1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA

£ 275 000

One of only 50 Right Hand Drive Examples
Stradale specification (road version)
Fully restored
UK Supplied
One of the most important performance Alfa Romeo’s of the 1960’s

VEHICLE DESCRIPTION

This right hand drive GTA Chassis 752547 was completed on the 8th July 1965 and delivered to Alfa Romeo Great Britain on the 23rd July 1965. According to Centro Documentazione Alfa Romeo it is one of the first RHD GTAs built.

This particular car was delivered to Australia although nothing is known of its first owner or when the car arrived there. It was subsequently acquired by its second owner Ray Gulson, a Canberra garage owner, in 1970. Although Gulson raced cars in his spare time he never got to use the GTA on track as it suffered damage as the result of a fire in the workshop at his premises.

Despondent, Gulson sold the car to Royce Fullard, a Victoria farmer, who was a collector of Alfa Romeo cars and owned the only TZ in Australia.

Fullard kept the car for 25 years, resisting all attempts by prospective buyers, until in 1997 he agreed to sell it to Andrew Murray a leading light in the Alfa community based in Perth. Murray immediately commenced restoration of the car but soon realised that it was a project too far having already started work on another GTA.

Murray then sold the stripped down car to Sam Calabro, another Perth resident who worked most of his time on the east coast, and he sent the car there for a complete restoration. That work took almost 4 years and the car was finally completed in 2002. The car initially ran a 1750 block using the original cylinder head but Calabro decided to return it to 1570 capacity. He purchased and installed a newly built block complete with special crank, rods and pistons from the legendary Roman Alfa tuner Franco Angellini. That block remains in the car today number 191.

Calabro sold the car some 4 years later to John Terpu, another Perth resident, who kept it only briefly before the current owner acquired it through Duttons of Melbourne in early 2008 and imported it to the UK.

Over the past 18 years the current owner has made various changes to the car to restore it to its factory Stradale specification. It has the early chrome quarter lights and one piece bumpers as well as the original “half moon” Campagnolo alloy wheels. Recent mechanical work includes a rebuild of the gearbox at Cloverleaf Transmissions and a new clutch.

The car also comes with its very rare original English version of the drivers manual.

To compete in touring car races around the world Alfa Romeo created the GTA. It was basically a lightened and more powerful version of the Giulia Sprint GT production car first shown in 1963.

Introduced at the Amsterdam motor show in early 1965 Alfa had to produce 1000 cars for FIA homologation purposes. Inconsistent chassis numbering, as was common practice among manufacturers, circumvented this requirement. Alfa records show that 493 in total were actually completed of which 50 were right hand drive. Well connected private customers could also buy a Corsa or race version from Autodelta for about the same cost as a Ferrari 275 GTB.

The A stood for Allegerita or lightened and most of the weight saving came from the aluminium body panels riveted to the steel frame instead of the welded steel panels of the GT. Only the windscreen was glass with all other glass being replaced with plexiglass and all sound deadening removed.

Magnesium was also used extensively in the mechanical components such as the sump, cam cover, bell housing and wheels to bring the weight of the car down to 745Kg. Under the bonnet was a 1570cc motor with a twin plug cylinder head fed by a pair of Weber 45 DCOE carburettors and mated to a 5 speed close ratio gearbox with lightened shafts and gears.

The GTA went on to have an enormously successful competition career both with Autodelta and private customers throughout the 1960’s and 70’s and remains one of Alfa Romeos all time greats.