Gallery Aaldering is offering this Alfa Romeo 1300 GTA Strada for sale. Fully restored and mechanically rebuilt. Ex road-car of Rhoddy Harvey-Bailey. Stunning rare original GTA.
The Alfa Romeo GTA, Gran Touring Alleggerita, is one of the many highlights in the history of the beautiful brand. The Alfa Romeo GTA was built by Autodelta and was introduced at the Amsterdam Motor Show, better known in the Netherlands as the Autorai. The GTA was offered in two versions, the Strada and the Corsa. Autodelta did not take half the task of turning the GT Junior into a real racer. The body is made of aluminium and is a true work of art. Only the floor and sills remained made of steel.
The first series of GTAs were delivered with the 1,570cc engine with the well-known twin-spark technology and a short-ratio gearbox. the Junior came on the market in 1968 and was fitted with a 1,290cc engine to compete with the incredibly successful Mini Coopers. The advantage of the more developed 1300 GTA compared to the previously delivered 1600 is that 1300 is a lot more robust than 1600. The emphasis on durability did not harm Alfa Romeo. The Alfa Romeo 1300 Junior GTA won the European Touring Car Championship in 1972.
This example was built on June 28, 1968, and sold on August 10, 1968, in Naples, Italy. Piero Pesaro was an Alfa Romeo and imported this car to England in the 1980s and sold it to Rhoddy Harvey-Bailey. Harvey-Bailey was a factory driver for the Autodelta Factory Team and a specialist in undercarriage tuning. Rhoddy has used this car as his personal car for many years and enjoyed the fantastic road holding, which he of course had further refined himself, through his virtually limitless knowledge of the 105 series chassis.
This example has been fully restored and overhauled. The work is all performed by specialists. The car is therefore both optically and technically in beautiful condition. The body of the car, therefore, looks beautiful. It is difficult to find a specialist who can handle the aluminium body without destroying the characteristic details. But one thing is certain. The specialists who have worked on this car have delivered craftsmanship. The car looks beautiful. The sheet metal is nice and thin and the fits are very tight. The Alfa Romeo GTA 1300 Junior has such a fantastic look that a modern car simply cannot match.
The appearance of the GTA is not only very cool to see, but it is also purely practical. The widened screens accommodate the wide wheels and are purely functional. During the restoration, the car was beautifully repainted in its original colour and simply looks to pass through a ring. The appearance is completed by the original magnesium wheels. The wheels are fitted with new tires in the correct sizes and contribute greatly to the beautiful appearance of the car.
The interior is completely original and looks fantastic. The carpets are in very good condition and fit nicely everywhere. The headliner still looks beautiful, the dashboard has the original counters that all function as they should and the seats are also completely original and are fantastic. That characteristic long lever contributes to the unique driving experience of the GTA. It is a beautifully simple and functionally designed interior. A true delight for the true Alfa Romeo enthusiast. The steering wheel is of course also in good condition and the gear knob is also completely original and in good condition.
The technology has been completely overhauled at Roelofs Engineering. The engine, therefore, runs fantastic. The GTA may, by contemporary standards, have a relatively modest engine power of 110 hp, but the way in which this power is delivered is unparalleled. This is the peak of the Alfa Romeo Twin Cam. The engine runs fantastic through the revs and actually feels a lot more powerful than we would suspect from the paper numbers. The engine is mated to a five-speed manual transmission.
The transmission is partly responsible for the speed in the GTA because the gearbox has shorter ratios than a standard Alfa Romeo Junior. The chassis and brakes have also recently been completely overhauled and ensure that the car has a very smooth road holding. It is easy to understand that a chassis specialist like Harvey-Bailey liked to go out with this car. It is the total picture that the car can offer that makes the driving experience such a magical expiernce.
The Alfa Romeo GTA 1300 Junior was widely used for racing at the time, so only a few have survived. Often not in such a beautiful condition as this one. The restoration of this copy is endorsed by invoices and an existing photo series. Although without those pieces it would also be immediately clear that this is a beautiful copy. In short, a very rare Alfa Romeo GTA 1300 in a wonderful restored condition.
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