RE: Alfa Romeo GT Coupe | Showpiece of the Week

[Suburbanreuben]

For anyone not yet in love...

https://youtu.be/kcpDnC3a9qE

[Chunkychucky]

RicksAlfas said:

Sounds a nice garage!
Leonardo Fioravanti designed the Dino - along with many other famous Ferraris... whilst working at Pininfarina.

Yeah the old man certainly has an Italian streak, unfortunately I don't think he'll ever get his dream of a Vittorio Jano straight 8

Blimey, well a doff of the cap to Messrs Giugiaro and Fioravanti then for services towards Automotive Artwork

[StescoG66]

How easy would it be to make a modern reinterpretation of these on a Giulia chassis..........

[3yardy3]

stickleback123 said:

I clicked on this expecting a fat FWD Fiat with an Alfa badge, but was very pleasantly surprised

I feel this comment is about 6 years too late... those days are in the past.

[James B]

I love these. I am slightly biased towards the narrow arched ones though as I this is mine;

[s m]

Pooh said:

What a stunning car, 150bhp at 9000 rpm from a 1.3 is pretty impressive for a 50 year old car.
I would love to have it if I had the cash.

Back over some 30 years ago when these were cheap second-hand cars an Italian car-loving friend bought an Alfa 1300 Junior.

We were all mostly into fast Escorts/Sunbeams/BMW 02s etc but we lived near a guy who used to organise Alfa Romeo car meets at the local pub car park. He had a few interesting cars and persuaded my friend he needed an Alfa 1300 Junior in his life and it was a much better car than our stuff and had the same sort of poke as our Escorts - over 100bhp of twin Weber'd twincam with discs all round etc AND a 5-speed box!

He got one out the local paper a couple of months later and it was really a nice little jewel of a car plus had a rorty exhaust note. Unfortunately though I think the Italian horses were much smaller than the Ford/Talbot/BMW ones we were used to and it just wasn't quick enough for him. Local Alfa guy looked it over for him and said it was OK, tinkered with the carbs …..but it just never felt/performed like 100bhp in a small coop. The brakes were good though! He sold it after a few months - we all felt afterwards that the one he really should have had was the 2000GTV that looked similar and had an extra 25/30 bhp. Those certainly seemed to be quick like the RS Escorts and BM 2002tiis .

One of these Alfas with 150bhp at 9k rpm would certainly be fun though!

[Deefor62]

Really really wish I’d kept mine.

[Tuvra]

Deefor62 said:

Really really wish I’d kept mine.

It looks much prettier with the nose in the same colour as the rest of the car.

I remember I had one on Forza Motorsport and had it all "painted" in bare metal, I bloody loved that thing

[ReaperCushions]

Some more Alfa pron:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dEd6uQjSvY

[AMGSee55]

s m said:

Pooh said:

What a stunning car, 150bhp at 9000 rpm from a 1.3 is pretty impressive for a 50 year old car.
I would love to have it if I had the cash.

Back over some 30 years ago when these were cheap second-hand cars an Italian car-loving friend bought an Alfa 1300 Junior.

We were all mostly into fast Escorts/Sunbeams/BMW 02s etc but we lived near a guy who used to organise Alfa Romeo car meets at the local pub car park. He had a few interesting cars and persuaded my friend he needed an Alfa 1300 Junior in his life and it was a much better car than our stuff and had the same sort of poke as our Escorts - over 100bhp of twin Weber'd twincam with discs all round etc AND a 5-speed box!

He got one out the local paper a couple of months later and it was really a nice little jewel of a car plus had a rorty exhaust note. Unfortunately though I think the Italian horses were much smaller than the Ford/Talbot/BMW ones we were used to and it just wasn't quick enough for him. Local Alfa guy looked it over for him and said it was OK, tinkered with the carbs …..but it just never felt/performed like 100bhp in a small coop. The brakes were good though! He sold it after a few months - we all felt afterwards that the one he really should have had was the 2000GTV that looked similar and had an extra 25/30 bhp. Those certainly seemed to be quick like the RS Escorts and BM 2002tiis .

