Alfa SZ

30-03-2012 : New APK/MOT again, oil-change (including filter) and new timing belt! MOT was easy and the timing belt job was done in 4-5 hours. Total price for this job : 457,56 euro's Job was done at Alfa-specialist GR Autotechniek in Dieren. I am at 77.841 km's right now.
06-04-2011 : Checking and setting valve clearances. Only two were a tiny bit off, so it wasn't really neccessary, but better safe than sorry. Job was done at Alfa-specialist GR Autotechniek in Dieren. Total costs including new APK/MOT : 242,96 Euro's
15-05-2010 : I was going for a little spin in the car in the evening. I followed a guy in a Ferrari F430 and everything was great. But then the F430 drove over a hubcap and it was launched towards my SZ. I couldn't go anywhere so it hit my front bumper and put some scratches on my hood. I am at 73.500km's right now.
01-04-2010 : The car was due for its MOT/APK again and I needed the brake fluid changed. I took it to a Volvo-garage from a friend of mine and they did the MOT/APK-test (no problem of course! :-) ) and they changed the brake fluid. They also put on the steelflex hoses which I bought 3 years ago from Allessandro. But they were still like new. :-) The car is fresh again for another year of driving! Hopefully more kilometres this year. The job cost me 196,23 Euros.
15-03-2010 : I changed the passenger side electric window motor myself. I found a New Old Stock SZ window mechanism at a specialist, picked it up the same day and it was in the car within 2 hours after I ahd bought it! It was a little bit fiddly sometimes, but I thought it was a nice job and if you have some patience and check everything 3 times before closing the door again everyone can do this. For the main panel you need someone with triple jpinted wrists though. :-) The mechanism cost me 125 Euro's and that is not very expensive for a brandnew original item. Here are some pictures : (picture2, picture3, picture4, picture5, picture6, picture7)
18-03-2009 : This week I took the car to work for a couple of times. I had an MOT/APK test coming on 18-03 and after a while of not driving you can get problems with brakes that get stuck etc etc. Driving the SZ is nice and also good for the car!! I needed new rear tyres to get it through the MOT/APK so I ordered a set of Pirelli P Zero Nero's. I know there are other good tyres that are cheaper, but P Zero's are the coolest tyres for an SZ. The factory fitted P Zero's also when the cars were new. The MOT/APK went good, the only problem were the rear tyres so they were changed. When they asked for the MOT/APK-certificate they got a notice that the garage was being checked by the RDW. So the car had to stay untill someone from the RDW came and did the complete MOT/APK test again! 3% of all MOT/APK-tests get checked by the Dutch RDW-authority to make sure the quality of the garages and the tests they perform is good. The specialist from the RDW concluded that the car was good, so I finally got my new tyres and APK/MOT!! This cost me 435 Euros and it was done at 71.161km's.
14-03-2009 : The winter is finally gone, so the SZ has to be awaken from its sleep. Usually I send the car to Sam van Lingen for an oil-service and APK/MOT, but this time I wanted to do it myself. So I went out and bought an oil-filter, a new aluminum ring for the sump-plug, 7 litres of fresh oil and some other stuff so I could drain the oil safely.It took me about an hour and I was lucky that the oil-filter wasn't screwed on too tight, so I could remove it with my hands. There is almost no space for tools and you will have to remove the airfilter housing to get to the oilfilter. It cost me 102,93 euros for the oil, filter etc. But that does not include the cool new socketset I bought for 87,50 euros. This oilchange was done at 70.900 km's.
27-09-2008 : During the event on 19-09 my battery failed sadly. Luckily the mechanics from garage Monza helped me out, even though I don't own a Ferrari. They were real enthousiasts and liked the SZ! Thanks for helping me out guys! But because of this I had to buy a new battery of course. I wanted a good one and one that was a little bit smaller than the one I had. I found a Varta silver line at a shop near me that is perfect! It is some 5 centimeters less wide, so it doesn't touch de hoses that come from the radiator. The previous one did that and that is not good for the battery, because it gets very very hot. The battery wasn't cheap though. It was 130 euro's and that was including the discount through the Dutch Alfa Romeo club!
