Reader’s Restoration

Great care was taken getting the Alfa’s distinctive front end spot on.

➽ Getting the AFTER glorious V8 back on song was a long and involved task.

Alfa Bravo How the fate of a very poorlyAlfa Romeo Montreal was determined by a game of Top Trumps WORDS JAMES WALSHE PHOTOS MATT HOWELL

isting all the cars you’ve ever retire, the lucky few will have something moment at which Dominic’s career in the owned can provide an interesting truly fruity stashed in the garage. winemaking business really begins to take map of your life. A clear historical You can certainly map out the rise and o . It’s the late-Nineties and he’s dumped L pattern of fi nancial wellbeing can rise of Dominic Hentall’s career by his Lancia Fulvia in favour of emerge – from the time you fumbled about scanning through the list of his cars. a Biturbo Spyder, followed by behind the wheel of your fi rst motor to It begins with a humble Morris Minor, a Ghibli GT and later a Maserati 3200 GT. something representative of an a 850, Peugeot 104 and a GS. But then Dominic’s car list begins to go improvement in your monetary As your eyes scan down the list, you see o the scale. We inevitably begin to eye circumstances. As we approach middle things improving in the late-Eighties as he him in a di erent light – perhaps even with age, many of us end up in something snaps up a succession of Lancia Betas, a shameful smidge of jealousy… family-orientated and sensible – others will including a Coupé, Spyder and Montecarlo He’s now into his forties and driving out choose a premium-badged saloon. Spyder – all restored by him and his of the showroom in a 400i, And then, as the kids fl y the nest or we brother. You then become aware of the Lamborghini Countach 5000S, Dodge ➽

32 NOVEMBER 2015 // PRACTICAL CLASSICS www.practicalclassics.co.uk To subscribe to PC go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/practicalclassics PRACTICAL CLASSICS // NOVEMBER 2015 33 Reader’s Restoration Here’s how Dominic did it

The restorer October 2011 Dominic Hentall, 49, is Engine out 1 a winemaker with a long and Everything was fascinating car history. whipped out, Residing in the Su olk town cleaned and closely of Sudbury, Dom is often seen inspected. out and about in his cars. ‘After all that e ort restoring January 2012 a car, you’ve got to drive it – cars need to be driven!’ Little things One of the two 2 cylinderheads starts to come together. YOU CAN DO IT! Dismantled engine laid March out on a sheet of plywood! 2012 3 Thorough. Obsessive work on the Montreal saw Dominic taking almost every part of the car into his tiny workshop in turn. That way, he’d know that if any running problems surfaced later, he could eliminate issues more easily.

Four double Weber 4 November 2012 Head space carbs replaced fuel Dom skimmed the heads himself in his shed. Both of the injection system. Montreal’s head gaskets expired shortly after the engine was put back together, which meant they had to come o again.

