An Alfa in the Mille Miglia-1

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<p>An Alfa in the Mille Miglia Part 1</p><p>by pete on August 5, 2014</p><p>La Mille Miglia, Part 1 UK to Brescia</p><p>A longtime contributor to VeloceToday, Graham Earl entered this year’s Mille Miglia with one of</p><p>our favorite cars, an Alfa Giulietta Sprint. Earl is a veteran of three Mille Miglias, and in no</p><p>respect a novice. This three part article is an absolute must-read and like the Alfa and the Mille</p><p>Miglia, itself a classic. Remember Henry Manney’s account for Road & Track? This one is better!</p><p>Ever wanted to run the Mille Miglia? Read it! Owned an Alfa? Delight in it! Earl writes the truth</p><p>while composing one of the most maddeningly humorous and interesting series of articles to</p><p>appear in VeloceToday. Ever. We’ll also make it available as a pdf so you can read it at your</p><p>leisure. Ed.</p><p>Before its demise in 1957, the Mille Miglia had been one of the most important rounds of the</p><p>world championship for sports cars, and became the happy hunting ground for Alfa Romeo and</p><p>Ferrari, with 11 and eight wins respectively, out of the 24 events run. Other manufacturers also</p><p>took it very seriously, with works entries from Porsche, Maserati, Lancia (winner in 1954), Jaguar,</p><p>Bentley and BMW (who won the event in 1940) to name just a few. The first race, in 1927, was</p><p>won, appropriately enough, by local brand O.M. (Officine Meccaniche) and the fastest race was</p><p>held in 1955, when Stirling Moss took the Mercedes round the 1,000 mile course in a fraction over</p><p>ten hours, to average nearly 100 mph to give the German manufacturer their second win. Think</p><p>about that speed. This was on public roads, in 1955, flat out without a break, through towns, over</p><p>mountains and down valleys with little or nothing in the way of safety barriers. Incredible!</p><p>Página 1 de 8An Alfa in the Mille Miglia Part 1</p><p>05/08/2014http://www.velocetoday.com/an-alfa-in-the-mille-miglia-part-1/</p><p>Mille Miglia, 1956. The Alfa Sprint Veloce crossed the finish line 11th overall and first</p><p>in class, driven by Sgorbati and Zanelli.</p><p>Not surprisingly, the Mille Miglia is legendary.</p><p>Today the event lives again, not as a flat-out race, but a timed regularity trial. Competitors are</p><p>expected to meet the timing points at their scheduled times, and penalties are handed out for</p><p>inaccurate timing. The car with the fewest penalties at the end of the event is the winner. In 1977</p><p>the 20th anniversary of the last Mille Miglia was celebrated with a revival, in which cars from the</p><p>period of the original event could retrace the route under controlled conditions, and at legal speeds</p><p>(?) on roads still open to other traffic. The event was such a success that it was re-run again in</p><p>1982, when it was decreed that it would be run from now on biennially. A few years later the</p><p>recurrence was increased and it became an annual event.</p><p>So, every May a 400-odd strong gathering of some of the world’s finest historic sports and racing</p><p>cars assembles in Brescia in anticipation of a 1,000 mile jaunt through the Italian countryside,</p><p>visiting some of the most beautiful towns and cities along the way, while experiencing every</p><p>weather condition, from blazing hot sun to freezing snow, fog and rain. The Mille Miglia has it all.</p><p>What does one have to do to enter?</p><p>This might sound pretty attractive as an event to take part in, so what does one have to do to enter?</p><p>To secure a place, your car has to have taken part in the original event, prior to 1958, or failing</p><p>that, it has to be identical to one that did. But simply owning an eligible car does not automatically</p><p>gain you entry. Assuming you can meet the above criteria, your car has to be confirmed as totally</p><p>authentic and original, and this is done by obtaining a FIVA passport, which is achieved by having</p><p>the car inspected by a local FIVA representative, and paying the appropriate fee. The organizing</p><p>Página 2 de 8An Alfa in the Mille Miglia Part 1</p><p>05/08/2014http://www.velocetoday.com/an-alfa-in-the-mille-miglia-part-1/</p><p>committee opens the application process during the latter part of the previous year, and would-be</p><p>participants are invited to enter via the event web site. Car and crew details need to be submitted,</p><p>along with photographs of the car, and proof of its eligibility.</p><p>Oh, and the small matter of the entry fee – €8,500 (about $14,400). Cars which are proven to have</p><p>original Mille Miglia history are pretty well assured of being accepted, but for the rest of the</p><p>applicants the better the car’s history, the more complete and original it is, the greater your chance</p><p>of being accepted. If your car isn’t to original specification, and isn’t of a type which raced on the</p><p>event between 1927 – 57 forget it. You will not be accepted. The organizers aim to recreate the</p><p>original event as accurately as possible, with as broad a representation of the original participants</p><p>as possible, so don’t assume that just because you have a particularly nice Ferrari or Maserati you</p><p>will be accepted. The intention is not to have three or four hundred similar cars, but a proper cross</p><p>section, illustrating the diversity of the entrants in period.