Team story
Origins
An Alfa Romeo engine did not automatically make a car part of the Italian works team. Peter de Klerk built his Alfa Special for South African racing, using a 1.5-litre Giulietta four-cylinder engine. The project emerged from the local championships, where home-built single-seaters also faced cars brought over from Europe.
The Formula 1 journey
At East London, in the 1963 World Championship Grand Prix, de Klerk qualified sixteenth and had to retire with gearbox problems. He returned to the same circuit on 1 January 1965: seventeenth on the grid, he was classified tenth. These were the Alfa Special's two World Championship starts, separated by a year without a championship appearance.
Historical timeline
Three chapters in the story of Alfa Special
Three episodes to revisit the people, cars and races that shaped this journey.
First appearance · South African Grand Prix
Peter de Klerk · South African Grand Prix 1963. The recorded outcome is DNF. This is the first recorded race start, or the first entry if the team never started a race.
Sporting landmark · South African Grand Prix
Peter de Klerk · South African Grand Prix 1965. The recorded position is P10; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This marks the first win or podium where one exists, otherwise the highest recorded placing for this constructor.
Latest recorded appearance · South African Grand Prix
Peter de Klerk · South African Grand Prix 1965. The recorded position is P10; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This is the last race start attributed to this constructor in the archive, not necessarily the end of the organisation behind it.
A distinctive way of racing
De Klerk continually developed the Special in local racing, also reworking its Giulietta engine. In the 1963 Rand Grand Prix, he took third place behind the Ferraris of Surtees and Bandini. That podium belonged to a non-championship race and must not be transferred to the car's World Championship record.
What remains
De Klerk later moved to a Brabham-Climax. The Special, meanwhile, retains the character of a personal project that was able to meet international Formula 1 at its home Grand Prix. Its name describes a South African combination of chassis and components, not an Alfa Romeo subsidiary or a continuation of the Alfettas.