The Long and Winding Road (Post #168)

Bo Bricklemyer poses with wife and car in 1966.

Roads and cars have a “which came first, chicken-or-egg?” relationship. You can’t have cars without roads, and there is no need for roads without cars. Either way, The Alfatross’ journey over the last 67 years involved a lot of different roads physically, figuratively, and philosophically. Reflecting on this, I began to think about how it ended up in Santa Fe. It was a Long and Winding Road indeed.

Rode Hard and Put Away Wet (1955-1969)

A racing cockpit if ever I did see one!

By the time I came into its ownership, The Alfatross already had six previous owners and was just a 14 year-old used exotic sports car. 

Badges and "2000SSZ" painted on trunk lid.

Cousin Bo Bricklemyer, the car’s 6^th owner, and I ended up as students at the same university in North Carolina in 1969. When he offered me the car, it was unlike anything I had ever seen before: that svelte body, all the toggle switches and big, round instrument faces, the stick shift and 5-speed trans between those bucket seats--a car built to race! A long-time reader of Sports Car Graphic and Hot Rod Magazine, I was smitten, but at the same time I realized it was highly impractical. On the other hand, I already had a car for reliable transportation so it would just be a question of where to keep it. Sure, it had some deferred maintenance issues, but surely it wouldn’t be that difficult to revive something built with 1950s technology.

My previous cars were used, too, but I never wondered about who their previous owners were or where they had been. Other than its sketchy ownership trail, those first 14 years of the car’s life before I first laid eyes on it are largely undocumented. Where had it been, what had it done—and what had been done to it? 

The engine bay was dusty, but everything was in place.

Fortunately, Bo included in the purchase contact information for Pat Braden, the car's 5th owner and  well-known Alfa aficionado. Pat was aware of its other previous owners, some of whom added their curious personal touches such as the hand-painted triangular logos on the front fenders. The trunk lid was embellished with “2000SSZ” unprofessionally scrawled in script and a large “Alfa Romeo Owners Club badge obviously added by a US owner. In the cabin the dash carried Italian “San Remo” and “Automobile Club Milano” badges. 

Intriguingly, it also had a floor shifter for its 5-speed transmission, two coils including a Magneti Marelli SK5 high performance unit, bespoke brake reservoir, wood-rim Nardi steering wheel, Jaeger rally chronometer, Burg DynoMeter and air horn—all accessories associated with a racing history. but did it really have one? At some point I would have to look into that.

Obviously, a sophomore in college needs a used-up exotic car like a Volkswagen bus needs a trailer hitch (I had that too!). What  did I think I going to do with it? It was a case of the Yellow Brick Road Syndrome: “a path believed to lead to success or adventure”.

To be continued . . . .