Viper SRT10 and a Ferrari 512 TR Koenig. these days, you’d struggle in here. The shed His supercars have all gone – sold, Feb 2013 June 2014 But let’s not begrudge the man his success is so small and tatty that you’d be presumably to collectors elsewhere with 5 Dirty bits Back on form 6 because there’s something you need to concerned about leaving a single shrub in bigger garages. Dom’s latest restoration The valves had heavy New or reconditioned parts know about Dominic Hentall. He has, over there, let alone engine components from conquest involves a car he fell for at the carbon buildup – the were reinstalled in the the years, maintained all of these cars a Countach. Of which there are more than age of 12 during a game of Top Trumps. car was clearly not Montreal and it went back himself. In a tiny wooden potting shed. a few. But despite the presence of dusty He has left his life of supercars behind and thrashed enough by out onto the road in fi ne ‘Sorry about the cobwebs,’ he apologises parts from a Ferrari fl at-12 and various Viper has returned to his fi rst love: an Alfa Romeo previous owners. They form. It has run perfectly as he stoops under a shabby Perspex roof. entrails, we’re here to join Dominic for one Montreal. ‘When I heard one for the fi rst were as good as new ever since, thanks to Dom’s If it was politically correct to swing a cat giant leap backwards into his past. time, as a kid, the sound of it… it revved like after cleaning and work on his detailed lapping back in. refurbishment. a hornet’s nest,’ he says, clutching the very Top Trumps card he used to study as ‘The sound of it, a child. ‘It looks great, doesn’t it? But it was the sound… it just got me. I knew one day revving like a I’d come back to a Montreal.’ Trying to re-sculpt Gandini’s lines felt like Dominic’s restoration journey began at brakes and put in a secondhand engine.’ The Shockingly, the Alfa Romeo Montreal cost an impossible task so Dom wisely took his the same time as his entrepreneurial career boys then parked it on a local grass verge hornet’s nest. It more than a Jaguar E-type or Porsche 911 time seeking out the perfect – at the age of 14. ‘My brother Ewan and with a ‘for sale’ sign in the window. He grins: at its launch in 1970. At fi rst glance – and project. ‘I’ve always been I were still at school when we bought ‘It was snapped up soon after for £750!’ just got me’ certainly when you consider Alfa Romeo’s sensible about knowing DOM’S a Morris Minor from an old lady for £75. A Fiat 850 Sports Coupé turned up fall from grace to the current mire of in my limits,’ he admits. BUYING TIP It was very rusty underneath so we shortly afterwards. ‘It had been o the road frilly dresses – it’s hard to imagine anyone ‘There are certain Ask advice from stripped the whole thing back to bare for a while and rusted through. I couldn’t get parting with so much cash for an Alfa. jobs I need specialist somebody who has worked metal and resprayed it ourselves. panels, so I cut out the rust and then But the Montreal arrived in an era when help with – but I was on these cars before. The We overhauled the suspension and hand-fabricated all the bits myself.’ Alfa workshop documents Alfa Romeo still shone bright. With that always keen to have Twenty-fi ve years later, Dom was are fl awed and hoping to avoid the use of badge came respect on a level with any a go at as much as sometimes supercar maker, backed up by a long I could from a very inaccurate! these skills for his romantic history of exceptionally early age.’ Montreal’s ➽ beautiful and unique automobiles. Even Henry Ford was a fan, telling the then Managing Director of Alfa in 1939: ‘When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat’. ‘The Montreal’s styling is the fi rst thing that hit me, admittedly,’ says Dominic. ‘For that reason I really wanted to fi nd a restoration project that didn’t need a great deal of bodywork’.

34 NOVEMBER 2015 // PRACTICAL CLASSICS www.practicalclassics.co.uk To subscribe to PC go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/practicalclassics PRACTICAL CLASSICS // NOVEMBER 2015 35 Reader’s Restoration

bolts: ‘They’re made from bits of old bodywork I cut from the Countach’. What’s it like to drive? The task of unravelling elderly Italian electrics was predictably di cult. James Walshe is the lucky man tasked with fi nding out… ‘Nothing worked – not even the slightest Fire the Montreal up and it’s I have no doubt it would glow!’ he sighs. Checking and cleaning the DOMINICS’S clear that it’s so much more happily take me there. fuses got about half of it working again. ‘The than a concept car with the The twin-pod speedo and BUYING TIP rest took days and days of poking about. I guts of an old 1962 Giulia rev counter are beautiful Inspecxxxhassis rails, Sprint GT. The carbs emit design details, set in the unravelled and reinstalled bits of wiring, DOM’S xxxxsts and sills thoroughly a fruity slurp – the all-alloy usual smelly, brittle Italian replaced bulbs and bad connections and BUYING TIP on the MinxxxxxRot is not V8 burbles like a muscle car plastic. Of course, you can’t rebuilt switches,’ he says. ‘Montreals are becoming uncommon. You’ll need at idle and then roars in a way read any of the other dials Neither of the electric windows worked, harder to fi nd for reasonable two Travellers to make that only an Italian V8 can. – they’re obscured by the obviously, since each door contained a maze money. Dull as it sounds, buy anoxxx‘2000’. Steering is sharp and the steering wheel. The stalks of wires and pulleys. Dom explains: the best you can a‚ ord. car feels agile. I drove the are typically vague, as if Alfa ‘The windows run on seven or eight pulleys There’ll be a fewer tears when you restore it!’ car in rural Su olk but was just poked some old knitting and a wire that snakes all the way around craving the Furka Pass to live needles into the dash. each door. All of those pulleys are on out the cliché of my Miura And does any of this tensioners. It was so complicated, I’d never dreams. Dom’s Montreal has matter? Of course not – it’s been so precisely restored, an Alfa Romeo Montreal. seen anything like it! Both window motors had seized too, but started working again after I’d dissected and reassembled them.’ He then worked his magic on the interior. restoration. ‘It would have been a nightmare, friend and local Italian car specialist Roberto I did everything in there, from skimming the He says: ‘The dashboard was hanging out considering the rest of the car needed to be Grimaldi, Dom was able to begin work with heads to grinding in the valves’. Having and a great deal of the plastic trim needed completely stripped apart and put back considerably more confi dence. carried out similar jobs on the the engines to be remanufactured. Other parts could be together. As for the engine… well it was Dominic carefully stripped the engine of his previous cars – including the saved – I spent painstaking, endless hours much more work than I ever expected.’ down and placed every part on a bit of old Countach and Viper – Dominic was in the shed glueing and cutting’. Dominic got it going soon enough, but plywood balanced on the barbecue in his confi dent of success. Things eventually came together and, at there were problems almost immediately: tiny shed. ‘I wore a path between the ‘I used my MIG welder for last, the car was back on the road. But there ‘It smoked so much you couldn’t see a thing. car and my garden shed, the custom-built stu – anything were a few nasty surprises around the It was burning oil and one head gasket was number of times I walked back I couldn’t fi nd for sale, corner. ‘All those months spent doing gone. I spent a month trying to fi x it but it and forth with bits of the I remanufactured’. Dominic everything by the book – and then both was futile. I needed to do a full rebuild. engine!’ The whole rebuild even fabricated the little head gaskets went. I was so demoralised,’ There are four timing chains in this thing – was done in the shed: domed covers over the he says. ‘My Alfa Romeo was living up to I was petrifi ed!’ With advice from his good ‘It was a tight space but windscreen wiper arm the fi rm’s terrible reputation.’

