1969 Alfa Romeo GT Junior

Alfa Romeo has designed and built many desirable automobiles, in-house, during its century-plus existence, but some of its most interesting cars have been designed by independent coachbuilders—the 1931 6C 1750 by Zagato, Touring-bodied 8C 2900B of the late ’30s, several lovely Pininfarina Spider designs from the ’50s to the mid-’90s, and Bertone’s 2+2 designs that lasted from 1963 to 1974.

The attractive Bertone-designed GTs were built from 1963 until 1977.  There were only two body styles, coupe and cabriolet, although there were detail changes through those years.  It was produced with four engine displacements. The Giulia Sprint GT of 1963-1965 had a 1600-cc, as did the GTC (for cabriolet) which was introduced in 1965. The Giulia Sprint GT Veloce, later simply called GTV, replaced the earlier GT in 1965 and had bigger Webers and hotter cams. “Veloce” means “fast” in Italian.  That engine lasted until 1968 when a larger 1750-cc was introduced in Alfa’s line of cars. European GTVs continued with Webers, but those carbs didn’t meet the new EPA rules in the U.S., so no 1750s came to the U.S. until 1969 when they received the Spica mechanical fuel injection system. A final engine change was made in 1972, when the GTVs received a 2000-cc power plant. The GTVs were replaced with the newer Alfetta GT in 1975, all except for the GT Junior.