19-09-2008 : "Ferrarichat.com meeting du Pays Plat". I attended this fantastic meeting with my Alfa SZ. The majority (51) of the participants drive Ferrari's, but there were also some other cars, like Lamborghini Gallardo, McLaren SLR, Maserati Ghibli and a Porsche 911 GT3! All great cars! The weather was fantastic and we spent the day on an airfield in Belgium to see some F16's take off and land. That was great!! After that we had diner and we then went to garage Monza an official Ferrari dealer. it was a very nice day, with fun people, nice cars and driving and also some good food!! Thanks for organising this fabulous event Otto!!! Here are some pictures I made that day : Pays Plat Ferrari II 2008
14-08-2008 : The cambelt was on the car for almost 3 years already so it was time to change this very important belt again. Luckily this is not a very difficult job on the 3 litre 12-valve V6. Sam van Lingen did this job for me and I also let them take a look at my clutch. It sometimes vibrates a little, but they say it is no problem. It will maybe go away if I let them put in a complete clutch-kit (costs 800 euro's excluding work!), but they cannot promise that it will cure the problem. As it only occures at specific revs and only in first gear I am not changing the clutch yet. The cambelt-change cost me 349,92 euros. Sam van Lingen doesn't recommend to change the waterpump and also not the belt-tensioners. On the 12-valve V6 they are very though and don't need to be changed every time. So my SZ-engine is again ready for 3 years of safe driving!
30-07-2008 : New brake pads at the front. I put these on myself. I chose the Ferodo DS2500 pads. Installing them was easier than I had thought. The pads ( I only changed the front pads) were about 85 euros.
19-04-2008 : Ferrari meeting at Deil, The Netherlands! Just like last year I could attend this Ferrari meeting with my Alfa SZ. It was great! Nice weather and a fantastic collection of cars, ranging from Ferrari Mondial to Lamborghini Murcielago and Bugatti EB110! Here are my pictures : DEIL Ferrari 2008
18-04-2008 : New engine oil for my SZ! I also bought some touch up paint and a nice Black Alfa Romeo belt for myself. Total cost including oil-filter and one extra litre of refill-oil (10W60 Racing) was 220,51 €. The car has done 69.284km's now!
17-03-2008 : My SZ got a new friend and has to give up some of its garage space! I love classic cars and owned some nice classics. I was looking for a nice Fiat 600 or 850 Sportcoupé, but then I stumbled upon something else! I really love rare Italian cars and now I have found one that was for sale! Best thing is : I could afford it this time!! :-) It is a Fiat 124 S Vignale from 1971. These cars are very rare. I can find one source saying that a maximum of 200 of these 124 Vignale "Evelines" have been built. All are based on normal Fiat 124's except mine. This car is the only one known that was based on a Fiat 124 S(pecial). So my car had a bigger engine (1400 instead of 1200), electric windows, other dash and rear lights etc. This is a very cool car and it is in very nice condition! I am very happy!! Here are some pictures : (picture2, picture3, picture4, picture5, picture6, picture7)
12-02-2008 : Because of the new house and all the things around it, I forgot to do the APK (MOT, TUV) last year!! So when the weather got better I finally got this sorted. There was a problem with the rear brakes, so these got a revision-set (new rubber seals etc) and some new rear brake-pads. Together with the APK etc this cost me 347,38 €. Next up is an oil-change and, later this year, some new rear tyres. This job was done at local Alfa-specialist Van Kooten. They had a great Alfa Sud for sale and also a nice Junior Zagato 1600! Here are some pictures : (picture2, picture3, picture4, picture5, picture6, picture7) The odometer reads : 68.967 km's now!
04-11-2007 : In a big Dutch newspaper (De Telegraaf) was an item about the Alfa 8C. On the same page was an item about Alfa Romeo owners. I was one of them!! So I am beginning to become very famous with my car. :-) On the same day there was an Italian car meeting in Houten (Utrecht) and the weather was nice so we went there. Lots of nice cars! Here are my pictures of this event : Auto Moto Italia 2007
01-10-2007 : New house, so little time for updates! But almost everything is finished now and the SZ has met its new home! Our new house has a nice and roomy garage (980cm x 390cm) with (finally!) lights and electricity. The car sits now comfortably in the garage with its Pyjamas on and the Ctek battery-conditioner (bought online for 60 euros) connected.
