One of my favourite sports shows has a question every week – Who would you rather be? There are two possible answers and they usually pose an upside and a downside.
e.g Who would you rather be?
Prince Charles, or
Prince Harry?
It sounds easy at first, but think about it.
One’s going to be King, probably sooner rather than later. And let’s face it, it’s good to be King. The other is loved by the people and will still have a pretty good life. But he’s unlikely to ever be the King and that’s a place in history that he’ll miss out on forever. Does history give places to likeable knock-about brothers or sons of kings? Not that often. And the Windsors are an historical bunch, let’s face it.
Upside. Downside.
This isn’t exactly a “who would you rather be?” scenario – although that would be interesting, too – but hopefully it’ll make you think just as much.
The question?
Which car do you think we’ll see available for sale first?
The Spyker B6 Venator, or
An electric Saab?
Spyker have released both the hardtop and Spyder versions of the B6 Venator in concept form. Just this week, they’ve released images of the production hardtop model. You can’t help thinking, though, that production versions might be hard to come by in the real world. When a company’s pressed to offer bonds that can be converted into cars, presumably in order to finance the actual build, then you have to wonder.
Victor Muller took a pretty big financial hit from the whole Saab affair. He’s had no luck with his court case against GM and the Swedes are still looking at his dealings from the Saab days. Victor’s the ultimate survivor, though. He’s still got Spyker and he’s managed to wrangle enough cash together to produce these new concepts. He even managed to get one sitting dockside at the Monaco GP last weekend. But has he got the cash to release them by their expected due date, in 2015?
Saab?
Well, one of their major shareholders hasn’t come through with the cash they promised. The boss has had to try and liquidate assets in China to pay the bills and he’s a few months behind. The company’s had to stop production for 4 weeks and that’s right before the usual summer break, so don’t be surprised if it turns out to be more like a 12-week break. Investors are said to be on the verge, but who’s going to invest in a crippled company when they could wait and get the bits they want at a knock-down price?
And then there’s the whole electric car thing. Are they actually close to building a viable electric vehicle for consumers? Right now they’re courting investors to complete the Phoenix platform, which makes me wonder how much work they’ve actually done on it since buying the company. They reportedly started sending electric test vehicles to China but are they ready for consumers?
I think it’s a legitimate question – which car will we see available for sale first? An electric Saab or the Spyker B6 Venator?
I was just looking up some Saab 9-3 TiD information for a friend when I came across this price list for the Saab 9-3 in Australia, circa 2008.
Some will say it allows customers the freedom to choose the exact model that suits their taste as well as their budget. Others will say that’s bollocks.
Either way, it’s just a little bit hilarious.
Price Range
Linear 2.0t Sport sedan – $43,400
Linear 2.0t B’Power sedan – $44,400
Linear 1.9Tid S’sedan – $45,900
Linear 2.0t Sport sedan a – $45,900
Linear 2.0t SportCombi – $45,900
Linear Sport 2.0t sedan – $46,400
Linear 2.0t BP SportCombi – $46,900
Linear 2.0t BP S’sedan a – $46,900
Linear Sport 2.0t B’P sdn – $47,400
Linear 1.9TiD SportCombi – $48,400
Linear 1.9Tid S’sedan a – $48,400
Linear 2.0t SportCombi a – $48,400
Linear Sport 1.9Tid sedan – $48,900
Linear Sport 2.0t sedan a – $48,900
