Everyone should own an Alfa at least once in their lifetime. The driving experience provided by these little Italians is hard to beat and the values just keep going up. So, if you haven’t done it already, I suggest you give one a try before all the good ones are out of reach. Just about any Alfa Romeo Spider can be fun, but I personally prefer the ones built between 1966-1969. This one obviously has some needs. There is some front end damage and the car has suffered a bad color change, but you might be able to pick it up for a fair price. It is currently at auction here on Copart where bidding is currently at $6,100 with only 2 hours left. Thanks for the tip James G!
Earlier Spiders are great drivers too, but cars like this one from the late sixties seems to provide a lot more bang for your buck. That iconic twin-cam is there, albeit bored out and with a little more power. This was a great little engine. So great in fact that the same basic design powered Alfa Romeos for decades. With twin overhead cams and a light weight alloy head and block, it was truly cutting edge. Fuel injection was added later, but I would actually like to have one of these pre-SPICA cars with their much simpler Weber carbs.
With such a gem under the hood, you had better have a good gearbox attached to it! Well, you are in luck because that is a five-speed in there. Add in disc brakes all around and you have the equation for quite the driver. These features may not sound like a big deal today, but back when this car was released, these were big advances over what was commonly available. MGBs for example, were still fitted with drum brakes out back and gear rowing was done through a four-speed. You did pay a premium for the Alfa though just as you will today.
This project looks tempting, but if you are seriously interested you had better make a few calls quick to try to determine what the mechanical damage mentioned refers to. The crash damage doesn’t look too bad in the photos, but there might be more hiding under there than you can see. Also, Copart deals in salvage cars, so you will want to keep that in mind when bidding. James made an interesting observation about the exhaust when he sent this one in. He suspects that this Spider may be fitted with an ANSA sport exhaust which isn’t cheap. That might add a little value here, but personally I would be more concerned about famous Italian rust.
The best year for Duetto. I have one and love it. If the buyer needs a front clip, I have one.
I thought 1967 was the only year named Duetto in the “boat tail family” or was that only in the States?
1966 and 1967 were the only years for the Duetto name. When the 105 Spider appeared in 1966, AR held a contest for the best name. Duetto won, obviously. However, the Duetto nameplate was dropped due to trademark infringement wit an Italian biscuit maker that sold a product under the same name. In 1968, AR launched 1750 Spider Veloce and a1300 Spider Junior. There can be all sorts of arguments as to which one was the best, the 1600 Duetto or the 1750 Spider. Let it be said that the 1750 engine (1779 cc) is becoming a holy grail in the AR world. I have a 69 1750 – super sweet car. My only problem is I hardly get to drive it due to a crazy schedule – another example of life getting in the way….
This ’67 Alfa Duetto looks like a totalled resale yard car with lots of needs, including front end collision damage fixed. One need is probably going to be Haig’s front clip because getting the folds out of the nose and avoiding lots of filler will be a tall order.
The website helpfully lists an “Est. Retail Value” of $65,000 USD. Well, yes a Duetto was the star car of “The Graduate”, but no, it won’t be worth $65K even if fixed right. SCM puts the value of an excellent one at $25-$42K, and the fact that Alfa made more than 15K of these roundtails from ’66 – ’69 will hold prices back for a long time. Then there are the strikes against this particular Duetto—a crunched front with a salvage title I would think, although the title status is not mentioned, plus secondary mechanical damage, whatever that means—blown engine?
This is a very weird website. The auction just ended, and was bid to about $6100, but it still gives a higher starting bid now and says the auction is live and in progress. You can click a link to hire an inspection service but I think that means you can’t inspect the car yourself. Nothing about this is how I want to buy a car.
yeah a very original 69 duetto that was restored went for 100k because two people got in a bidding war for it anyways the highest ive seen one listed was 50k. On copart they sell mainly wrecked, repoed, stolen and recovered, altered vin cars, and insurance auctions etc. estimated retail you don’t pay attention to that because no one uses that its just some high number that you need to spend 50k-100k to restore getting it there. mechanical could just mean a blown engine a damaged radiator or even a broken fan belt even something minor may have broke when hit causing it not to run. you can also go look at it yourself if your close to the location. the estimated retail and repair cost are not useful at all. but the prices on Duettos have been going up finally at one point in the 90’s the 70’s spiders sometimes sold for more than a duetto. this car seems to have Ansa muffler on the back if it doesnt have any rust holes in it you get about $600 for it since it also fits the gtv’s and duettos and this style is out of production for these cars also i doubt it but it may have the entire Ansa sports exhaust system.
Not a weird website, but a cutthroat insurance auction.
The usual non telling 8 photos that show that there is a car and what color and not much else.
Usually prices are as high as comparable ‘fixed’ cars, with the added ‘benefit’ you still can invest time and money or usually both and that you really don’t know what the heck you’re buying.
BUT, you’re competing with a worldwide audience of idiots as far as Qatar and whatnot.
the way the auctions work is, that a car is auctioned at a location with a simulcast online auction. People bid from 1000 s of miles away just on these lousy photos.
The car is offered, as on this linked page, for a week + before the actual auction, open for a reserve online auction.