</p><p>Make no mistake, it is a very tough test of both machine and crew..</p><p>Having established that your car is eligible, and having sent in your application and paid your</p><p>entry fee, you wait to be told whether you have been accepted. Notification is made during</p><p>February, and the unsuccessful applicants (usually well over a thousand) have their entry fees</p><p>refunded (minus a handling charge!). For the successful applicants a mixture of emotions begins</p><p>to unfold; firstly excitement, then descending either rapidly or gradually, depending on your state</p><p>of preparedness, into anguish and desperation, as the discovery of the need for last minute</p><p>preparations becomes clear. For make no mistake, this event is a very tough test of both machine</p><p>and crew, and any shortcomings in the car’s preparation will be found out.</p><p>Página 3 de 8An Alfa in the Mille Miglia Part 1</p><p>05/08/2014http://www.velocetoday.com/an-alfa-in-the-mille-miglia-part-1/</p><p>One of the photos supplied to the organizers of the Mille Miglia.</p><p>This year I entered a very early first series Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint from</p><p>1955, a car which was already a veteran of previous Mille Miglias. Confident that the car was up</p><p>to the task, having had many thousands of pounds spent on mechanical maintenance over the last</p><p>couple of years, it was not until I took the car to be photographed that I became aware of any</p><p>problems. Occasionally the car would refuse to start if laid up unused for a lengthy period, but this</p><p>was usually remedied by a gentle tapping on the carburetor to release the needle valve, which had</p><p>a tendency to stick – a problem caused by wear. Not having used the car for some time I was not</p><p>surprised to have to go through this ritual when I removed it from the garage, but I was totally</p><p>unprepared for the breakdown which ensued just half a mile along the road.</p><p>Fortunately, the car came to a halt outside a service</p><p>garage, where we discovered that the filter in the fuel pump was clogged with debris from the fuel</p><p>Página 4 de 8An Alfa in the Mille Miglia Part 1</p><p>05/08/2014http://www.velocetoday.com/an-alfa-in-the-mille-miglia-part-1/</p><p>tank, which had also found its way through the other filters and into the carburetor. I left the car</p><p>with them to sort out, and later that day the garage rang me to tell me they had removed the fuel</p><p>lines, blown them through and cleaned the tank. So I collected the car and put it away again. Next</p><p>morning I tried again, but didn’t get as far as the end of the driveway before it quit again.</p><p>Now the anxiety was setting in. This is a car that had been well maintained, and had not wanted</p><p>for money and care to be lavished on it, and yet it still wasn’t right.</p><p>Getting ready to road test the Alfa. Behind the Sprint is a low nose SS, the result of the</p><p>author’s 20 year search.</p><p>I trailered it to my preferred Giulietta specialist for rectification, and opted for</p><p>a thorough going</p><p>through to iron out any other potential problems before they arose. The tank was removed and</p><p>inspected, thoroughly cleaned and found to be useable. The needle valve in the carburetor was</p><p>changed and various other jobs carried out, including replacing the suspension bushes, springs,</p><p>steering idler, unsticking the stuck driver’s window, replacing the exhaust system and anything</p><p>else I could think of that hadn’t been done recently. I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.</p><p>One other latent problem area was a knocking noise coming from the rear, which I presumed was</p><p>a broken damper, or a damaged top mount bush. Close inspection dispelled any such suspicions,</p><p>but failed to find the source of the noise, and it was left unattended to.</p><p>When I collected the Alfa, I now found a nasty flat spot in the power curve, which was</p><p>particularly noticeable on right hand corners. A decision was made to drive it as much as possible</p><p>to try to force any other issues to the surface, but the wettest winter on record, with ceaseless daily</p><p>rainfall and heavy flooding, prevented me from using the car as much as I would have liked.</p><p>Eventually the rain stopped long enough for me to take the car out on the odd occasion, and I put</p><p>on quite a few miles without incident. Further adjustment of the carburetor improved the flat spot,</p><p>without altogether eradicating it, but it was manageable now. So, everything seemed to be in order</p><p>as I received the happy news that the car had been accepted for the event.