Linear Sport 2.0t S’Combi – $48,900
Black Turbo sedan – $48,900
Linear 2.0t BP S’Combi a – $49,400
Vector 2.0t Sport Sedan – $49,900
Linear Sport 2.0t BP S’Co – $49,990
Linear Sport 2.0t BP sdn – $49,990
Vector Lux 2.0t Sedan – $49,990
Linear 1.9TiD S’Combi a – $50,900
Vector 2.0t BP S’sedan – $50,900
Vector Lux 2.0t BP sedan – $50,900
Linear Sport 1.9TiD S’C – $51,400
Linear Sport 1.9Tid sdn a – $51,400
Linear Sport 2.0t S’C a – $51,400
Linear Sport 2.0t BP SC a – $52,400
Vector 1.9TiD Sport sedan – $52,400
Vector Lux 1.9TiD sedan – $52,400
Vector Lux 2.0t S’Combi – $52,400
Vector 2.0t SportCombi – $52,400
Vector 2.0t S’prt sedan a – $52,400
Vector Lux 2.0t Sedan a – $52,490
Vector 2.0t BP SportCombi – $53,400
Vector Lux 2.0t BP S’Comb – $53,400
Vector 2.0t BP S’sedan a – $53,400
Vector Lux 2.0t BP sdn a – $53,400
Vector 2.0T Sport sedan – $53,400
Linear Sport 1.9TiD S’C a – $53,900
Vector Lux 1.9TiD S’Combi – $54,900
Vector 1.9TiD SportCombi – $54,900
Vector 1.9TiD S’sedan a – $54,900
Vector Lux 1.9TiD sedan a – $54,900
Vector 2.0t SportCombi a – $54,990
Vector Lux 2.0t S’Comb a – $54,900
Vector 2.0t BP S’Combi a – $55,900
Vector Lux 2.0t BP S’C a – $55,900
Vector 2.0T SportCombi – $55,900
Vector 2.0T S’prt sedan a – $55,900
Vector Lux 2.0T sedan – $56,400
Vector 1.9TiD S’Combi a – $57,400
Vector Lux 1.9TiD S’C a – $57,400
Vector 2.0T SportCombi a – $58,400
Vector Lux 2.0T SportComb – $58,900
Vector Lux 2.0T sedan a – $58,900
Vector Lux 2.0T S’Combi a – $61,400
Aero 1.9TTid sedan – $62,600
Aero 1.9TTid sedan a – $65,100
Aero 1.9TTid S’Combi – $65,100
Linear 2.0t c’vertible – $65,500
Linear 2.0t BP c’vertible – $66,500
Lin Sport 2.0t c’vertible – $67,500
Aero 1.9TTid S’Combi a – $67,600
Linear 1.9TiD c’vertible – $68,000
Linear 2.0t c’vertible a – $68,000
Linear Sport 2.0t BP conv – $68,500
Linear 2.0t BP c’vble a – $69,000
Vector 2.0t c’vertible – $69,600
Linear Sport 1.9TiD c’ver – $70,000
Lin Sport 2.0t c’vtble a – $70,000
Linear 1.9TiD c’vtble a – $70,500
Aero 2.8TS Sport sedan – $70,600
Vector 2.0t BP c’vertible – $70,600
Lin Sport 2.0t BP c’vb a – $71,000
Vector 1.9Tid c’vtble – $72,100
Vector 2.0t c’vertible a – $72,100
Lin Sport 1.9TiD c’vtb a – $72,500
Aero 2.8TS Sport sedan a – $73,100
Aero 2.8TS SportCombi – $73,100
Vector 2.0t BP c’vtble a – $73,100
Vector 2.0T c’vertible – $73,100
Vector 1.9TiD c’vtble a – $74,600
Aero 2.8TS SportCombi a – $75,600
Vector 2.0T c’vertible a – $75,600
Turbo X Sport Sedan – $88,800
Aero 2.8TS c’vertible – $90,800
Turbo X Sport Sedan a – $91,300
Turbo X Sport SportCombi – $91,300
Aero 2.8TS c’vertible a – $93,300
Turbo X Sport S’Combi a – $93,800
I missed commenting on The Budget ™ because my computer had crapped its pants but I couldn’t resist this.
The background…..
Last week our nation’s Treasurer, Joe Hockey, delivered his government’s first budget. Like most first-term government inaugural budgets, it blows a whole bunch of political capital on ideological flights of fancy that the government hopes it can make up for before the next election. It’s a budget that makes Australia a meaner, more desperate place.
One of those flights of fancy is the deregulation of universities and associated changes to Australia’s student loans scheme. Basically, the government wants a US-style university system that creates a small bunch of universities for elites who will go on to become conservative politicians think they’ll be able to afford the payments, and a bunch of crappier universities for the rest of the plebs.
They also want to slug students more to repay their loans – even if they’re dead (and who wouldn’t want Christopher Pyne at their dead child’s funeral, carrying a bunch of flowers and a letter of demand?).
