The original Alfa Romeo!

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is the ultimate classic car show, attracting the most valuable, unique cars and their owners from around the world to the glorious - and wealthy - California town of Pebble Beach, near Monterey, and this year the featured marque is Alfa Romeo, with 62 of the rarest and most special Alfa Romeos in the world traveling to the USA for the event on 21 August. But one of the most special and, as it is the only one in the world, rarest Alfas has not traveled from Italy, it has arrived from Australia, the home of the only surviving car to first carry the name 'Alfa Romeo', the Alfa Romeo G1. "It is a unique and very special honour to be invited to take part in the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance," says Neville Crichton, owner of the G1 and Alfa Romeo importer for Australia and New Zealand. "The organizers have put together what they, quite justifiably, say is the most significant display of Alfa Romeos seen anywhere in the world. The G1 is the start of a history of cars that have defined style, performance and engineering achievement. It will be a remarkable display." Apart from a stellar career as a motor-racing driver, Crichton is perhaps best known as the owner of some of the world's fastest racing yachts.

The fact that Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo G1 has survived, let alone in perfect - and drivable - condition is no less remarkable in itself.

Chassis 6018 was imported new into Australia in 1921 and was sold, for £850, to a Queensland businessman who, soon afterwards, was declared bankrupt.

Since he had seen his crash coming, he hid the car to keep it out of the hands of his creditors. Then, three years on, he had the misfortune to die and the G1 remained hidden for 25 years, apparently holding up one corner of a shed in the Queensland outback.

Then it was discovered by a couple of young jackaroos who decided it would make a fine 'paddock bomb' for rounding up cattle, chasing kangaroos and all the stuff that blokes do on farms. Eventually they managed to hit a tree and the damaged car was towed back to the farm where it was used to power a water pump. With its massive torque at low engine speed, it was ideal for the job and the work ensured that the engine remained in excellent condition even if the rest of the car was brutalised.

In 1964 it was retired from pump duty and rescued by Alfa Romeo enthusiasts. The following year the car was bought by Ross Flewell-Smith who, against the advice of some experts who thought the car unrestorable, began to rebuild it, an exercise that took ten years. In this Herculean task he was helped by the fact that he discovered a second G1, a wreck, which supplied many of the parts that were missing. Most of the body was missing and, after experimenting with various styles, Flewell-Smith took advice from Luigi Fusi who was then curator of Alfa Romeo's museum.

Flewell-Sinith's rebuild was good enough to win the 1977 Queensland Vintage Car Concours and to win the 1978 Australian Mile Miglia memorial run. In an historic race at Lakeside it was clocked at 86 mph, remarkable performance for a 1921 car, so remarkable, in fact, it was black-flagged for being so quick!

In 1995, Flewell-Smith sold this car he had nicknamed 'Milly' from the 'Milan' on the engine black, to Julian Sterling who commissioned a restoration to his own exacting standards. All worn parts were replaced with specially-made components built regardless of cost. New tyres were supplied by Michelin, made from the original 1920s moulds, costing $6,000 for the set. The restoration was undertaken up to a standard, not down to a price, and the work was described in the 1998 edition of the Classic Car Yearbook as 'breathtaking'.

Following a rationalization of Julian Sterling's car collection, the car was bought by Neville Crichton, who has since had the car fully restored in New Zealand to return it to full drivable condition. Indeed, its drivability has been demonstrated by Sydney motoring writer, David Berthon, who, on its very first outing after its restoration, discovered that it was more than capable of breaking the 110 kmh freeway speed limit!

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