Estimate: £11,000 - £15,000
Book an
Inspection Slot
Commission a
Condition Report (up to 10 working days before the sale)
“...for those people who doubt that racing improves the breed, the characteristics of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT would seem to prove conclusively that it does.” Road and Track, December 1964.
Big glass-houses and delicious three box bodies were the styling signature of Bertone from the 1950s onwards. They specialised in taking adapted relatively mundane floor pans and topping them with super-stylish upper panel work and the ‘105 Series’ Giulia Sprint GT their star designer Giorgetto Giugiaro penned for Alfa Romeo was one of their greatest triumphs. They were the company’s mainstay throughout the 1960s and well into the late 1970s, building on the foundations laid with the 750/101 Series Giulietta and ultimately Giulia back in the 1950s. From virtually any angle the Coupe is a delightful looking machine, perfectly balanced and superbly proportioned.
At its inception, the GT Junior sat just below the range topping GT or GTVs which sported 1600, 1750 or 2 litre engines depending on year. They had all the looks of their more upmarket siblings but were cheaper to buy and attracted less tax particularly in their homeland; a smart choice for those demanding style and value for money. Having said that, for much of its life the 105 Coupe had price parity with such exotic fare as the E-Type Jaguar and consequently in the British Isles, sales were never easy to come by.
Powered by a 1600cc version of Alfa’s evergreen (even by then) all aluminium twin overhead cam engine ingesting fuel and air through a pair of twin choke carburettors, the Junior boasted an honest 106 bhp which provided a top speed of 113 mph and 0 to 60 in 11.3 seconds according to the factory though many owners found these statistics to actually be somewhat pessimistic. The engine’s exotic mechanical specification was carried through to the rest of the car with a five speed gearbox, disc brakes front and rear and a properly located coil sprung rear axle to compliment the independent coils, double wishbones and an anti-roll bar up front.
By the early 1970s the Junior had acquired the gorgeously curvaceous dash of the 1750 GTV along with its re-profiled nose though the simple grill and single headlight arrangement reminiscent of the earliest cars was retained resulting in, in our opinion, the tidiest and least fussy of all the 105 front ends. In a ‘less is more’ sense it was arguably the best of all worlds.
Registration Number: EWV 185L
Chassis Number: AR *2198170*
Engine Number: 00536
Sometimes ‘Bertone Coupe’s’ look just right and that certainly is the case with this lovely 1600 Junior, sold new in its country of origin in 1972. Cars that have suffered from the scourge of so many classics, the ‘tin eating worm’, so often never sit quite correctly again no matter how well their structural integrity has been recovered but this example displays great panel fit, shut lines and sharp sill seams, all against an imperfection revealing background of pure-white paintwork. The very slightly lowered suspension this Alfa sports only adds to its perfect, four-square stance.
Sold new in Italy and having obviously been cherished by apparently just two owners while presumably being subjected to considerably fewer applications of road salt than examples domiciled in less clement climes, this Alfa Romeo coupe was only prized away from its homeland last year by a UK based, very knowledgeable Alfa enthusiast. He then proceeded to bring the car up to scratch by attending to the floors, sills and paintwork as required though it should be stressed that the car was fundamentally a very sound and solid example. Bills are on file for the circa £2,700 expenditure and the car duly sailed through its MOT in January of this year allowing its UK registration to be completed. It was then given a comprehensive service to ensure it is running at its very best.
The Junior, while not a perfect concorse example (thankfully) looks very presentable following its partial respray with only a couple of small imperfections most notably in the corners of boot lid. The 1600 engine is understood by the owner to have had some tuning work carried out to it and it sports a very nice set of GTA-style ram-pipes which contribute to a lovely induction roar and the engine’s ‘eager’ disposition. We are not sure if ‘zingy’ is an actual adjective (the spellchecker seems to think it is) but there is probably not a better one to describe this rev-happy 1600 and it requires a considerable amount of self-control not to exceed the factory 5700 RPM red line – advisory only surely?
Such chrome-work as there is is in good condition as are the beautiful deep red seats – if they were leather and in a Ferrari they would be described as Oxblood – which contrast very well with the white paintwork. A beautiful Alfa wood-rim wheel complimented by a matching wood boss frames the driver’s view of the voluptuous instrument binnacles containing their trademark Veglia “five o’clock to one o’clock” tachometer and speedometer.
A single Alfa Romeo door mirror is offset by the correct solitary ‘Disegno de Bertone’ badge affixed to the opposite front wing.
The aforementioned V5C, MOT certificate and invoices for the work carried out in the UK accompany the car along with the original Italian registration documents - a nice record of the car's history which more often ends up in a shredder at the DVLA when a car is UK registered. A set of modern alloy wheels and tyres are also included with the car.
Some Alfa Romeo aficionados maintain that a little of the car’s ‘feel’ is lost when configured in right hand drive and it is quite believable that the repositioning of the controls from their originally designed location might indeed impact on the driving experience. Given this and the recent swing in relative currency rates make this Alfa a potentially highly attractive proposition. Very sensibly reserved, it seems unlikely that future imports will offer such good value for money.