Students have been – quite understandably – a little upset about this. They’ve held protests in the last week and even made our country’s Foreign Minister a little uncomfortable at one campus appearance. They also disrupted a presentation by another former Liberal MP, Sophie Mirabella, but then that’s completely appropriate and should be encouraged.
Smokin’ Joe’s colleagues have been up in arms at the treatment of their political kin, crying foul with confected outrage and calling students all sorts of nasty names due to their antisocial behaviour.
Cut to last night’s news, then……
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In light of that information, imagine how pleased Smokin Joe must be to see this news footage of himself from 1987. It hit the online news services last night. Smokin Joe might have morphed into Sweaty Joe again when he saw this.
He participated in a protest at Sydney University that saw security guards assaulted, windows smashed and buildings occupied. The pièce de résistance is at the end of this clip, where a younger-but-only-slightly-fitter Smokin Joe declares his support…… FOR FREE EDUCATION!!!!
Yes, the government’s $250 fee – that’s what this whole thing was about – was the beginning of the end for free tertiary education and Joe was ready to man the barricades to protect it.
Oh, the irony.
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For the record, and before the peanut gallery start their hand-wringing…..
I’m not opposed to a more market based interest rate for HECS. But leave the dead people out of it.
And I know that many pollies have said things in their youth that they later regret. This is just another one. But what a relevant one at this particular point in time!!
And for those who wonder why we wouldn’t want an elitist university system here… our universities do just fine, thanks. And graduates rarely have to fear never getting a mortgage because of their student debts. The whole nation benefits from a more equity-based university system and it should stay that way.
I was born in Melbourne, so I’m genetically programmed to hate everything about Sydney*. I live in Hobart, so I think Launceston’s a hole**. Geographic rivalry is about as old as mankind itself. It started when the first cavemen argued over who had the best hunting ground and it hasn’t stopped since.
As a Saab guy, I have a natural disposition to dismiss Volvo. Where Saabs were sporty and svelte, Volvos were boxy and brutal. The old joke is that they were built to protect Volvo drivers from other Volvo drivers. Secretly, though, I quite like them. I suspect a lot of other Saab fans feel the same way.
What drew me to Saab was Swedish design and engineering and Volvos share the same qualities. The design side hasn’t always been so attractive. I can remember an Aussie racing driver in the 1980’s describing the task of overtaking a Volvo being similar to trying to pass an mobile apartment building.
A lot’s changed, though. I’m wondering whether it’s time to openly declare some affection for the other Swede.
The new Volvo XC90 might just be a case in point. All we’ve got to go on is the interior right now, but that interior looks mighty Swedish – and mighty good.
Have a look at this:
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Volvo has also done a concept teaser for the whole XC90 model. It reminds me of the Swedish fascination films Saab used to make, though the song isn’t as catchy as any of the songs that Saab used. The film isn’t quite as nice, either.
Then again, at least Volvo’s still here to make films 🙂
And despite the Chinese ownership, they’re still acting like they’re very Swedish indeed, which is great to see and crucial to their identity.
I’ve had Gavin’s 1982 Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint Veloce parked in my front yard for the last few months. The best part of the deal is that I had his OK to drive it once or twice a week – just to keep it lubricated, of course 🙂
The car left our humble abode this afternoon. It’s heading back to Melbourne tomorrow and it’ll either be sold or restored a little more.
I wanted a keepsake so I whipped out my iPhone this afternoon and shot a quick video walk-around of the car in the fading light.
I had an Alfasud Sprint in the late 90’s. It was silver with a brown interior, just like this one. It didn’t run anywhere near as good, though. The last few months have been as nostalgic as they have been thrilling.
Here’s the video. Please accept my apologies for the quality, but hopefully it gives you just a small sense of the car.
For those who are wondering, it’s been quiet here because I was away for work, and bracketing that trip is the demise of my computer (which will hopefully be fixed soon). I’m actually enjoying the hiatus.
I had to get back online for this, however. My thanks to ctm for posting this press release from NEVS in comments.
A few cents worth of thoughts at the bottom…..
Status update from Nevs
National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs) is preparing an extensive investment to develop a new platform on the Phoenix architecture, which will be the base for future car models. This development will be done in cooperation with other global OEMs. These collaborations involve sharing cost of development and reduced costs of components through significantly higher volumes.
