Glenn Sowade owns this nisidagrey-metallic Alfasud Ti 1.5 QV.
As the author of this page he has been infected with the "Virus Alfasud" in his childhood. In his case it was an All-white Alfasud Ti 1.5 special edition which was driven by his mother from 1982 to 1989.
"It caused more interest than a Porsche I think! It really looked dammed good", Glenn says. Unfortunately the car was so rusty that it was sold to a stock-car-driver for the ridiculous amount of 250 EUR in 1989. The stock-car-driver crashed it a little later. The typical destiny of many Alfasuds. Meanwhile Glenn can again enjoy the Alfasud-feeling with his own Ti. He would like to make an "All-white Alfasud Ti out of it - what else! Since 1983 the Ti on the photos made 133.000 km. Glenn bought it in August 2000 in Freiburg (Germany). The old owner never had imatriculated it and drove it with a so called "rote Nummer". The car had been imported from Switzerland. Now Glenn is the first owner -
if you believe the German imatriculation papers.
The photos do not show some of faults the car has. The first owner was
a smoker and so the car smells like an ashtray - even after an entire bottle of Febreze anti-smell cleaner.
The ashtray had never
been emptied, and therefor sometimes hot ash found
its way to the floor where it caused ugly little holes. The driver's seat
shows the same signs...The first (rust) shock came when Glenn removed the floor carpet. The brown devil had destroyed the floor. To cover the rusty section, the preowner had welded a new sheet of metal under the old rusty one. But Glenn has already repaired that properly. The first thing of all Glenn did, was to give the steering wheel silver spokes by removing the original black paint. It looks better now. The car is still in its original
condition and has the first paint. There are some rusty body parts which have partly been
welded. E.g. the holes in the floor which allow the water to leave the
car, the rear wheelarches (which Alfasud does not rust there?) and some sections of the A-pillar. The Ti got the TÜV badge and can therefore
be driven the next two years without any problems.After all the work was done a bad thunderstorm gave the roof six dents. Since September 2001 Glenn already made 6000 km with the Ti which is imatriculated from April to October. (This quite new German solution for vintage cars, campers etc. allows to save some tax costs.)
Fuel consumption was always about 10 litres of Super per
100 km - no matter how hard the car was driven.
Of course Glenn did not only use it without
any service: he made the obligatory change of the engine oil, he changed
the spark plugs (the old ones did not want to come out first...), all hoses
of the radiator system and the tooth belts. Being too old, they were near to a collapse. The brakes did not work
perfectly aswell. So Glenn had to adjust the pads
which made the situation better. The car is still pulling a little bit
to the left because the right front disc is always full of oil-spray. So one has to clean it once a week...
But Glenn also improved the look of the Ti QV. The Scudetto
did not have the usual red inlay in Switzerland. They used the black one
there. Glenn gave it the red inlay. The 105
letters on the sides
and on the rear of the Ti are original, Glenn supposes. (In Switzerland
one seems to like such kind of presentation, even the slowest Mercedes-Benz
trucks bear the word "POWERLINER" on the front.) The original
"Alfasud QV" badge has been exchanged by the usual and longer "ALFA ROMEO
Alfasud 1.5" badge.
The Ronal wheels are not original either. ("I love this telephonedialer-design" , Glenn says.) The car can be (legaly) driven with 7x13 205/60 R 13, 6x14 185/60 R 14 and 7x15 195/50 R 15 wheels.
Maybe there is someone who can make Glenn's dream complete? He still searches for the roof spoiler of the AW-Delta spoiler kit which was used at the All-white special edition.
So if you have one for sale, contact Glenn. Mail to GSowade@t-online.de.
Last Update: May, 27th 2004 Created: August, 1st 2001
© Layout and text by Tim Rauen. Photos by Glenn Sowade.