Then that high bid will be a base price/starting bid for the actual live auction….
I think most cars get parted out and if they’re not bad they probably get fixed like this one
Be very cautious doing anything with Copart – I talked with them once about a car, and you cannot learn anything about it – they won’t help you – and once it goes out of their gate, it’s yours and no complaints. I talked with several other yards around them and all I got was “be careful”. As Dolfin says, very strange bunch – I consider them very risky.
They got a bunch of Hurricane Sandy “collector” cars – lots of red flags with those. But they do get some interesting stuff. For all of the risks, I’m sure a few folks have lucked out from time to time.
I own and have owned many Alfas including some of these early cars. I consider the current values of these Graduate models to be in Alan Greenspans terms……..irrational exuberance……we are just finishing a very nice 78 Spider for my wife…….it is a better car in many ways than these early cars, The Spica Fuel injection is trouble free when properly set up, has more power and runs smoother than the Webbers ever did. It sits for 6 months at a time between being started and has never failed to run but is considered to have 1/4 the value of these older cars……so, we will enjoy our square tail and hope for some solid appreciation from our under 10K investment as opposed to the people with 50K investments in the pre 69 cars holding there breaths that they hold up in the market.
The duettos are finally going up in value for some reason they were sort of “the underdog” for along time the early kamm tails with chrome bumpers were bringing higher prices than the duettos at one point
A small note for anyone choosing to restore this. A friend had a Duetto and showed me a unique aspect of the front clip not carried through to the squaretail; at the very tip of the nose sheet metal there is a small pinched rise to meet the top of the central logo-grille. I have seen a restored Duetto sans this easy-to-miss aspect.
I put an ANSA header and exhaust on a 1972 Fiat 124 Spider. Improved performance some, very nice exhaust note, but it didn’t compensate for the prerequisite basics of rust, warped heads, leaking oil, etc. The Alfas are cut from the same block of wood. Get a 1600 or 2000 Fiat Spider and go to town with it…(I previously had a ’63 Giulia Spider from Europe and a 1981 2000 Alfa afterwards…)
that site also has a volvo pv544 for sale!!!. i love the looks of this years spider but not enough to buy this car. i would go for one that is not a salvage vehicle, unless i needed parts and then i would not pay this kind of money. nice find
The car used to be white look inside the engine compartment and on the dash you can see the blue paint peeling with white underneath. there was also a lighter blue color that looked very nice from the factory not a very common color on these cars
The light blue color was Celeste Pininfarina. That was the original color for my 1969 1750 Spider. This car sold for the top $ given its current condition. That front end would need to be replaced – there’s really no saving the “nose peak”. Once gone, no amount of bondo short of miracle can bring it to same shape. Luckily that section along with other panels is available. The 1967 was the last year for the “Duetto” name. The Spider name made its appearance in 1968 with a 1750 Spider Veloce.
The prices for the roundtails has taken off and will continue to rise. Yes, even the early Series 2 Spiders with chrome bumpers are fetching close to $10k and those in perfect condition are at the $15k+ mark.
For those wondering why, just take a look at the package. You get an alloy twin cam motor, 5 speed transmission, 4 wheel disc brakes… now factor in that its the mid-60’s and such options were mostly found on the much more expensive exotic cars. One of the beauties of the Nord engine is that it can be rebuild many times over thanks to its “floating” cylinders. A properly set up SPICA is a better proposition for street use than the twin Webers – it offers better fuel delivery across the power band as well as return very good gas mileage. Sure, everyone loves the sound of the side drafts at throttle but they can be a PITA to synch and when dealing with etheanol in the fuel.
Or… maybe the car thief that was the last person to drive it,hit something and as he was leading the police on a high speed chase,the radiator emptied itself and he kept going.and the head is cracked and the liners came loose and cracked the block and the high heat cooked the transmission bearings causing it to freeze up and shear the ring and pinion…pass
You should get this car in any color you want, as long as its red. I had a later model Alfa Spyder that was powder blue metallic and had seagulls and dunes etched in the windows and along the windshield. Got a great deal on it, but when the blue coat died and the hood was silver I had it painted in proper red. Lost the windows too.
the later rubber bumper silver cars would fade out into a dull gray
Anybody see what it sold for?
I buy cars from auctions all over the country. Expect the worst and you won’t be disappointed. If you have enough time you can have one of their hired inspectors look at it, or send on of ours.
Just know that when you’re buying a car off CoParts you are competing against people who do this every day for a living and have access to body shops at rates you don’t. Winning an auction just means you were willing to pay more for it than anybody else.
Not a bad buy at $6000 if it doesn’t take much to get it running.
And yes CoParts doesn’t know much about them. An insurance company drops it off, they sell it, someone picks it up. They don’t inspect them, heck you’re lucky if the photos are in focus.
And whoever painted it that color needs a talking to.
I believe it was $6500 or so – given the scope of repairs coupled with a branded title after all the hard work, the price does not make much economic sense. A nice clean one (not a nu and bolt restoration) will run you about $25k. I see that here just with a body work, paint and interior on top of a purchase price – and I’m being conservative.