Nevs has recently signed a frame agreement with a major international automotive OEM regarding the cooperation in product development of the future platform. A negotiation with another major automotive OEM is also taking place regarding part ownership. The objective is to add significant resources to the development of Saab as a global premium car brand name. The partnerships will contribute to secure Nevs with the right financial and technical support to develop new products and distribution of cars on a global basis.
Even if the long term perspective of Nevs remains very exciting and promising it is a short term cash problem.
The root cause of the current situation is that Nevs’ shareholder, Qingbo Investment Co. Ltd, has not fulfilled their contractual obligation to finance the operations.
As a consequence Nevs’ main owner National Modern energy Holdings Ltd. (NME) has since the beginning of the year decided to enter into the position as the sole financier of the company. Recently NME had to conclude that despite enormous efforts it has not been possible to capitalize its assets in China as fast as needed to support Nevs. This has resulted in a time lag between the financing from China and the need of cash to pay suppliers. As of today NME has transferred over 3 Billion SEK to Nevs and made additionally large investments in China, i.e. in the new battery factory and the technology development center.
It is important to state that the assets are significantly higher than the debt but Nevs is planning to use short term credits to cover all outstanding and near term obligations until the long term financing is secured. This is bridge solution is planned to be realized within a near future.
To further support the situation financially and give Nevs time to align the strategy with the new OEM partners Nevs will also take short term measures to reduce cost. Among the measures to be taken are a short term stop of production, which today is six cars per day, and a reduction of hired consultants.
End of press release.
OK.
A couple of points……
As many regular readers would know, I was skeptical about NEVS’s electric vehicle plans right from the beginning. I was reassured, however, by words from some former colleagues at Saab saying that Kai Johan Jiang’s companies were VERY well resourced.
I guess it just goes to show exactly how tough it can be to run a car company, especially one that you hope will be a mass producer. The costs are Massive-with-a-capital-M.
It’s a chicken-or-egg situation. People aren’t going to buy the cars if they don’t feel they’re getting value, or ongoing support. To get the costs down and build in some value, you’ve got to create economies of scale. To reach the volumes that create economies of scale, someone has to invest a metric buttload of money in order to both build and market the cars for sale on a large scale. But people aren’t going to buy the cars if……….
Saab was behind the 8-ball on that right from the beginning. Their decision to build the old 9-3 put a very tight cap on the potential size of their market because it didn’t meet safety standards for general approval in Europe.
The 9-3 decision was one that had some real short-term appeal; it was a smaller investment and meant a shorter time to market. It needed to be a success, though. Sadly, it hasn’t been a success at all. Yes, fans can judge the re-commencement of manufacturing as an achievement in itself and that’s fine and dandy when you’re future’s still full of potential. Eventually, though, you’ve got to sell some cars and make some money. Whether by lack of marketing in Sweden or market fatigue with the old 9-3, they simply haven’t sold.
Jiang was hoping Quingdao would fulfil their commitments to the investment they made in the company. I guess not. Welcome to the Chinese way, which is not exactly a new phenomenon for Saab fans.
I took a few suns worth of heat for not being an unequivocal cheerleader for a new Saab. The reason I took the cautious stance I did is because I didn’t want to encourage friends to spend their hard-earned on a product that had potential to be unsupported. Once was enough.
It’s unpalatable, but you simply have to wait for proof of sustainability in a situation like this. We all wish Saab well, but pouring money into the company is something investors have to do before they ask customers to do the same.
I hope the lads and ladies at NEVS can sort this stuff out. Everyone wants to see the Saab name continue to be associated with quality cars that have a real connection with Sweden.
Targa Tasmania finishes tomorrow but while the hard-nut competitors trade times between the West Coast and the finish line in Hobart, entrants in the kinder, gentler Targa Tour are relaxing near the finish line after a pleasant amble around the state.
The Targa Tour – known as the Historic Rallye this year – is a chance for paying customers to drive the same course as timed competitors, closed roads and all, but without the timers running. Much fun ensues, but without the pressure that might force you into a ditch.
The Tour finishes a little earlier than the competitive event, so Tourers had a car show at Parliament lawns this morning, just a stone’s throw away from our market stall at Salamanca Market. I was all over it, as you’d expect.
