Alfa Romeo GTA

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Alfa Romeo GTA

Manufacturer:	Alfa Romeo
Class:	front-engined coupe
Production:	1962- 1971
Predecessor:	Giulietta Coupé
Successor:
Body styles:	coupé
Engines:	1570 cc

The Alfa Romeo GTA was a coupé automobile manufactured by the Italian manufacturer Alfa Romeo from 1962 to 1971.

In 1962, the successor for the very popular Giulietta Coupé, internally called the "Series 105", was introduced. It used the shortened floorpan from the Giulia Berlina car and was designed by Bertone. The name of the car evolved from Giulia Sprint GT to Giulia Sprint and to GTJ (Junior) and GTV (Veloce) in the late 1960s.

At the time, Alfa was very active in motorsport. Autodelta, the racing division of Alfa, developed a car for competition that closely resembled to the roadgoing model. These cars were named GTA instead of GT, the 'A' standing for "Allegerita", Italian for lightweight. GTAs were produced first in a 1600 and later in a 1300 Junior version.

The GTA had aluminium panels instead of steel, alloy wheels, clear plastic windows, an aluminium rear upper control arm, different door handles and quarter window mechanisms, and lightweight interior trim. The engine had a new 8-spark plug (twin spark, twin plug) cylinderhead, 45 mm carburetors instead of 40 mm and magnesium camshaft cover, sump and timing cover. In stradale form this car boasted approximately 112 bhp (up from 106). In full race form this engine could produce up to 170 bhp. The 1600 GTA did not have a brake booster and had a thicker radiator than the standard vehicle. The GTA 1300 Junior had a engine that was based on the 1600 engine but with a short stroke crankshaft. The GTA Junior in stradale form did not have many of the light weight features of the 1600 GTA, such as the plastic windows, magnesium engine components and alloy wheels.

The GTAm could produce up to 240 bhp in the 2000cc car—a car usually related to the GTA but unlike the GTA derived from the GTV 1750, the 2000GTAm was created in 1968: There are two schools of thought about the "Am", neither one of them ever being confirmed by the factory: one says Allegerita Maggiorata, the other America. Most likely the latter is closest, since the car did not contain any aluminum parts and therefore not "Allegerita", and the base was a GTV 1750 with American injection system for homologation purposes for the American market. Spica was the injection system brand. The 1750 cc was later bored to 1985 cc to meet the 2000 cc limitation of its class to the maximum. Both types the GTA/ GTA 1300 Junior and the GTAm were very successful, these cars were lead to numerous victories. In the opening season at Monza, they won the first seven places. Andrea de Adamich claimed the title in 1966. Later on, the 1750 GTAm and the 2000 GTAm cars were lead to victory by Toine Hezemans, who won the 24 hours of Francorchamps with this car. These cars won hundreds of races before competition grew stronger in 1971. But the Giulia sometimes kept up with much bigger engined cars such as the 3 litre CSL BMW's.

[edit] GTA Engines

The Alfa 147 GTA was built with the 250 bhp 3.2 V6 24 engine which was a record for its class of car. It has an acceleration of 0–100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 6.3 seconds with a top speed of 153 mph. The 250 bhp output is achieved at 6200 rpm and a torque of 30.6 kgf·m (300 N·m) at 4,800 rpm.