1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal ‘Italian styling perfection ENGINE 2593cc/8-cyl/DOHC in a small package.’ POWER 200bhp@6500rpm TORQUE 173lb ft@4750rpm GEARBOX 5-speed manual ‘I love my potting shed/supercar repair shop.’ TOP SPEED 138mph FUEL ECONOMY 24mpg 0-60MPH 7.6sec ‘The engine smoked so much. It was PRICE WHEN NEW £5077 VALUE NOW £35,000-50,000 burning oil and a head gasket had gone’

This tranquil road Relaxed driving position gets battered by a is typically Italian. burbliing exhaust. ➽

36 NOVEMBER 2015 // PRACTICAL CLASSICS www.practicalclassics.co.uk To subscribe to PC go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/practicalclassics PRACTICAL CLASSICS // NOVEMBER 2015 37 Reader’s Restoration

Montreal details are a delight. The large boot’s a surprise.

‘Sometimes it feels like it’s on the edge of a nervous breakdown’ The gaskets had failed between the down and then drain all the water out so it’s garage and notice a large low-lying black pistons and specialists later explained that below the level of the heads. Then you undo sheet lurking at the back. I peek underneath the engine had a particularly ridiculous one nut at a time, oil it and then retorque it. to fi nd myself staring at a 2002 Lamborghini torquing-down procedure that Dominic had I’ve never heard of anything like it!’ Murciélago. I look up at Dom and raise an been completely unaware of – he’d simply That sting in the restoration tail dealt eyebrow. ‘Just something for the weekend,’ followed standard workshop logic. ‘With any with, the Montreal hit the road. ‘When it’s he smiles, nodding towards the garden other engine, you torque it down cold, run it running well, it’s brilliant. But sometimes shed. ‘Of course, I service it myself.’ for a bit, then retorque it. But the Montreal it feels like it’s on the edge of a nervous We wouldn’t expect anything less. ■ book recommends you torque it down cold, breakdown.’ We later discover that Dom is run it until hot, torque it down hot, let it cool a pianist with perfect pitch: ‘I tune the carbs regularly with a hosepipe to my ear’. This restoration story With his life of music and wine topped o with a rare Italian parked outside originally featured in Dominic’s car CV – is life complete for Dominic? Evidently not. Practical Classics 2002-2011 I realise that the Montreal has been parked Lamborghini on the driveway while we’ve been chatting. magazine. Countach I glance into what I thought was an empty Another highly-involved For the very best restoration stories mechanical rebuild. subscribe to Practical Classics today by going to www.greatmagazines.co.uk 2012-2015 Ferrari 512 TR This modifi ed Koenig model was sold recently to fund the Montreal.

38 NOVEMBER 2015 // PRACTICAL CLASSICS www.practicalclassics.co.uk To subscribe to PC go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/practicalclassics PRACTICAL CLASSICS // NOVEMBER 2015 PB