14-05-2007 : Holiday!!! After many years of dreaming about a holiday/roadtrip with our Alfa SZ, we always end up taking our modern day transport because it is so easy and safe. But this year we really did it!!! Here is a story with lots of pictures (warning, about 25mb's!) of our SZ-roadtrip.SZ-ROADTRIP The story is in Dutch, but the pictures tell the story also. We drove almost 4.300 km's in two great weeks. We love Italy and the car did an amazing job without any problems. If you own an SZ or another nice car, you should take it on long trips also. You will never forget it. Here are my pictures of the Mille Miglia we also visited : Mille Miglia 2007
28-04-2007 : I attended a very special meeting with my Alfa SZ. One of the admins at ferrarichat.com lives in Deil and organizes a meeting there every year. Together with 29 Ferrari's and 2 Lamborghini's we had a great meeting on a beautiful and sunny day. First we gathered in Deil and enjoyed eachothers cars. Many people even liked the SZ, although it isn't a Ferrari or Lamborghini. After this we went to a photoshoot at a small castle. All cars were parked in front of the building and many pictures were taken. Great setting!! After about an hour we set off to visit Dutch Ferrari-importer Kroymans were we received a special treatment and were allowed to see the private collection of Mr. Kroymans himself. He is the proud owner of a lot of very rare classic Ferrari's for example a real 250 GTO! Please look at the pictures!!! After Kroymans most of the contenders went for another ride and after that a nice dinner, but I was just recovering from a week of illness, so I quickly went home to go to bed! Thanks for this great event, Henk! Here are my pictures of this great event! : Deil Ferrari-meeting
14-03-2007 : Big service with some precautional things. A 'shim' in the gearbox had to be changed, so the gearbox had to be removed and opened to change this cheap part. Because we are taking the SZ on a holiday in may I want everything to be perfect and they had to open the gearbox anyway, so I also asked them to do the following things : new clutch, new syncromeshes on first and second gears, balancing of all four wheels, changing all the bushes etc in the gearstick to gearbox linkage, new CSC (stainless steel) exhaust (only the back box), new oil and filter etc. The car was gone for two days, but everything was fixed and the total price was : 2.140,95€. I never paid so much for maintance on a car :-), but I did some upgrades and feel happy about it! The job was done at Sam van Lingen (Houten) and they treated me very nice again.
25-10-2006 : A movie of me and the Alfa SZ appeared on the website of one of the biggest Dutch newspapers, "De Telegraaf"!. Many weeks earlier the movie had been made. It is 3:28 minutes but the shoot took about 3 hours. :-) So if you want to see me and my car, click on this link. Telegraaf-movie
11-10-2006 : The car was due for its yearly APK (MOT) and it came through without any problems!! I also let them add an extra relais for the starter motor to prevent the hot starting problem that I had. This is a common problem for Alfa 75's and this is the usual fix. This job was done at local Alfa Romeo specialist "Auto Portello". Total cost was 172,01€.
16/08/2006 : The middle rubber in the driveshaft has been replaced and also some minor other things have been done. This job was done at Sam van Lingen again and the total cost including the rent of an Alfa 166 was : 241,94€.
06/06/06 : New front tyres! I wanted P Zero's, because SZ's came on these tyres when they were introduced. I chose the P Zero nero's, because they were the only P Zero's available at the tyre-shop (Direzionales were on back-order). Total cost including fitting and balancing was 305€ After the drive home and parking my SZ back in the garage again I noticed the odometer. It said 60606 KM's! This car really is a monster!! :-) (note the date of this event)
17/05/2006 : Small service with oil-change, airfilter, spark plugs and check-up at Sam van Lingen again. Total cost 334,72€. But I have a small starting problem that is probably caused by some faulty wiring or by the starter-motor. I also need 2 new front tyres and a driveshaft rubber (doughnut). So the car has to go back to the car shop soon. I just wanted the oil-change, because I had a busy weekend coming up with a 200km touring rally and a carclub meeting.
01/04/2006 : Just like last year it was my birthday (31 already!) and we also attended the Sportscar Spring Rally (http://www.sportcarspringrally.nl/) again!! This year was nicer because of some very nice cars (Alfa TZ1!!, Lamborghini Murcielago and even two Bugatti EB110's etc...), but the weather wasn't very coöperative. So we had some rain, but also some sunshine. The rally was very nice and sent us to the Eifel in Germany and then back to Maastricht. We won 3rd place in the sportcar-class, right behind a McLaren SLR and a Fiat Barchetta! Here are the pictures I made : pictures.
