Update: The car sold for $20,100, comfortably under the average going price for these cars, but not cheap for a non-runner. Luckily, it doesn't seem like it will take a fortune to get the car up and running.

Look, we know that there are few phrases more frightening than “nonrunning Alfa Romeo project.” But the 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint 1600 featured in the current round of Bring a Trailer auctions is a particularly enticing example of the genre.

Sure, it hasn’t run since 1981 -- but that’s 34 years during which no one did anything stupid to the car! Consequently, all body panels are straight (and appear to be rust-free), all trim bits are present and the interior isn’t completely mangled. Underbody shots show a nice, healthy coat of oil and grease with no traces of corrosion (of course, you’re always gambling when buying a car sight-unseen).

Having seen a lot of good-looking cars in our time, we can confirm that this is, in fact, a good-looking car. Bring a Trailer

As an added bonus, the car’s history is well documented, from its original sale to a dealership in Switzerland to its purchase in 1978, in San Diego, by its current owner/seller.

With just a few hours remaining, bidding is sitting at $10,000. There’s still time to take a chance on this attractive little car, and doing so might not even be financially ruinous: Hagerty pegs the average value of Sprint 1600s at around $27,000, with excellent examples pulling upwards of $50,000.

We’d get this one in order mechanically and give it a good polish before deciding whether it needs a new coat of paint -- we’d hate to have this one tied up in a restoration shop while we could be out driving it. If you live in the snowy northern states, you might be able to get it running by the time the roads clear up in spring! Spring of 2018, that is.

Head to Bring a Trailer for more info on the auction.

The car hasn't been run since 1981, which means no one has been screwing things up for the past three decades. Bring a Trailer

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