Car of the Month:John Searle’s 1976 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT

Car of the Month: John Searle’s 1976 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT by Murray Stanley

You can’t be a true petrol-head until you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo. Well, that’s according to Jeremy Clarkson anyway. If that truly is the case, then our Club’s new Treasurer, John Searle, has been a certified petrolhead for a very long time indeed. John and his wife Gail acquired their Alfetta GT way back in 1976 while doing part of their OE in South Africa. Back in those days, Alfa was assembling cars there, and John purchased his car brand new with the purpose of bringing it back to New Zealand. There were no annoying compliance hassles back in those days. All you needed was to have owned the car while overseas for two years, and that was that. John picked up his freshly landed car at the Wellington wharf in 1978 and was driving it home within just half an hour. The Alfetta range was introduced in 1972 - originally debuting as a Berlina (Sedan), but was later produced as GT & GTV coupes. Ital Design produced the

timeless and beautiful coupe shape. In Italian, Alfetta means “little Alfa,” and it was available with a variety of engines. John’s car has a naturally aspirated 1.8-litre engine fed by twin Dellorto carburettors. Amongst the main improvements over earlier Alfa models was the use of a rearmounted gearbox/differential transaxle system for a 50:50 weight distribution. To complement this transaxle design, an equally impressive type of rear suspension was used in the form of a De Dion tube, which helps to reduce un-sprung weight in comparison with a live rear axle. The De Dion design also has a significant advantage over modern, fully independent suspension. There are no changes in camber as the axle’s load is changed, allowing for better traction and reduced wheel hop. The designers also further reduced the un-sprung weight by moving the rear brakes inboard.

John is a semi-retired mechanical engineer who has spent his career working in industries associated with pulp and paper and geothermal energy. During his long career, the family at one stage moved to Tasmania for a few years, and as the Alfetta was a member of the family, it went along for that trip as well. Like any car from

the 1970s, rust was an ongoing issue, and it has had two comprehensive body and mechanical rebuilds - as well as an interior refurbishment.

Apart from the model-specific difficulty of selecting second gear (due to the complex gear linkage), John has not experienced any of the typical Alfa unreliability issues. One issue, however that did arise recently was the car failed its WOF at VTNZ because the eagle-eyed inspectors believed that the metal VIN tag had been removed and subsequently re-attached. Evidently, the rivets securing the tag looked too new! John doesn’t know when exactly this happened but thinks it was probably done while the car was away being painted. But when he began the process to rectify this issue, it was discovered that there was a one digit difference between the VIN tag on the car and the VIN number in the MOT system. The “quick & dirty” inspection/certification on the Wellington wharf way back in 1978 was suspected to be the

reason for the incorrect VIN number being recorded into the official system. Apparently, official records are impossible to change, so the Alfetta needed to be re-complied to enable it to be formally issued with its new VIN number. As can be imagined, John is not a huge fan of VTNZ!

The Alfetta is not John and Gail’s only vintage car. They also own a very nice black 1963 Daimler V8 saloon (MkII Jag shape), but if they win Lotto, they will be looking at buying a Ferrari 250 GTO – or failing that any classic front-engined Ferrari powered by a V12. In the meantime, they are bringing themselves right up to date with the keenly anticipated arrival of a Tesla Model 3.

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