Here are (some of) the tour cars:
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I have to start with this Cobra, which looks menacing from every angle. Cobras are designed for one thing – fast driving – and it looks fast even when it’s standing still.
It was raining today, sadly. That means the owners didn’t feel much like hanging around, heading for the various eateries and cafes around Salamanca instead. It also meant the cars were locked up so I have only one interior shot for you (and a poor one, at that).
This is rare….
It’s a Fiat Dino from 1971. An absolutely gorgeous car, the Fiat Dino packs a 2.4 litre V6 that had some commonality with smaller Ferraris of the time but was manufactured by Fiat in Turin. The engine put out 178hp (132kW) but speed isn’t what this car is all about. It’s an attitude, and a nice one at that.
Complimentary colours….
MG’s remain a popular choice for this sort of event. Actually, they remain a popular choice for just about anything related to pleasurable driving. There were 6 MG’s in the Historic Rallye fleet.
Was I excited to see this TVR ‘Wedge’ in the fleet? Yes I was.
I don’t think I’m being harsh when I say that TVR in the 1980’s wasn’t famed for its build quality. This car looked pretty solid, but I have to admit I could smell the interior from the small gap between the side window and roof. It smelt really good, and didn’t look damp at all 🙂
This is a Holden Monaro. It’s an Australian legend. I don’t care for them much, but it would be wrong if I didn’t share it here, seeing as it was available.
This, on the other hand, is something I do care for. Quite a lot….
Again, the conditions didn’t allow for close examination, but it’s a 105 Series Alfa in red and it’s fitted with the highly desired 1750 engine. This car is rated “Schwinnnnng!”
One of four Mustangs in the fleet, a ’66 ragtop.
This is a car that I found to be fascinating, for a couple of reasons. It’s a Sunbeam Tiger.
The first reason is because I’m pretty sure my Dad had a Sunbeam at some point in his youth. The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree 🙂
The second reason is because this one had a V8 badge on the side. It may not be obvious from the photos, but this is a small, small car. It doesn’t look like it’s got room for anything bigger than a small 4-cylinder (which most Sunbeam Alpines had – and the Tiger is a development car based the Alpine).
I didn’t know anything about the Tiger and the V8 badge was a fascinator, so I turned to Wikipedia. I think the Tiger was the result of a Skunkworks operation similar to what Sergio has planned for Alfa Romeo. Hopefully Alfa’s attempt has a longer-lasting outcome.
From Wiki….
Ian Garrad, impatient to establish whether the conversion was feasible, commissioned racing driver and fabricator Ken Miles to build another prototype as quickly as he could. Miles was provided with a budget of $800, a Series II Alpine, a Ford V8 engine and a 2-speed automatic transmission, and in about a week he had a running V8 conversion, thus proving the concept.
You’ve got to love it. The whole story is equally as interesting.
And an extra picture, from Wikipedia, of that big Ford V8 packed into that little engine bay. You might need a small, female mechanic for your service work on this one. Not much room in there.
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Here’s a beautifully presented Austin Healey Works Rally car….
Note the little sticker on the window:
Each competitor receives a Targa Trophy if they complete each stage of the event within the allocated ‘trophy time’ for their class. One race, one trophy.
If you win three successive Targa Trophies, you get the Gold Trophy. After winning Gold, if you win three more successive trophies, you get the Platinum Trophy. Then Diamond, the Gold Diamond, then Platinum Diamond, at which time you go to the Hall Of Fame. And yes, there are people in the Hall of Fame with more than 15 Targas (in trophy time) under their belt.
They must be very well funded, as this event is NOT cheap. Having said that, there’s no trophy for completing the Historic Rallye, so this guy’s taking a year off.
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My final car for this pictorial is this delicious 1982 Porsche 944. I’ve always been a sucker for the 944, as some of you will know, and the story behind this one really got me.
The owner (Bill) picked up the car for an absolute steal of a price only a month or so ago. Proving the legend about 944 reliability, he’s driven around 7,000kms on this Targa trip – including the long drive to Tasmania from Queensland and some pretty hairy driving through the Targa tour – without a single problem.
The 944’s a pretty car, front or rear.
