Re: Alfa Furgone!

[NortonMarg@xxxxxxx]

The spelling error was mine, spell check didn't catch it! In terms of the VW 
conversion project: I would be replacing a Dodge van that is totally 
non-ergonomic, driving it is wrecking my back. If I can find an F12 (probably gas if 
they really do have more power) in decent shape, I'll get it. otherwise, I may 
look for the little "estate car"
Stevan Thomas
73 Berlina


> Subject: Re: (sic) "Alfa Fugone (van)"
> 
> The fourth item in Andrew Schwartz' essay (in ad9-0716) on "How many Alfa
> Digest posters does it take to change a lightbulb?" was "7 to point out
> spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs." Ergo I am
> obliged to mention that the subject line in the Stevan Thomas/ Timothy Leigh
> Rodgers discussion of Alfa vans, "Alfa Fugone (van)" needs a 'sic': the word
> is Furgone, not Fugone.
> 
> Stevan wrote "I think the F12 is more what I'm after, although I'd certainly
> consider the Romeo 2 as long as I got one that was late enough in production
> so that it can be a "user" more than a "collectible". Any idea how to find 
> out
> about prices and shipping from Italy?"
> 
> The Romeo, A11, A12, F11 and F12 were never a large part of Alfa's 
> production;
> the only production figures I have seen were from the late sixties, when 
> they
> exceeded the number of Spiders built, but not by a large margin. The odds on 
> a
> utilitarian commercial vehicle surviving thirty to forty years of daily
> hacking in Italian urban traffic are pretty slim. Some few do survive, but
> prices would be pure supply-and-demand, plus luck; near zero supply, near 
> zero
> demand, entirely different if two are available and only one person wants 
> one,
> or if one is available and two people want one. I would advertise in, or
> subscribe to, both Manovella and Ruotteclasiche, and be prepared to pounce
> while feigning disinterest. Shipping can be expensive, or it can be quite
> reasonable if two or three people fill a container, or if a vacationer comes
> home by sea with the vehicle as accompanying baggage (which I have done, 
> both
> ways, on a Polish luxury liner plying the Montreal-Gdynia route. Avoid the
> North Atlantic in November).
> 
> There is an alternative, if one is the sort of unpurist who dreams about
> swapping engines or building fiberglass 'Stradale' clones to rebody rusty
> Spiders. The Romeo had about the same track and wheelbase as a 155; the
> F11-F12 are probably a tad larger, but as Tim wrote "These vans are about 
> the
> size of a VW van", which would be close to the track and wheelbase of a 164.
> Cosmetically challenged 164s can be quite cheap these days, and marrying a 
> VW
> Vanagon hull to a 164 platform, with suitably hooked-up grill and badging,
> would not be technically difficult or aesthetically particularly 
> 'challenging'
> and could probably fool most of the people who have never seen a real Alfa
> truck. It would beat Timothy's in a drag-race, though probably not in an
> authenticity/originality concours.
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