa Romeo's history Alfa Romeo had its roots in the Società Italiana Automobili Darracq (SIAD) which was founded in November 1906 to assemble French Darracq cars for the Italian market. Darracq's products, however, were not suited to Italian needs and conditions and though the new concern was intended to build 600 cars a year, it built just 300 in 1908 and a mere 61 in 1909. SIAD was liquidated and the factory was bought by a consortium of Milanese businessmen who founded Anonima Lombardo Fabrica Automobili, (ALFA). The first ALFA cars were based on Darracq designs but the company was soon making cars designed by the former FIAT engineer, Cavaliere Giuseppe Merosi, and these proved very popular. Before long ALFA was making 3100 cars a year, then came the First World War. In 1915 Nicola Romeo, a successful mining engineer and maker of a very popular portable compressor known as 'The Little Italian' took over the ALFA factory to build tractors, ploughs and aircraft engines. As soon as the war was over, Alfa-Romeo (with a hyphen) returned to making cars. The first Alfa Romeo car (no hyphen) was the G 1, designed by Giuseppe Merosi. The G1 was a luxury car powered by a six-cylinder side-valve 6330cc engine, the largest engine ever fitted to an Alfa Romeo, and this was probably the reason why only 52 examples of the G1 were made. It arrived on the market just as petrol prices were raised and since the G1 returned only about six miles to the gallon it was not flavour of the month. The G1 was, however, advanced for its time. The engine, with two cast iron blacks each of three cylinders, produced 70 bhp at an unstressed 2,100 rpm, a phenomenal 217 lb/ft torque at 1,100 rpm, and it drove through a four-speed gearbox. The chassis was pure vintage with semi-elliptical springs at the front, dual quarter-elliptics at the rear, a unique feature, and, it being 1921, the mechanical brakes were on the rear wheels only with the footbrake operating on the transmission. It also started Alfa Romeo's motorsport heritage, finishing first in its category in its first outing, in the Coppa de Garda. The G1 was the first model designed specifically
as an Alfa Romeo and it is the grandparent of the immortal Alfa Romeo
P2, P3, Monza and Alfetta as well as the modern range of Alfa Romeos,
the Alfa 147, 156, 166, GTV and Spider. © italiancar.com.au 10/10/04
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