‘ The majority of their work is building fast road and race engines with around 155hp to 190hp’
Bob Dove gained his experience working for Alfa Romeo’ s Dealer Team in the 80s
Specialist: Bob Dove Motorsport
Bob Dove’ s connection with Alfas started in the 1970s when he owned a 1600 GT Junior. Working on and rebuilding the car himself, he got involved with Alfa car clubs before joining the Alfa Romeo Dealer Team as a race mechanic. In his spare time, away from his job as a banker, he helped build the GTV6 and 75 race cars in the 1980s. After work, he would head to the garage and work on the cars until 11 o’ clock at night and get home at midnight before getting up again for work at five or six in the morning. Every other weekend he would be away at the races, too.
In the 1990s, Bob took early retirement from his main
job and focussed on Alfas and rebuilding engines. His son, Paul, would join him in the workshop and as a young man would help his dad by stripping down twin-cam Alfa engines. Paul has been working on Alfa engines for 20 years, so when Bob retired again, he and his brother took over the business and continued to build engines. They don’ t just work on Alfa Twin-Cams, but the majority of their work is on these Italian four cylinders, building fast road and race 2-litre engines with around 155hp to 190hp.
Paul estimates that around a dozen pass through the workshop every year. Some of them get the once over by Bob too, as he still comes into the workshop to see what’ s going on.
‘ The majority of their work is building fast road and race engines with around 155hp to 190hp’
Summer 2025 The Engine Rebuilder 29