One of these Alfas with 150bhp at 9k rpm would certainly be fun though!

Weight difference might have been a factor here - by the turn of the 70s the 1300GT Junior would have weighed in at nearly a ton - I recall the 1600ti / RS2000s nearer 900kg, a reasonably significant difference for cars packing circa 100hp which, in the case of the Alfa was potentially exaggerated as you may be comparing SAE with DIN figures. I think a healthy 1300 GT would be more like 85hp - other Alfisti please jump in if this is wrong?!?

[RicksAlfas]

AMGSee55 said:

Weight difference might have been a factor here - by the turn of the 70s the 1300GT Junior would have weighed in at nearly a ton - I recall the 1600ti / RS2000s nearer 900kg, a reasonably significant difference for cars packing circa 100hp which, in the case of the Alfa was potentially exaggerated as you may be comparing SAE with DIN figures. I think a healthy 1300 GT would be more like 85hp - other Alfisti please jump in if this is wrong?!?

According to Richard Bremner’s book, a 1300 Junior was 89bhp at 6,000rpm and 1,020kg.
A 2000GTV was 132bhp at 5,500rpm and 1,040kg so a fair bit more accessible oomph for not much more weight.

[Kermit79]

Here is mine...a 1300 GT Junior with its original motor with a little breathing and slightly naughty exhaust.

https://youtu.be/UvdANXDDVXI

https://youtu.be/Hn6CrOQlcpk

[s m]

AMGSee55 said:

Weight difference might have been a factor here - by the turn of the 70s the 1300GT Junior would have weighed in at nearly a ton - I recall the 1600ti / RS2000s nearer 900kg, a reasonably significant difference for cars packing circa 100hp which, in the case of the Alfa was potentially exaggerated as you may be comparing SAE with DIN figures. I think a healthy 1300 GT would be more like 85hp - other Alfisti please jump in if this is wrong?!?

I had a rifle through and looked at the old Autocar test and it weighed in about 960kg - so yes, about 100 more than something like an Escort Twincam

Think you’re right about the Alfa power figure and the performance would back that up for the weight. The old 1300GT Mk1 Escorts were rated about 82bhp I think but more like 70 net so that would be about right

[dinkel]

Kick the bits out which add nothing to speed and you're looking at 900.

IMO a 150 brake1.3 will do nothing for you in road legal situations. Imagine peaky as hell in a busy city... Nah.

The torque coming on strong as from 2.500 is lovely and warm. You really want that in a daily motor. A normal breathing - twin double Webers - Nord has all that. And with 85 brake in a 1.000 kgs shell you just need to keep pace. Just don't brake too much: the nicely set up car goes like a MF through the twisties.

[s m]

dinkel said:

IMO a 150 brake1.3 will do nothing for you in road legal situations. Imagine peaky as hell in a busy city... Nah.

The torque coming on strong as from 2.500 is lovely and warm. You really want that in a daily motor. A normal breathing - twin double Webers - Nord has all that. And with 85 brake in a 1.000 kgs shell you just need to keep pace. Just don't brake too much: the nicely set up car goes like a MF through the twisties.

Yes, the engine in this is one for the historic racers .

I'd be going for a 2000 I think in this shape

[dinkel]

Try the 1750 to get the best of both worlds.

[morgs_]

Makes me go a little weak at the knees!

[parabolica]

Lovely thing; spotted this one in the classifieds the other day - love the simplicity of it.

[Deefor62]

Deefor62 said:

Really really wish I’d kept mine.

I did however swap it for this, which although more usable on the roads, lacked the excitement of the gtam replica

[James B]

Interesting comments on the weights and power etc. Mine is 860kg and 185bhp. The engine, whilst still within the regs for the series I run, is bored to 2000cc rather than its original capacity.