29/09/2005 : Big 60K-service (at 58.713 km's) including cam belt (better safe than sorry), APK and the rental of an Alfa 156. This job was done at Sam van Lingen in Houten. They have a lot of experience with SZ's, so I wanted this job done there. The price was nice too, it cost me 478,08€!
04/09/2005 : Spettacolo Sportivo at the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands! This is an event organised by the Dutch Alfa Romeo club. As a club member you can buy one hour tracktime for about 20 euro's. I never drove on the Zandvoort-circuit, so I attended the event! it was perfect weather again, so it was a nice event at the end of the summer. And during this event the SZ/RZ-register had a new world-record gathering of SZ's and RZ's! So we are part of a world record with our car now. :-) Here are some pictures I took on the day. There were very cool cars and the SZ/RZ-register had a nice spot in the paddock. Here are the pictures.
22/07/2005 : One of my best friends (Martijn) got married with his girlfriend (Nandy) and they couldn't refuse my offer to use the SZ as their wedding-car!! So another great addition to the SZ-history!
01/04/2005 : This is not only my birthday but we also attended the Sportscar Spring Rally (http://www.sportcarspringrally.nl/)! This is a full weekend event, with 2 nights at the Novotel in Maastricht and dinners etc. It isn't a 'real' rally, so you can attend with a normal street car. There were about 180 teams in 3 different classes : "Vintage", "classic" and "Sportscars". We were in the last (and biggest) class of course, between Porsche's, Wiesmann Roadsters, a Lamborghini Diablo and a lot more! Here are some pictures of this great and sunny event! Pictures. During the rally you have to drive an average speed of about 49 km/u. That doesn't sound like much, but if you make one mistake, you have a problem to catch up again! The rally was about 240km's and that is a lot for one day! It was our first time and we are very good (and perhaps a 'little' lucky too ;-), because we won the sportscar-class!!!! We got a lot of publicity through this rally, because before the start of the event I was interviewed by the local television company (TV Limburg) and later the result (with a picture of our SZ!) was in a Dutch classic car magazine! Here is that magazine-item. Itis a great event and we are looking forward to the 2006-edition! (btw : we won a bottle of Champagne and a weekend in Paris!!)
29/03/2005 : Oil-change at Auto Heida. My SZ had the big oil-filter, so the change was very difficult. They had to remove the airfilter and two water-pipes to get the old filter out. They replaced it with a newer and less wide filter, so it must be easier the next time! This job was done at 56.046km's and cost me 202,54€.
10/10/2004 : Aaaaaarrrgghhh!!!! I always park carefully in my garage and always with the right side near the wall, so I have room to get out of the car and don't damage the door against the other wall. But this time I parked a little too close to the wall and damaged my SZ!!!! Look at the pictures. It is only a small scrape and no big damage, but I really felt sick about it. I got it repaired and sprayed for 350€ though so it wasn't too expensive (result is superb!). My ego was damaged more!! Expensive scrape
24/09/2004 : Middle piece of exhaust, exhaustgaskets and the battery got replaced. This was at 54.497 km's and the total cost was 402,97€.
14/09/2004 : I brought the car to Auto Heida (well known Alfa-dealer) for its annual APK-test (like TUV/MOT). And it failed! The middle exhaust was leaking a little and they had to order it. This was at 54.408km's and it cost 48,74€.
27/06/2004 : We were attending Spa Italia with a group of other SZ-drivers! We stayed at a hotel near the racetrack and went there early in the morning. Because at 9 o' clock I drove on the Spa-circuit with a young boy who had cancer. (this was organised by the Belgian Children Cancer Institute). I hope this made his day! Here are a lot of pictures from this great event! The day started with rain and even more rain. Luckily it got better after 10 o'clock and the sun stayed for the rest of the day! Pictures After the driving with the Cancer Institute, the track was cleared for an SZ/RZ-only event. We had the Spa-track for ourselves during half an hour and that was really great! Most drivers were very carefull (except one Dutch SZ-driver, who spinned his car twice and almost crashed at eau rouge!) and I had a great time! I love classic cars and there were very cool cars at this event! In 2004 it was a Zagato-special so there were many rare Zagato-cars (Alfa 2600SZ, Fiat 8V Zagato, Alfa TZ1/2, Abarth Zagato's, Aston martin Vanquish Zagato Roadster etc..). Andrea Zagato attended the event and was in the jury of the concours d'elegance.
