Tim Guinness’s Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint salt lake racer

Bravery comes in all shapes, sizes and styles, and we’d argue that anyone who takes a 70s Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint racing on a salt lake surely qualifies. Bathurst’s Tim Guinness has done it not just once but five times now, trekking his ’78 Alfasud all the way to South Australia’s Lake Gairdner to take part in the Dry Lakes Racers Association’s annual Speed Week. This year’s event was especially sweet for Tim, as he broke the 1500cc Production Car class record with a 125.927mph average.

First published in the July 2025 issue of Street Machine

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Do you have a racing background?

I’d raced in Improved Production in the 90s, but with a family and business, I grew tired of it. Then, when The World’s Fastest Indian movie came out (2005), we thought this salt racing could be a new adventure.

How did you end up racing an Alfa on the salt?

It was an Alfa Romeo Owners Club of NSW member’s kid’s first car, and it had been left on the front lawn. After a while, the parents wanted it gone, so I got it, and then it sat around in the shed for four or five years. My son looked at it one day, and because it was a bit rusty, you wouldn’t restore it, but it was too good to scrap.

Does the Alfasud hold many advantages in the 1500cc Production class?

It’s got a good, small frontal area compared to other 1500cc cars, but it does have a terrible combustion chamber shape; being able to swap to a later-model cylinder head would get us a lot more performance. However, Alfas are made out of good-quality materials, and you can get a good amount of power out of their engines.

What’s under the bonnet?

It’s a 1490cc boxer four-cylinder. I’m running a 40-year-old crank and rods, because you can’t go out and buy forged rods and upgraded bolts for them. The pistons are former racing pistons from 40 years ago; there’s no trick bits in the engine.

Have you had it on the dyno?

Well, the lake is referred to as the ‘long white dyno’, and once you have a wideband sensor and a gauge, you can do your own tuning with a carburettor. It doesn’t make huge power – probably about 130hp, which is about as much as a 2.0-litre GTV.

Is there much action in the 1500cc Production Car class?

In the 90s, there were some Fiat 124s that wobbled down around 80mph, and then in 2006, a Suzuki Swift set the record [125.226mph] that we just beat. The reality is that nobody has run in this class for years. You can look up classes that have really low speeds, and some are under 100mph, so you could buy yourself a car and beat that record.

We hear you had a hand from a blind mechanic this year!

Everyone helps everyone out. The guys pitting next to us were the Venom team, and they heard us having problems. They had a mechanic who was blind, and they all came over to give us a hand and helped us work out the issue, which was dead sparkplugs.