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What’s cooler than rockets and Italian sports cars? Well, what about putting the two together? No, this isn’t a jet-propelled classic car, but former NASA engineer, ex-Singer Vehicle Design wrenchman and owner of DV Mechanics Dorian Valenzuela did combine both of his impressive skill sets to create a custom Italian work of art with his personal 1970 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1300TI.
According to an interview with Petrolicious, Valenzuela says he fell immediately in love with the old Alfa after seeing a vintage Guilia racer as a kid at an auto show with his father. Years later, while thumbing through Craigslist, he found the car that would eventually metamorphose into his “canyon carver,” as he calls it.
In that same interview, Valenzuela says he had no intention of building a completely custom race car. He intended to just make it run and then drive it as-is. One thing led to another, though, until the project eventually evolved into a complete, ground-up resto-mod.
He began by swapping the factory 1300-cc inline four-cylinder that originally made 82 horsepower with a 2000-cc all-aluminum twin-cam inline-four putting down 200 horsepower. Following this new motor, he designed and installed custom equal length tube headers mated to a mandrel bent stainless steel 2.25-inch exhaust system.
Of course, with the added power, Valenzuela had to further modify the car to be able to handle it. He fitted a custom race-type suspension with Koni struts, threaded spring perches and adjusted suspension geometry. He continued by adding custom race bucket seats up front and replacing the back seat with a chromoly steel half cage. Further efforts were made to recreate the Italian racer he had seen all those years ago by doing a full trim and bumper delete, removing any unnecessary weight and visual distraction in pursuit of his vision to create a clean, light, and fast little racer.
Like it? Well, no need to drool over this Alfa Romeo in vain, because it’s now for sale. While this Alfa has been the centerpiece at the flagship store of Los Angeles-based menswear label Buck Mason since November of last year, Valenzuela has decided to put his one-of-a-kind Giulia on the market — and Buck Mason is offering it up for the handsome sum of $150,000. While supplies last, of course.
