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THE ALFA ROMEO GIULIA SPRINT GTA 1600

In the 1960s, Alfa Romeo revised its motorsport strategy. After winning two Formula 1 World Championships - in 1950 with Giuseppe "Nino" Farina and in 1951 with Juan Manuel Fangio - touring car races gradually became a more and more important field of activity. Alfa Romeo was quite successful in the 1600cc class with the Giulia TI Super model. But that changed when the Ford works team entered the stage with the Lotus Cortina and fully exploited the freedom within the regulations for the first time. In terms of engine performance, Alfa Romeo could keep up, but the Cortina was more than 100 kilograms lighter. With an engine output of around 150 hp, this was a considerable advantage. Autodelta, Alfa Romeo's motorsport division, was already working on an antidote at this point. As a basis for the new development the Sprint GT, presented at the end of 1963, was an obvious choice from the available model range. Due to its successful combination of design and driving characteristics, it already enjoyed the full admiration of experts as well as the general public. Nevertheless, it was only slightly lighter than the Giulia and therefore much too heavy for a winning car.
Alfa Romeo recalled earlier successes with the Giulietta Sprint Veloce Alleggerita from 1956 and transferred this lightweight recipe to the Sprint GT. In order to reduce the weight even more this time, extensive changes were made under the skin. All exterior panelwork was in exotic, 1mm-thick Peraluman 25, which consisted of aluminum, magnesium, manganese as well as zinc and had been developed in the in-house department "Servizio Esperienze Carpenteria". The roof was attached to the standard Giulia Sprint's steel sub-structure by trademark rivets. Besides the complete outer body shell - apart from the sills - all the following parts were made from Peraluman: the outer door shell, the bonnet, the boot lid, the air deflector, the dash board support panel, the spare tire tray, the rear inner panel, the number plate bracket and the bracket for the optional oil cooler. The interior with its lightweight bucket seats was clothed in dark gray leatherette and the noise insulation was reduced to a minimum. Perspex was used for the crank windows in the doors and the rear side windows, while the wooden steering wheel gave the rather solid-looking interior a sporty look. So many parts were special to the GTA, from the unique dash to the thin brightwork on the door cards made from polished alloy rather than chrome-plated steel.
Combined with the lightened interior trim, a dry weight of only 745 kg was achieved – 205 kg lighter than a standard Sprint GT.
The resulting new version of the Sprint was named "GTA" and really deserved the "A" standing for "Alleggerita" - in English "lightened".

Under the alloy bonnet sat a high-revving, twin-plug, 1570cc four-cylinder in similar development stage as the ones installed in the TZs. The twin-ignition cylinder head technology was common in motorsport racing but never before used in a relatively small, series production road car engine. The block was made of aluminum, while the valve cover, the front engine cover, the bell housing, the rear gearbox cover and the oil sump were cast from the magnesium alloy Elektron.
The GTA was a real racing car and Alfa Romeo had paid attention to even the smallest details during its development. The 1965 spare parts catalogue listed 357 specific GTA parts. The rated output of the road going GTA was 115 hp at 6000 rpm and the top speed was now 185 km/h, only 5 km/h higher than that of the Sprint GT, but acceleration and handling were significantly improved due to the low weight. In terms of colors, only Rosso Alfa AR501 and Biancospino ARO13 were available.

When the Giulia Sprint GTA was presented publicly for the first time at the Amsterdam Motor Show in February 1965, hardly anyone suspected that this inconspicuous car, standing between a Giulia SS and the Sprint GT base model, would dominate touring car racing for years to come. At first glance, only the cloverleaf stickers on the front fenders and rear panel were noticeable, but a closer look also revealed the simple radiator grille, the minimalist aluminum loops as door handles and the Campagnolo alloy wheels. The big difference that made the GTA a true racing car was the scrupulous lightweight construction and, in contrast, hardly visible from the outside.

From now on, Alfa Romeo mainly focused on the increasingly popular European Touring Car Championship and the future clearly belonged to the Giulia Sprint GTA. A total of only 493 Giulia Sprint GTA 1600 were built during five years of production.

This GTA 1600 

The Alfa Romeo GTA we are offering for sale - chassis 613667 - was first delivered to Paolo Berselli of Bologna/Italy on October 16th 1965. He had the car registered BO252993 and kept it for one year before selling it to Roberto Bachera of Florence in late 1966. The registration changed to FI347371 and Bachera entered the GTA in three races in 1967, Pieve Santo Stefano - Passo dello Spino, Coppa Citta di Volterra and Salita Fornaci di Barga. After two further ownership changes within Florence, the GTA was de-registered in July 1968. Interestingly the car was subsequently sent to Autodelta for preparation according to the Alleggerita Register. In 1977 the GTA came into the possession of Arthur Eickenberg of Hilden.

In 2019, it was acquired by the Alleggerita Collection and subsequently rebuilt from the ground up. The fact that the GTA had originally been prepared by Autodelta in 1968 triggered a rebuild to the last development stage of the 1600 GTA, which was reached for the 68/69 season: with a homologation weight of 740 kg (making it the lightest GTA) and an engine output of up to 200 hp, these GTAs successfully resisted the Ford Escorts for the last time. The newly acquired vehicle was subject to a no-expence spared rebuild by Formula GT. A particular challenge was the Testa Stretta engine fired by a Spica injection pump, which was successfully developed by Formula GT specifically for this vehicle (approx. 200 hp at 8,500 rpm with a surprising torque for a 1600 cc engine). Visually, the GTA is particularly attractive with its riveted rear fenders, as used during the group 5 races of 68/69. All components were reworked with utmost attention to detail, always ensuring to shave off any unnecessary weight. The result is a highly compelling and potent GTA 1600, which is a pure joy to race on track.