We have been sent these photos and details of a 1965 Alfa Romeo owned for the last 30 years by Anthony Saunders. He bought it in the UK in 1994, originally supplied in Yellow (AR 105), the Spider was repainted red before he bought the car. He has kept it red over the years and now lives in Italy where he has had to reregister the car there.

This 1965 2600 Spider was originally a UK supplied example, sent direct to the factory approved Alfa Romeo Concessions RUDD’s for a 'Ruddspeed' for conversion to right-hand drive. Anthony has kindly supplied a letter from the previous owner which gives a little history on the car and refers to the first purchaser in 1964 as a KN Dudd, from Sussex (GB). Of course this is a typo is it should be KN Rudd (of Ruddspeed).

When Anthony bought the vehicle it had a C registration number, with CD indicating Brighton and C being a 1965 registration. Looking at the factory letter, it says date of sale as being 25th May 1964. In 1964 new cars were registered from January 1st to December 31st, so maybe it sat in the Rudds showroom or workshop for at least 7 months while it was being converted to RHD and then sold and registered as a 1965 vehicle.
The old log books used to be a buff colour, then in the mid sixties they changed to green. Then when they changed to computer records the green ones were withdrawn and the new V5 document was issued. The original green log book was traditionally written by hand and every time you sold the car the new owner would write their details into it and the post office would stamp over the top when you taxed the car for the first time in your name.

So maybe the car had been off the road when the DVLA updated from the green log book to computer records. A quick check of the DLVA website sees this car as being registered in January 1987 as its first registration, which ties into the letter from a previous owner who bought car in September 1985 from someone in Wales, and had it restored from 1985 to 1987.

Ruddspeed Serial Number: N/A

We would love to hear from anyone has more information on the car or would like to add to the history please feel free to contact us here at Ruddspeed.
Click on the images below to view at a larger size.