1969 Alfa Romeo Spider 1750 Veloce Round tail, twin Weber

This 1969 Alfa Romeo Spider 1750 Veloce is finished in Rosso Alfa over black and is offered from Somerset West by helderberg_spider, about this seller, who bought it in 2016 from the man who commissioned its restoration. It is a round tail car, the shape Pininfarina drew before the tail was cut off in 1970, and it shows 64,300km on twin Webers through the five speed.

The restoration was completed in November 2015 and the only record of it is the restorer's own written summary, which is published in full and unedited with the lot. Asked at intake what was replaced during that work, the seller declined, saying the summary is the restorer's statement and not his, that he did not watch the work being done, and that he will not repeat another man's account as though he could vouch for it.

What he did instead was photograph the areas the summary makes claims about. The boot floor, the spare well, the sills and the inner arches are all published, and the boot floor and spare well show evidence of previous repair under the paint, which the seller states plainly on the flaws list rather than leaving a bidder to find.

The car was converted from the original SPICA mechanical injection to twin Weber carburettors at some point before 2015 and the SPICA unit does not come with it. The file since 2018 is the seller's own and is complete: suspension in 2018, the cooling system in 2020, a clutch and rear main seal in 2023, and a pre sale service in August.

The Duetto and the 1750 Veloce that followed it are the round tail Spiders, drawn at Pininfarina with a boat tail that Alfa cropped in 1970 to make the Kamm tail cars. The round tail is the one collectors want and the price gap between the two shapes is significant, which makes body originality worth checking rather than assuming.

The 1750 brought the larger twin cam, and outside North America it ran on twin Weber carburettors while American market cars received SPICA mechanical injection to meet emissions rules. Converting a SPICA car to Webers has been standard practice for fifty years, usually because the injection was misunderstood rather than because it was faulty, and a car that has had it done is worth less to a purist and no less to a driver.

Alfa has deep roots in South Africa. Alfa Romeo assembled cars at Brits from the 1970s, the local club scene has run continuously since, and the specialist knowledge here on twin cams is better than it is for most European marques. That matters for a car like this one, because a Spider with an undocumented restoration is a car that needs somebody who knows where to look.