What really sucked me in, though, is the original, full Pasha interior. I talked to Bill early in the day, before I had my camera with me. He wasn’t around later, when I came back with my camera, so I had to settle for a lousy shot through the window.
I’ve seen a few Pasha cars for sale and interiors tend to be torn and tatty. This one looked first class. Bill said it took a bit of cleaning, but there are no tears or rips anywhere.
Absolutely stunning.
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There were more cars there. A few more MG’s and Mustangs, mainly. Oh, and an E-Type hardtop that was gone by the time I came back with my camera.
Sorry I don’t have more details to share, but hopefully this is enough to whet your appetite.
It certainly stoked my embers. Targa Tasmania has been calling me for a long time and now there are more than just the “flat-out” classes, it’s a very appealing proposition. I might have to start saving. Although I can drive any of the roads they drive for free, the chance to do it with the roads closed is very tempting indeed.
I love Victor Muller. And I love the Spyker B6 Venator. I think the chances of it ever being built in numbers are very, very slim, but I love it anyway.
Bloomberg have released a video today, with Victor talking about the Venator and the convertible bond that you can use to buy a (convertible?) Venator.
VM covers some other topics in the chat, too. There’s a little bit of Saab in there, a little bit of GM and some surprisingly fond words for the man who some say is about to waste 5 billion-with-a-B Euros on Alfa Romeo – Sergio Marchionne.
The RM Auction Monaco is on this weekend. If you need to get the OK from your wife, your father-in-law, your mother, your bank manager – whoever – then get moving because this looks like an cracker!
I covered this auction back in March, when the catalog was first published. Some of the cars are absolutely mind-boggling. I made a selection of favourites back then and given that the auction is this weekend, I figured it might be topical to run through them again.
Keep an eye on this one. I think it’s going to be amazing.
Fiat 130 Coupe – Engine design by Ferrari. Body design and manufacture by Pininfarina. It’s 1970’s gentrified motoring, Italian style, and it makes a quaint starting point.
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Lancia Fulvia HF – It’s too early for RM to have descriptions up on site so it’s hard to know if this is a genuine Fanalone, but it’s got the big headlamps and being a 1969, it’ll have the aluminium doors, bonnet and boot. Even though I find the name ‘Jolly Club’ a little strange (it was a racing team), this car is uber-cool.
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Alfa Romeo 8C – Alfa’s modern design masterpiece only qualifies as ‘good’. Seriously.
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Mercedes 190 SL Roadster – Elegant. Beautiful. But in this company, it feels a little average.
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The Really Good
1969 Lamborghini Miura – You know this is going to be a cracker auction when this is just one of the two Miura’s being offered for sale.
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Fiat Abarth 695 SS – OK, I’m probably playing this one up a bit, but it’s pretty rare and I like a little car that can.
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De Tomaso Mangusta – Some interesting history (thanks Wikipedia!) on the Mangusta: there was a failed agreement between Carrol Shelby and DeTomaso and they named this one the Mangusta because it’s Italian for ‘mongoose’, an animal known for it’s ability to kill Cobras.
It’s no Cobra-killer, but it’s still quite rare and beautiful.
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Iso Revolta IR300 GT – The IR 300 GT had a beautiful body by Bertone and potent power plant options for the early 1960’s, with either 300hp or 340hp available.
‘Revolta’ – not a good word to have in your company name.
This one’s more in the bard find category but will still fetch quality money.
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Iso Grifo – Because one Iso is rarely enough. The interior on this car is amazing.
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Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 – This one’s offered with no reserve so you might just get to pick it up cheap! Well, relatively cheap. All Ferrari 250’s sell for megabucks nowadays and I’m sure this longer 2+2 version will continue that trend. A beautiful car.
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Lamborghini 400GT 2+2 – Another super-elegant Italian exotic and another model that’s seeing two examples put up for sale at Monaco. The other one’s a Spyder conversion but I like this hardtop more.
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Whoa? They’re selling one of these?
Ferrari 365 Daytona – One of THE most desirable Ferraris as far as I’m concerned and while it won’t fetch the really big money yet, it’s only a matter of time.
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Lancia Flaminia Sport Zagato – Pre-Fiat Lancias are growing in esteem and the prices they’re reaching reflects this. They don’t come up often, they’re beautifully engineered and look amazing.
