I own a 1982 Alfasud Sprint Veloce, Trofeo Limited Edition No.094 and was recently invited to attend a photoshoot for Classic & Sportscar magazine together with a 1981 Scirocco Storm. The latter is an example owned by VW UK and, I'm sure will already be familiar to many of you. It is the same car featured in a Pistonheads article comparing with the new R and, I believe, was used in the UK launch of the new Scirocco too.
The common ground is obviously Georgetto Giugiaro and it is obviously an interesting comparison.
Having completed the shoot last Wednesday during a monsoon in Northampton, I have become fascinated by the relative merits and, judging by the reaction on Alfa forums, so are lots of others.
Clearly, I know a great deal about Sprints but am finding detailed information about the Storm hard to come by, The websites are informative but I thought this was a way in to tap some expert knowledge and maybe elicit a bit of interest from 'the other side' so to speak.
As a starter, I have seen one reference which gives the kerb weight of the MkI Storm as 800 kgs. This seems remarkably low - is it correct? By comparison the Sprint Veloce is 91.5 Kgs. and I am surprised at the difference.
For your interest, here is a copy of my posting on the Alfa site
At the invitation of 'Classic & Sportscar' magazine, my Trofeo and I braved arctic blizzard conditions on the M1 southbound to take part in a photoshoot in Northampton. Just two cars involved, a 1981 Limited Edition MkI Scirocco and my 1982 Sprint Veloce'Trofeo' . The common ground obviously Giorgetto Giugiaro and the objective a 'compare and contrast' article for the July edition.
Now, I am no stranger to magazine photoshoots - but never before on the top decks of a city centre multistorey car park in pi##ing rain! Interesting to say the least
The photographer was Tony Baker, who I have worked with before, specifically for the 'Sud Species' article by Mark Hughes in the same magazine in Feb. 1999 (Jonathan Trinder and George Cole will remember that foggy November day at Curborough too!). The free lance journalist this time is Simon Charlesworth, who was good company during the day and soon mastered the Sud driving techniques once we left the restrictions of the car park.
From his comments I suspect that he enjoyed the Sud more than the Scirocco - but that might just be my wishful thinking!
On paper at least, the Scirocco trumps the Sud on power from it's VW Gti derived injected 1.6 shoc motor (110bhp v 95bhp) with a 5mph gain in top speed and 1.4 secs. in the 0-60 sprint. However, in the handling, driveability and braking stakes I think it might be a very different story
It will be interesting to see the final article - doubtless with some surprises, there always are!
What do you think the findings will be??
