After the rust: what to do with leftover Alfa mechanicals?

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

I have occasionally mentioned cars that might blur the lines between Italian
etceterini, American road-race specials, (like Ken Miles') British specials
(like early Lotus) and traditional American hot rods, but using Alfa
components. The current (October) 'Automobile' has an article on a hot-rod
(previously featured in an Autoweek article) built around a
new-out-of-the-crate Ferrari Maranello engine and power train, with some Alfa
visual clues, particularly in the grill. The client who had it built wanted
something which would be indisputably a hot rod but which would incorporate
many design elements which he liked from a variety of Italian performance
cars. Nobody ever mentions what it cost, but it is a safe bet that you could
buy several new Ferraris for less. It is also 1300 pounds lighter than a
Maranello, and three feet shorter, with 49/51 weight distribution.

The article also has a sidebar p.98 on some other Ferrari-engined hot rods,
and the top photo on that sidebar column is a '27 T-bodied lakes modified
(i.e., short wheelbase with the body cut off behind the seats) with a
two-liter Alfa engine well back from the front suspension. Painted black, too,
which is a nice touch. I'm not familiar with the car, but the builder (Roy
Brizio) is one of the spare-no-pains perfectionist craftsmen of the trade, and
the photo suggests that the car is a back-to-basics, no-glitz minimalist
design exercise which would probably weigh at least a third less than the
Ereminas TZ, and not an ounce more than it needed to to handle. Could be a lot
of fun, and suggests design/build avenues which could be open to anyone who
didn't mind, or even enjoyed, looking like an unregenerate adolescent
California delinquent of the thirties.

John H. (unregenerate Illinois adolescent overripening in Carolina)
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