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Aston Martin V8 Volante – I’ve included this in the Whoa! section because of what I think is some serious investment potential. Astons are going up and the 1980’s V8s are the ones trailing the trend, but following it nonetheless. It’s also here because it’s a 400+hp British muscle car that looks the dog’s bollocks.
This is one of those real Reutter ones. It’s magnificent. And it will sell for lots of money.
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Ferrari Enzo – It’s an Enzo. Need I say more?
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OK, now you’re just being silly
Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 – Eligibility for historic racing boosts price so a genuine Alfa Romeo racer with racing history is a recipe for frenzied bidding.
And aside from that, just look at it.
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Hesketh Formula One – Yes, a genuine Hesketh Formula One car, driven by a duo of eventual world champions in James Hunt and Alan Jones. Genuine pedigree, plus you get the best-ever reason to wear one of those funky Hesketh T-shirts.
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Toyota 2000GT – “The most desirable Toyota ever made” isn’t a sentence to send shivers down your spine, but the 2000GT is genuinely desirable and will no doubt put a decent hole in someone’s wallet.
It’s so nice it deserves a few extra photos.
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Bugatti Type 35B Grand Prix – And you thought sticking really big fancy wheels on a car was a new thing…..
“Recent Full Restoration” and “first supercharged T35” ensure big bucks, as does the name “Bugatti”.
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1982 Renault Formula One – So you missed out on the Hesketh? How about this genuine Formula One car from Renault, a former pole-winner at Monaco with Rene Arnoux at the wheel?
And don’t worry if you miss this one, too, because there are FIVE former F1 cars available in this auction, including a Monaco-winning Brabham from the 1960’s, a Tyrell from 1980 and a 1989 Ferrari raced by Gerhard Berger and restored at Ferrari’s own workshop!
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Buying old Formula One racers is how the other half live
This auction’s going to be amazing. I guess if you’re going to have it in Monaco, it has to be amazing. I’ll be very interested to see some of the prices these vehicles fetch.
If this is your world, congratulations. I hope you’re enjoying it. Do feel free to let us in for a sneak peek every now and then, OK?
I remember back around 2009 or so, I wrote on Saabs United about the fact that Saab had about as many concept cars in 30 years as they had actual production models in 60+ years. We’re not quite at that stage with Alfa Romeo’s re-hashed business plans yet, but we’re not far off.
The suits at Fiat held a corporate information day yesterday, which is why your automotive news services were flooded with stories about Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa, etc, etc.
Here’s the Alfa presentation, slightly abbreviated but with a few remarks thrown in where appropriate.
The show starts with a history lesson, recalling Alfa Romeo’s racing successes over the years in some of the world’s most prestigious races. They even wheel out old Enzo for a quote about their ancient greatness.
Now, if you’re looking closely, you’ll see that the world class races that Alfa Romeo won were mostly back around 80 years ago, in the 1930’s. There was some success in the later parts of the 20th Century, but that was in your more domestic type race series. That’s not to diminish the achievement because it takes a hell of a team effort to win a race in DTM, for example, but the big-name victories mostly came in the 1930’s.
It’s fine to wheel out Enzo, but be aware that he actually took what Alfa Romeo were doing in the 1930’s and made it something meaningful for the 1950’s, 60’s and beyond. That’s the full scope of the challenge here. That’s what you’re trying to catch up to.
No-one’s denying Alfa Romeo’s sporting heart or DNA, but the claim looks a little thin on the ground when there’s barely anyone still alive that was even born when these big races were won, let alone anyone who can remember such success.
By Alfa’s own admission, the success they had on the track didn’t translate to too much success on the showroom floor:
You might want to store some of those figures away for later reference. The key figure is around 180,000 sales per year, which is the best they’ve done, achieved back in the 1980’s when the Alfetta and Alfasud were kings.
So why didn’t Alfa Romeo turn success on the track into continued growth in the sales charts?
Reliability and rust might be two valid answers, but Alfa Romeo (and Fiat themselves) put it down to Fiat’s mismanagement. Fiat took control of Alfa Romeo in 1987 but Alfa themselves started the rot a few years earlier. The slideshow offered this example as the beginning of the end of Alfa:
The Alfa Romeo Arna was Alfa’s own decision, but Fiat followed up with a dedication to front-wheel drive and compromised chassis’ that lent little credence to Alfa’s sporting pretensions.