05/06/2004 : New brake-fluid and gearbox-oil at an Alfa-specialist (Van Kooten) in my town. Price 98,64€. This was 'needed' because at the end of the month we were going to Spa Italia! Old brake-fluid can cause problems when driving the car hard on a racetrack. Lifespan of brakefluid is about 2 years!
05/03/2004 : I bought some Agip Sint 2000 oil for topping up the oil every now and then. This was 24,57€.
20/02/2004 : For the insurance company I had to take the car to a specialist who had to see the car to estimate its value. I have a classic car insurance (that is cheaper than a normal one) for a maximum of 10.000km's a year. This evaluation cost me 70€.
14/02/2004 : Valentine's day!! But not a normal one! This is the day I bought the SZ from Ed (who had three(!!!) different SZ's at the time. The car got a service, before I bought it, with cam belt etc. Cost : about 400€. In the picture on the right you can see Ed who is driving the SZ for the last time out of his garage. A couple of minutes after I took that picture I was driving away in my own SZ! My girlfriend was sitting next to me and my friend Martijn who brought us there was driving behind us in his Audi. It was a great day and the beginning of my SZ-'problem'. :-) The car had done about 51.000km's when I bought it. The drive home (about 150km) was great, even though I probably didn't drive faster than 130 km/u. :-)
2003 : Some oil and maintenance-jobs at an Alfa-specialist. Cost : about 400€
19/08/2002 : Another new antenna (Hirschmann). I think this was a warranty-job, so no costs.
21/08/2001 : 40.000km service (at 36.523km's). +fuelfilter, spark plugs, all filters and Dutch APK-check. Cost : +/- 400€
11/04/2001 : 4 new Pirelli P7000's bought at "Har Creemers tyres" in Echt. Cost : 623,94€ The car had done 31.000km's on its original tyres then.
06/03/2001 : New battery (70A) was fitted at 30.293 km's at a cost of 106,96€.
05/09/2000 : New exhaust-gasket (Alfa Creemers Roermond). Cost : 2,32€
22/06/2000 : New electric antenna (Hirschmann) was bought at "van Kappel" in Roermond. Cost : 86,22€
10/12/1999 : Extra remote for alarm. Cost 137,91.
23/11/1999 : 4 new brake disks (Brembo). Cost : 438,68€ And getting them on the car : 56,72€
10/11/1999 : Because of the extra taxes in the Netherlands (called BPM), you have to pay 'some' money when you import a car. On new cars, there is 45,2% BPM tax, so that makes cars very expensive here. If you import a used car, you pay a percentage for the age of the car. For the SZ, Ed had to pay 2179,92€ on top of all the other costs.
28/10/1999 : Airconditioning-service at Fa P. de Boer in Roermond. Cost : 218,60€
23/10/1999 : It sometimes takes some time to get the paperwork done, but on the 23rd of october, Ed could buy some license plates! The car got a very nice license plate : 59-DJ-DJ! These plates cost 11,32€.
24/08/1999 : Ed was still busy getting the car imported and getting it on a Dutch registration. The car was inspected by the RDW. Total costs for inspection etc : 190€.
10/08/1999 : Class 3 alarm was fitted by Alfa Creemers in Roermond. This is needed for the insurance-company. The car had 19.292 km's then. This job cost 907,56€.
22/07/1999 : New airfilter : 33,86€ 26/07/1999 : New windscreen wiperarm : 47,85€ Both were bought at Alfa Creemers in Roermond.
July 1999 : Mr Marouf moved to the USA and had to sell the SZ. He sold the car to the next lucky owner Mr. Ed v/d Beek in the Netherlands! After buying the car, Ed had to import it and get it inspected by the RDW. (Dutch association for traffic).
15/01/1996 : I think there could be some history missing here, but from all the receipts I have this is the next maintenance for the car since july 1991. The car came in for a big service with cam belt, oil-changes etc. But it only had done 19.075 km's so it can really be its first big service. This service cost about 500€.
02/07/1991 : After one year of driving fun, the car came in for its first maintenance with engine-oil and gearbox-oil change at "Automobile Rongen". (KM 3.950) This service was 118€.
13/07/1990 : The car was bought my Mr. Mohamed Marouf (Dusseldorf Germany). The car was registered with license plate : D-JT 777