An Alfa Romeo GT Junior has marketed for £50,000, smashing the auction planet document for this design. The trendy basic coupe, at first exported to Australia in 1971, attracted 261 bids for the duration of a 7-working day online sale.
The report value is additional evidence of a strong collector car current market, which has so much resisted the creeping Covid malaise. On the net auctions in specific are booming, as our job interview with Motor vehicle & Typical CEO Tom Wood exposed previous thirty day period.
Ironically, the GT Junior was conceived as a more affordable route into Alfa Romeo ownership. Introduced 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 particularly popular in Italy, exactly where the tax routine penalised larger sized engines (consequently other ‘downsized’ classics, this kind of as the Ferrari 208 GTB).
Performance was continual (-60mph in 12.6 seconds), but the GT Junior’s gutsy willingness to rev – coupled with a sweet gearshift and well balanced, rear-driven chassis – produced it wonderfully participating to travel. You are going to be outgunned by a relatives-spec Ford Concentrate, but who cares?
Then there is how the GT Junior looks: pert, rather and brimful of Italian brio. Frankly, it could travel like a Routemaster bus and we’d still want a person.
The most distinctive characteristic of early 105-series coupes was the scalino ‘step front’, in which the foremost edge of the bonnet sits 10mm very pleased of the bodywork. Later on cars and trucks, this sort of as this just one, have a flush entrance conclude.
Flared wheelarches, a flowing roofline and a chopped Kamm tail also trace at subtle sportiness, though the period-look 15-inch Alfaholics alloys fitted in this article are just gorgeous.
Other modifications for this specific GT Junior include things like fitment of a 1,750cc engine (employed in the regular GT Veloce from 1967) with new Weber carbs, Pipercross filters and electronic ignition.
The uprated suspension employs Koni dampers and 40mm decreasing springs, and the brakes have been bolstered with a twin-circuit stability box.
The auto is normally regular, but restored to around-concours affliction. Next a bare-shell respray with Glasurit paints, each individual chrome component has been re-plated or changed, with every rubber seal also new. Harmless to say, this Alfa Romeo is smarter than when it still left the manufacturing facility (and undoubtedly a lot less very likely to rust).
The GT Junior has induced a stir between Alfisti (Alfa Romeo’s fanatical admirers) and significantly exceeded Hagerty’s market place price for a similar model in fantastic problem, which stands at £30,900.
It also amazed Chris Pollitt, head of editorial at Auto & Vintage. “I’ve by no means viewed a restoration that had been carried out with these treatment and incredible awareness to depth,” he mentioned.
“Going up and down the country to photograph automobiles for our auction platform signifies I get to see some remarkable cars. Having said that, this Alfa Romeo continues to be firmly at the major of the listing.”
Tim Pitt writes for Motoring Investigation