Alfa styling was rarely in doubt, but the mechanicals could rarely cash the cheques the bodies were writing.
And so we get into recognising where things went wrong and the all-important planning for the future. What are the most important attributes of Alfa Romeo’s sporting DNA and what do they have to do to regain the reverence in which they once revelled?
Naturally, Alfa Romeo has some answers:
Personally, I’m not too sure about those. Most of them read like modern performance car attributes, but I’m not sure they’re historically accurate when it comes to Alfa Romeo. Alfas had small output engines but clever designs that were lightweight and fun to throw around. I’m not sure that power-to-weight was a priority way back when, though low weight definitely enabled good tossability.
Maybe I’m being too pedantic.
These next two slides are interesting. Alfa Romeo is deliberately benchmarking the Germans and making solid claims about their intention to make cars with minimal, if any, interference from their parent company. This is a bold claim, one that doesn’t reconcile too well with modern car company operations. That’s especially so when the car company is headed by Sergio Marchionne, a man who’s claimed in the past that there will eventually be just six car companies in the world. Small and independent isn’t his thing.
Their solution?
It’s basically down to setting up an all-new Alfa Romeo – an engineering skunkworks that can focus solely on fulfilling the mission statement above and turn those intentions into Italian made cars that fulfil a grand Alfa Romeo vision.
Now, anyone who loves Alfa Romeo should love this idea. Many have been under-satisfied by Alfa’s modern efforts, which were good front-wheel drive cars with sporty pretensions, but were NOT sports cars like Alfas of old.
The BIG question – and there isn’t a font large enough to do that justice – is whether or not Alfa Romeo can pull this off. They haven’t done it under Fiat for the last 30 years. Why should anyone believe they can do it now? Again, Sniff Petrol provides your scepticism 🙂
Well, here’s how they plan to do it.
I’m not a fan of this next slide. To claim that you’re the only maker in your intended segment that’s focused on the driver – when your intended segment includes a lot of driver-focused cars – is a slightly lame attempt at kidding yourself. It might be good for the motivation, but I don’t think it’s realistic and when you’re spending 5 billion-with-a-B Euros on R&D and production, you want to be realistic.
So here’s the intended product cadence, albeit in a chart that’s not to scale. The last column looks like an onslaught of vehicle releases all at the same time, but that last column is actually a three-year stretch.
Can anyone help me with the “UV” bit in the chart above? Urban vehicle? Utility vehicle? Underworld Vehicle? Underwater Vehicle!!??
This next slide is a little bit tantalising, showing proposed engine outputs for their petrol and diesel engines.
And here’s where things get really – really – difficult to believe. I draw your attention back to the historical sales chart earlier in the show, where Alfa had maxed out at around 180,000 cars per year on average during the 1980’s.
Let me set this out for you…..
This is a car company re-start in a very competitive category, selling high-priced cars that quite likely won’t be very practical. And it’s going to result in your company more-than-doubling your best ever sales per year??? And all this will happen before the end of a decade that we’re nearly half way through already?
The rest of the slides contain some fluff to get your mind off that projected sales figure…..
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As you can see, there’s plenty to hope for if you’re an Alfa Romeo fan. A return to Alfa Romeo’s true sporting heart would be a wonderful thing. The motor vehicles they could make under the engineering part of this plan are enough to put some genuine steam in a man’s strides.
But you do have to wonder.
When the same plan includes claims of an autonomously run Alfa Romeo, when it claims sales of 400,000 vehicles a year and talks about unique powertrain solutions that can take a decade or more to develop fuelling those increased sales within the next 4 years……
This doesn’t seem like the most realistic plan.
I applaud the boldness. As a Saab fan, it reminds of Saab’s determination to re-cast itself after the GM days. Saab ran out of money and couldn’t see that plan through. Alfa are still part of the Fiat family, but will Fiat provide the resources to see this plan through?
I love Alfa Romeo. I drove a wonderful little Alfa Sprint to work this morning and it made me smile the whole time.
I’ll be cheering for them with all of my sporting heart, but I have a hard time seeing this plan turn into a reality.
