1968 Alfa Romeo GTA 1300 Junior

Footnotes

Introduced in 1966, 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 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. Unique to the model, the GTA 1300 Junior's engine combined the Giulia's 78mm bore with a 67.5mm-stroke crankshaft. Equipped with the GTA's twin-plug 'head and revving to more than 9,000rpm, this little gem of an engine produced 150bhp plus. A little over 400 GTA 1300 Juniors had been constructed when production ceased in 1975.
This Alfa Romeo GTA 1300 Junior was sold new in in the north west of Italy. Subsequently the car was exported to Sweden where was used and maintained for many years before returning to Italy. Recently the car has been subject to a light restoration undertaken by Automobile Tricolore Srl, the engine being rebuilt with forged pistons, new steel cylinder liners, timing chain, gaskets, etc and specially profiled camshafts for increased power. In addition, the braking system has been overhauled with a new master cylinder and servo unit. Finished in Bianco Spino, this beautiful GTA retains its the original interior and a high level of originality while affording the benefit of a freshly rebuilt and impressively potent engine. Accompanying documentation consists of Italian registration, fresh Revisione (MoT), and Automobile Tricolore's bill for €13,922.