Beate Bergrath, her brother Benno and her father collect Alfasuds,
Sprints and 33s like other people collect miniature modell-cars.
Beate: "Everything started when the ex-boyfriend of my sister (today
she drives a 33 16V) wanted to buy a 1979 Alfasud Sprint. The boyfriend
and Benno went together to have a look at the offered Alfasud Sprint. But
it was not the boyfriend who finally bought the car, it was Benno who could
not resist the charme of an Alfasud Sprint. This happened in March 1991. The car's
interior looked brand-new, grey velours, 83 bhp, only one pre-owner, the
car painted in Alfa-red. What more did you want? Well, maybe a car where
you can not see the roof when lying under thee car... At that time
we had no knowledge about Alfasuds...and did not now all the weak and rusty
points. The beautiful shape was enough. So there was a lot to do. Benno could not afford a complete restoration and so
my father bought the car. We gave it to a company to repair all the rusty
sheets of metal, but when the car came back, a lot of incorrect work was
done. Unfortunately the Bergraths sold their first Alfasud Sprint.
After Benno could not use the 1979 Alfasud Sprint, he bought another Alfa.
In the summer of 1991 he found a red Sprint QV. It was built in 1983 and
was originally sold in the Netherlands. One of the pre-owners had already
done a lot of repair-work. The car was painted it in a BMW-red,
"self-made
by the preowner and not that bad! But he had not painted the entire body: when you open the bonnet, you see that car
was originally painted silver. The engine was the original one with 105
bhp," Beate tells. This Sprint was much too good to be used every day
and so Benno needed a car for the winter. He found a 1980 Sprint with sun-roof.
Later on, it was sold again, "something which nobody would do anymore
today!", Beate says. The next
Alfasud, was an Alfasud 1.3 series III. It was father Bergrath who bought it. Beate: "My former
boyfriend was interested in an Alfasud he had found in the Netherlands
and went to the Netherlands together with my father to look at it. But
again it was not my boyfriend but my father who bought AC-AR 218. Actually
the car is a really nice one - in very good condition. Presumably it had
been polished everytime after the owner had washed it. So the black paint
is not that thick anymore.But the car still wears its first paint. That
happend in summer 1994. The car was disassembled and some work was done before
it was used. It is a 1983 Alfasud 1.3 SC. It had the 83 bhp engine and
ran really good - till the day when we noticed that our two 83 bhp cars
were stated with different top-speeds. So we had to test which one was
the faster. The result was a
big black cloud coming out of the exhaust of AC-AR 218. Meanwhile it
has a 105 bhp engine. If you once see a black
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Something else than an Alfasud was not
accepted as first car. Since May 1992 the Bergrath-family had a silver
Alfasud 1.5 QO (Golden Cloverleaf) (today's immatriculation number AC-LT 498) which now became Beate's first car. The preowner had not
cared much about the car. The defect engine laid in the boot. But the good
condition of the body was an argument for the car.
"At that time we had installed a 75 bhp engine (1.3 litre) which quickly was exchanged against the 83 bhp engine of the 1979er Alfasud Sprint - the engine was not sold with the car. The 1.5 QO still has that engine today. When we prepared the 1.5 QO for the winter, the speedometre didn't want to work. We needed a new little spring. My father bought it at the local Alfa-dealer. A red Sprint QV was for sale there and so my father bought the speedo-spare and the Sprint." Why not? Beate's father still did not have a Sprint. It is a 1987 Sprint QV (AC-AR 875). It already has the Alfa 33 floor-plan with rear drum-brakes. Fortunately that Sprint had passed most of its life in the sunny and dry Spain and had therefor been well conserved. And the best: it only made few kilometres. Number five of the already existing Alfas, was a further Alfasud 1.5 QO made in 1983 (AC-CV 223). "Actually the car came from a person who wanted to buy the 1979 Alfasud Sprint. It still has its frist engine which has made more than 200.000 km." Alfasuds had become rather rare in
Germany. So the next purchase was an Alfa 33. Benno bought a blue
986 33 1.5 (AC-AR 414) which originally had 90 bhp. The first engine
needed a new piston some time after Benno had boughtthe car and so
he exchanged the damaged engine against a 95 bhp Alfasud engine which now
has made more than 220.000 km without problems. Maybe because it has a
long-transmission-gearbox which makes this 33 a good motorway runner. After
everybody had a Sprint but Beate, she als wanted to have one and bought
AC-AR 473"Now everybody had an Alfasud and a Sprint. When we saw AC-AR
473 it stood outside a box in which it had slept the last three years.
Some time before we visited it, it was rolled out of this box because
the owner needed the room. The engine didn't want to start, which turned out to
be defect ignition-lock. After we had maintained and repaired it, it looked
pretty good again. This Sprint hadn't done many kilometres and originally
was sold in Switzerland. Cars made for Australia, Sweden and|
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which
seems to be the original engine, although I only know Sprint QVs with 105 bhp. Its engine code is 301.82. One thing is sure: this combination
was never sold in Germany. The preowners seemed to have cared for the Sprint
and so it had nearly any visible rust. The wheelarches had once been repaired
unprofessionally which wasn't that nice."
The next Alfa, the Bergraths bought was again an Alfa 33 - in detail
a 33 1.7 QV with 114 bhp made in 1987 (AC-AR 713). Benno bought it.
"Now he had two 33s - and one of them had to go. So I bought the blue one
(AC-AR 414). The other, the 33 QV was cheap, had a damaged camshaft and <<something
at the rearaxle was said to be not ok>>. That <<something>> turned
out to be a brake pad, which was so thin that it had left its position and now flew through the brakedrum. Meanwhile the 33 QV
has
passed the 300.000 km mark", Beate tells.
Then Bergraths bought an Alfa 33 Sport Wagon 1.7 QV 4x4 (AC-AR 424): "It must have stood on the dealer's yard when my brother had bought the 33 QV. The advantage of the Sport Wagon was the the three-way catalyst and so my father bought it. It has 105 bhp and was built in 1989. Meanwhile it is not that easy to get spare parts for the car because there were not many 4x4 33s here. But it's a good car and has passed the 200.000 km mark a short time ago." The result of the last shopping tour was a 1990 33 16V QV (AC-AR 714). Beate: "It came from the same Alfa-dealer as most of the others. My father and my brother were driving arround with the 33 QV, saw the car, bought it and came home with two cars. I can tell you that the 16V can not run away the 1.7 QV when you accelerate both to the max. The 16V only has a higher topseed. Of course - it has more horses under the bonnet."All the cars are as original as possible. Except that some of them run with their second engine. Some of them are used every day. "I always fear that I would not drive my cars
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When this page was written, the Bergraths had 12 Alfas. Six Alfa 33, three Alfasuds and three Sprints.
Last Update: May, 27th 2004 Created: December, 1st 2002
© Layout by and text Tim Rauen. Photos by Beate Bergrath.