Alfa Romeo breaks auction file in a buoyant traditional car or truck current market : CityAM
An Alfa Romeo GT Junior has bought for £50,000, smashing the auction world history for this product. The classy typical coupe, originally exported to Australia in 1971, attracted 261 bids all through a seven-working day on the net sale.
The document price tag is more proof of a sturdy collector motor vehicle sector, which has so much resisted the creeping Covid malaise. Online auctions in unique are booming, as our interview with Car or truck & Traditional CEO Tom Wood uncovered previous thirty day period.
Ironically, the GT Junior was conceived as a much less expensive route into Alfa Romeo ownership. Launched in 1965, it traded the 109hp 1.6-litre motor of the Giulia Sprint Veloce for a 90hp 1.3 with twin carbs and twin cams.
It was notably popular in Italy, where by the tax regime penalised much larger engines (as a result other ‘downsized’ classics, this sort of as the Ferrari 208 GTB).
Performance was continuous (-60mph in 12.6 seconds), but the GT Junior’s gutsy willingness to rev – coupled with a sweet gearshift and balanced, rear-driven chassis – designed it incredibly partaking to generate. You will be outgunned by a relatives-spec Ford Concentration, but who cares?
Then there’s how the GT Junior appears to be like: pert, fairly and brimful of Italian brio. Frankly, it could generate like a Routemaster bus and we’d still want a single.
The most distinct element of early 105-sequence coupes was the scalino ‘step front’, exactly where the leading edge of the bonnet sits 10mm proud of the bodywork. Afterwards vehicles, this kind of as this a single, have a flush front finish.
Flared wheelarches, a flowing roofline and a chopped Kamm tail also trace at delicate sportiness, even though the period of time-look 15-inch Alfaholics alloys fitted in this article are just magnificent.
Other modifications for this distinct GT Junior consist of fitment of a 1,750cc motor (utilised in the regular GT Veloce from 1967) with new Weber carbs, Pipercross filters and digital ignition.
The uprated suspension makes use of Koni dampers and 40mm lowering springs, and the brakes have been bolstered with a dual-circuit balance box.
The automobile is in any other case common, but restored to close to-concours ailment. Subsequent a bare-shell respray with Glasurit paints, every single chrome portion has been re-plated or replaced, with just about every rubber seal also new. Secure to say, this Alfa Romeo is smarter than when it still left the manufacturing facility (and certainly fewer very likely to rust).
The GT Junior has brought on a stir amid Alfisti (Alfa Romeo’s fanatical supporters) and significantly exceeded Hagerty’s market benefit for a equivalent design in fantastic issue, which stands at £30,900.
It also impressed Chris Pollitt, head of editorial at Automobile & Common. “I’ve never ever witnessed a restoration that had been carried out with these kinds of treatment and outstanding focus to detail,” he explained.
“Going up and down the nation to photograph cars and trucks for our auction platform suggests I get to see some fantastic vehicles. However, this Alfa Romeo stays firmly at the major of the record.”
Tim Pitt writes for Motoring Research