</p><p>After sixty years it was entitled to display some signs of fatigue…</p><p>Página 5 de 8An Alfa in the Mille Miglia Part 1</p><p>05/08/2014http://www.velocetoday.com/an-alfa-in-the-mille-miglia-part-1/</p><p>But then, the knocking noise from the rear grew worse,</p><p>and warranted much further investigation. Which is when I discovered, to my horror, that the unit-</p><p>frame chassis was cracked around both rear shock absorber top mounts, allowing the shocks to</p><p>move around and rattle against the inside of the coil springs. This was an unforeseen issue, which</p><p>needed urgent attention, so the car was delivered to my body shop for reparatory welding. This is</p><p>clearly a design weakness, and not something caused by neglect, for there is zero corrosion</p><p>anywhere in this amazingly well-preserved car, but after sixty years I suppose it was entitled to</p><p>display some signs of fatigue.</p><p>Once again I dared to believe that all problems had been</p><p>resolved and the car was fit for its Italian adventure. Apart, that is, from an aberrant signal</p><p>indicator which started to turn on unbidden every time I turned the steering wheel. Fortunately a</p><p>liberal squirt of spray grease adequately resolved this small issue and I was breathing easier again.</p><p>That was until it developed a new problem, whereby it refused to run unless the choke was pulled</p><p>out. The problem was eventually diagnosed to be caused by fine silt which had got through the</p><p>fuel filters into the carburetor and blocked some of the jets. This was hard to identify because fuel</p><p>was getting through, and the jets all looked clear. The carb was stripped down maybe half a dozen</p><p>times and reassembled, before the problem was found. The silt had lodged in one of the jets in</p><p>such a way as to allow fuel through, but to have disturbed the pattern of the flow. Instead of a fine</p><p>mist of fuel I was getting a torrent, in much the same way as placing your finger over the end of a</p><p>garden hose. This was enough to stop the car from running properly, and a difficult problem to</p><p>identify.</p><p>Having got the car to run well again things were looking up, but of course, that’s only ever a</p><p>temporary state of affairs. It couldn’t last, and it didn’t, because on driving with a passenger on</p><p>board a new creaking noise was apparent, which hadn’t been present before. Investigation showed</p><p>this to be a cracked frame on the passenger seat, so this had to be removed, welded and painted.</p><p>As it turned out, not a big deal, but just yet another problem to be overcome before tackling this</p><p>challenge.</p><p>Have you ever changed an Alfa dynamo in the rain?</p><p>Página 6 de 8An Alfa in the Mille Miglia Part 1</p><p>05/08/2014http://www.velocetoday.com/an-alfa-in-the-mille-miglia-part-1/</p><p>Then, returning home one evening in the car the lights</p><p>went out, the indicators stopped working and eventually the engine died. The battery was dead, so</p><p>in a fit of stupidity I decided to remove the dynamo and check it over, because I suspected that it</p><p>wasn’t charging properly. What should have been a really simple job became inexplicably</p><p>complicated, due to inaccessibility of the attachment bolts. My stupidity became ever more</p><p>apparent when, having undertaken this simple job outside in fine weather, the heavens opened and</p><p>dumped a month’s worth of rain in a couple of hours. That was unpleasant!</p><p>That was also when I discovered that the windscreen seal, which I had previously asked to be</p><p>replaced because it leaked, still leaked. I had been persuaded that the leak was coming from the</p><p>wiper arm seals, and these were duly replaced, but a footwell full of water demonstrated that the</p><p>cause of the leak was still present. As it transpired, the dynamo was fine, but the battery was</p><p>finished, so a replacement was purchased and that little problem was banished. However, the flat</p><p>battery-induced failing lights caused me to have a look at those, and it was only then that I</p><p>discovered the headlamp reflectors were rusty, and not capable of projecting a good spread of</p><p>light. There was no time to do anything about that, so I reassembled the lights, refitted them to the</p><p>car and told myself I’d manage. Until this time I had never really had cause to use the car in the</p><p>dark, and hadn’t appreciated how feeble the lights are.</p><p>Página 7 de 8An Alfa in the Mille Miglia Part 1</p><p>05/08/2014http://www.velocetoday.com/an-alfa-in-the-mille-miglia-part-1/</p><p>With two days to go before the transporter came to take the car away a new windscreen seal was</p><p>ordered and I took the car back to my specialist repairer. The new seal was fitted, and several</p><p>other minor jobs were carried out, such as a non-operating horn (blown fuse) and the fitment of a</p><p>heater tap, which a previous owner must have removed at some stage. That meant the heater was</p><p>permanently on – not useful in Italy in May, where ambient temperatures would be above 30</p><p>degrees C. While we were about it the windscreen washers, which had decided to stop working,</p><p>were also fixed.</p><p>May 9th, 2014: Loading the Alfa up for it's trip to Italy, still with old Mille Miglia</p><p>numbers.</p><p>With time running out, once again I felt the car was ready to go to Italy.</p><p>And it truly was this time, until…</p><p>Página 8 de 8An Alfa in the Mille Miglia Part 1</p><p>05/08/2014http://www.velocetoday.com/an-alfa-in-the-mille-miglia-part-1/</p>