One to Buy: 1968 Alfa Romeo 1300 Sprint GTA Junior
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17 months after the Bertone-bodied Tipo 105 Giulia Sprint GT Coupe was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Alfa Romeo released a tricked-out hot rod conceived to pave the way for the most extreme Group 2 Touring Car possible.
Unveiled at the Amsterdam Motor Show in February 1965, the comprehensively uprated GTA was homologated on June 2nd following the completion of the first 500 examples. Between 1966 and 1968, the 1.6-litre GTA went on to win the European Touring Car Championship for three straight seasons.
In the midst of that 1968 campaign, Alfa Romeo also began production of a 1.3-litre GTA to sell alongside the original version. Dubbed the GTA 1300 Junior, this new smaller engined variant enabled Alfa Romeo to compete in the under 1300cc category and similarly went on to achieve great success.
The majority of the circa 500 Tipo 105 Giulia Sprint GTAs built to 1300 Junior specification were completed to Corsa trim with less than 200 reputedly sold as road-going Stradales.
Of these Stradales, many have subsequently been converted to competition trim for historic racing so to find an unmolested example in its original specification is rare. However, just such a machine is currently on offer at the VSOC showroom in Sassenheim, The Netherlands.
Completed on June 21st 1968 in Rosso Alfa with Skai Nero upholstery, chassis AR775835 was retained by its first owner, Sig. Sante in Velletri, Rome, until January 1976. By 2002 the car had passed through the hands of just three more Italian owners at which point it was exported to Japan where it resided for 14 years.
Today, this wonderful numbers matching GTA Junior is being offered with a Certificato di Origine from Alfa Romeo, Automobile Club d’Italia homologation papers and Italian registration records plus brochures, instruction books and manuals.
