motor cars

MOTOR CARS | 209

Introduced in 1965, the GTA (the ‘A’ stood for Alleggerita - lightened)
was the official competition version of the Giulia Sprint GT and was
produced in both road and race variants. The latter, as usual, was
the responsibility of the factory’s Autodelta competitions department,
which had been founded in 1961 as an independent company by
Carlo Chiti and Ludovico Chizzola, and subsequently absorbed by
Alfa Romeo.

Visually almost indistinguishable from the road-going Sprint GT,
the GTA differed by virtue of its aluminium body panels, Plexiglas
side and rear windows, and lightened interior fittings and trim. As
a result the GTA tipped the scales at around 200 kilograms lighter
than the stock steel-bodied car. Alfa’s classic twin-cam 1,570cc four
underwent extensive modification for the GTA, the angle between
the valves being reduced from 90 to 80 degrees and the valve sizes
substantially increased; there no longer being room between them
for a central spark plug, a change was made to twin-plug ignition.
In road trim the revised engine produced 115bhp with up to an
incredible 170 horsepower available in race tune.

The GTA made its racing debut on 20th March 1966 at Monza
where Andrea de Adamich and Teodoro Zeccoli triumphed in the
Jolly Club Four-Hour Race. From then on the Autodelta-prepared
GTAs enjoyed outstanding success, winning the European
Touring Car Championship three years running from 1966-68. The
Championship’s 1,300cc class had long been the preserve of the
Mini Cooper but that would all change in 1968 with the arrival of
the GTA 1300 Junior, which for the next few years would enjoy
dominance equal to that of the Mini in the early ‘60s.

An accompanying letter from the Archivio Storico Alfa Romeo states

that the chassis number ‘AR 752621’ corresponds with a right-hand

drive Giulia Sprint GTA manufactured on 27th July 1965 and sold on

16th April 1966 to one Salvatore Ferragamo of Firenze (Florence).

Nothing is known of its subsequent history, though the copy of a

French Carte Grise on file shows that the car was registered in that

country in 2002. In September of that year the Alfa was sold at the

Le Mans auction to the current vendor and brought to the UK, being

registered here on 1st February 2003. The catalogue description

(copy on file) stated that the car had had some racing history in

Germany, as evidenced by the presence of a roll cage and fire

extinguisher, and that it had been restored in 1999. Its condition was

described as ‘excellent’.

Since its acquisition by the current vendor, a well known and

respected historic racer, the GTA has been used for competition on

events such as the Tour Auto and the UT2C series at Paul Ricard,

Monza, and the mighty Spa among others. Ongoing maintenance

and preparation has been carried out by respected specialists

Lanzante Ltd of Petersfield, Hampshire. Offered with V5C registration

document and HTP papers issued in 2005, the car was last used

circa 2010 and is currently SORN’d.

The Alfa Romeo GTA is the car for all competition seasons, equally at

home on road, hill-climb or track.

£160,000 - 180,000

€200,000 - 230,000