Armed with cautionary advice from Ian Spencer, printouts from Ian's and
TEAE's and team.net's "Sunbeam Alpine Buyer's Guide" websites, the
Brookland book, and the Factory Parts Manual purchased from Classic
Sunbeam, I took a day trip yesterday to Virginia to test drive the 1967 SV
Alpine (B395007657) currently offered on eBay (auction ends today).
[If anyone is interested in more details about the car, let me know.
Reserve is set at $4900.00 and includes the original SV Owners Handbook and
Brooklands Book "Sunbeam Alpine & Tiger 1959-1967", both in good condition.
Disclaimer: I have no involvement other than a couple of hours spent
looking at and driving the car.]
My goal was to determine whether to continue my SII restoration project,
sell it and buy a drivable Alpine, or purchase a new car and forget about
old crocks. On Friday I test drove a 10th Anniversary Miata, a 2000
Eclipse sport version, and a BMW Z3 M version for comparison. That added
to prior test drives of a Boxster and an SLK.
Janis (seller of the Alpine) and her partner Dave were very welcoming and
let me crawl all over the car. She had purchased it a month ago at an
auction. Since she knew even less than I did about Alpines, we both
learned as we compared it to my reference materials. Then they encouraged
me to drive it. It had been years since I had driven an Alpine (I commuted
one in Seattle for 3 months in 1976). I was so happy when it fired right
up, went smoothly into gear, and headed on down the road. It was pretty
much as I had remembered: heads turning as I drove by.
Result: The older cars have a distinctive personality even though they all
seem to need work, running or not. None of the newer cars said "take me
home from the showroom". It's status quo for me.
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