Remember the heydays of Arnold Chatz?

The acronym GTA stands for “Gran Turismo Alleggerita” (alleggerita being the Italian term for “lightened”). It originated in 1965 with the Giulia Sprint GTA, a very special model based on the Giulia Sprint GT, designed as a sports car and presented at the Amsterdam Motor Show staged that same year.

The body of the Giulia Sprint GT was replaced with an identical version in aluminium, for a total weight of 745kg compared to the 950kg of the road version. A second, but significant variation concerned the 1 570cm3 twin cam engine which, in standard road configuration, with dual ignition, reached an impressive output of 86kW.

The technicians at Autodelta, the official Alfa Romeo racing team, chose it as the reference vehicle for the Touring category and developed it to achieve a maximum output of 127kW. It won three consecutive European Touring Car Championships, tens of national championships and hundreds of individual races in every part of the world. It ramped up the image of the entire range: Giulia Sprint GTA expressed the claim “A victory a day in your everyday car” to perfection. From then on, the GTA name became naturally associated with Alfa Romeo’s sportiest models.

For the new Giulia GTA, Alfa Romeo engineers have striven to improve aerodynamics and handling, but, above all, to reduce weight: the same guidelines followed for the 1965 Giulia GTA. It offers, among other features, improved active aerodynamics, a specific rear spoiler and the active front splitter, a titanium Akrapovic central exhaust system and 20-inch centre lock wheels.

On GTAm, the aerodynamic front piece has been optimised to an extreme level, by adding a larger front splitter and a real carbon rear wing, which ensure a perfectly balanced load at high speeds. The powerful 2.9 V6 Bi-Turbo, made entirely of aluminium and producing 375kW in standard trim, reaches a power output of 390kW on Giulia GTA. Its acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h stops the chronometer at just 3.6 seconds thanks to the Launch Control system.

In the new GTAm, the interior is unique in that it features a roll bar, no door panels or rear seats and the door is opened with a belt in place of the handle, another touch that comes from the racing world.

The South African connection

Alfa Romeo’s legendary racing heritage in South Africa is well-known. It was largely spearheaded by the original GTA, the first car imported by the Thompson Brothers in 1965 to be driven by Keith Berrington-Smith.

The right-hand drive 1600 GTA (one of 50 of the first 500 cars) was successfully campaigned and quickly developed. It was soon taken over by Basil van Rooyen’s Superformance and developed further into one of the most iconic touring cars of South Africa’s motorsport of the late 1960s. Carrying racing number Y152 (usually) and driven by Arnold Chatz it was one protagonist of the classic Alfa versus Ford battle with Peter Gough’s Meisner Escort, Y151.

Further modified, including 2.0-litre GTAm engine and wide body, it was ultimately left in Angola after its last competitive race.

A further 1300 GTA was imported in 1968 by Alderton Motors, then Johannesburg Alfa Romeo agent and campaigned in the ’68 and ’69 Springbok Series and some production car races shared with other legendary drivers, including Paddy Driver and John Conchie.
Lesser known in GTA circles was a South African developed and marketed model of the Alfasud. The 1983 Alfasud Export GTA featured Alfa’s 1.5-litre flat four engine with 77kW in the five-door hatch.

The GTA nameplate would return again to South Africa in the early 2000s when a 156 was locally developed for Production Car racing. It was joined by a full factory onslaught of three genuine Autodelta/N-Technology prepared 147GTA Production Cars, giving BMW a serious run for their money, variously in the hands of Martin Steyn, Reghardt Roets, Morne Jurgens, Marco da Cunha, and Marc Auby.

Alfa Romeo offered the 156 GTA and 147 GTA on showroom floors, both powered by a 184kW 3.2-litre V6 engine with six-speed manual gearboxes.

Now the legend returns – are you ready?

Source: QuickPic