1971 Alfa Romeo GTAm (Tribute): March 2007

This issue highlights the Alfa GTAm.
[http://vintageracecar.com/page/db/pics/1147396364_6255.f_page_pdf.pdf]
See article and pictures below:

YELLOW PERIL
1971 Alfa Romeo GTAm
by Ed McDonough

There is a slight inclination here to refer you to Tony
Adriaensen’s remarkable tome Alleggerita and let
myself off a complex historical hook. Explaining the
evolution of Alfa Romeo’s competition models is
challenging at best and maddening most of the
time. After about 25 years working on it, I’ve almost got it, but I
never trust my memory without referring to the proper experts.
Many people have tried to tell the story of Alfa Romeo and they
all struggle when it comes to the subtleties of certain models and
their variants. Belgian Adriaensen is the person who has done the
best job of recording the twisted tale of how Giulia coupes and
sedans became enormously powerful, wide-bodied wailing superracers
at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the ’70s. But as
Alleggerita, the biography of the Alfa GTA, is virtually unobtainable,
it falls to us to try to show you where the car you see here,
the GTAm, came from.
Giulias from Giuliettas
The return of Alfa Romeo to international sports car racing and
ultimately to Grand Prix competition in the 1970s (after departing
the scene in 1953) can be traced back to one car, the Giulietta
Sprint Zagato. This was Elio Zagato’s brainchild and grew out of
his own enthusiasm for and, talent at, racing. These cars did very
well in the hands of privateers in both racing and rallying, and
were at their best where top end performance and endurance were
essential requirements. Between 1958 and 1963, these SZs scored
important class wins at the Targa Florio, Monza, Daytona,
Sebring, and at the Alpine Cup Rally, which they won overall.
The 1,300-cc engines were very quick but the Giulia model had
been introduced and in 1963 it was the Giulia Tubolare Zagato or
TZ with a larger 1,570-cc motor that became the racing successor
of the SZ. The TZ had a tubular space frame with independent
rear suspension and beautiful Zagato bodywork. These cars would
be at the forefront of Alfa Romeo’s reappearance in sportscar and
GT racing.
The existing regulations meant that at least 100 of the TZ
model had to be built to be homologated into the sports category.
The construction was thus contracted to a small company in
Udine, in Northern Italy, which had been specifically brought
together for the task. The Chizzola brothers, Lodovico and
Gianni, had been running a tuning outfit called DeltaAuto, and
when Carlo Chiti became a founding partner, this became
Autodelta which was the Alfa Romeo racing division for many
years. Alfa also had a development center in Milan, which did the
additional race preparation of the TZ for privateers. Autodelta
later moved to Milan under the direction of Chiti, and the racing
program expanded dramatically into sports cars with the Tipo 33
and, of course, into touring car competition on a large scale.
The popularity of touring car racing, and the luxury of having
a good touring car, which would also do well in endurance events,
brought about the birth of the GTA. The GTA was based on the
production Giulia Sprint GT, the Bertone-bodied 105 series
coupe. On reflection, understanding the evolution of the Bertone
coupes is very difficult indeed, as there was a very large list of variants,
with numerous engine capacities, over a long time period.
The Sprint GT had the easily recognized “step-front” nose, with
the leading edge of the bonnet raised slightly higher than the
front panel. The GTAs were thus recognized by their “stepfronts,”
though in typical Alfa Romeo fashion, there were exceptions
and with later mods, not all had this unique step-front.
Many of the next level GTAm cars had the step-front, but then
again, some didn’t. I hope you are following this!
Just what was the GTA? The basis of the GTA was a standard
Sprint GT which had been seriously lightened, or “alleggerita” in
Italian. Everything that could be removed, especially all the
sound-deadening material in the production Sprint GT, was duly
removed, and the steel panels were replaced by alloy, as were the
wheels. Some 200 kilos were saved this way, and in combination
with a more powerful engine, the GTA was very much a transformed
machine. The GTA unit was fitted with a twin-plug head,
had larger valves and a 9.7 to 1 compression ratio. The first cars
produced 115 bhp and had a top speed of 115 mph. The cars raced
by Autodelta were developed even further, were 45 kilos lighter,
had a 10.5 to 1 compression ratio and produced 170 bhp @7,500
rpm. These cars also had a limited slip diff, an antiroll bar,
stronger suspension and extra oil coolers.
The GTAs were enormously successful through 1966, ’67 and
’68, especially in the hands of drivers like Jochen Rindt, Andrea
de Adamich, Toine Hezemans, Nanni Galli, Ignazio Giunti and
Teororo Zeccoli, having memorable scraps with the Lotus
Cortinas of Sir John Whitmore, Jacky Ickx and Frank Gardner. In
long endurance races, they were sometimes only beaten by the
overall winning Porsche 911s.
The GTAm
Group 2 touring car racing was another place where the GTA was
doing very well in 1966 and 1967, but Group 5 allowed much
greater modifications to a standard car. In ’67, Alfa decided to put
10 GTAs aside and convert them to Group 5 rules by means of
supercharging, using twin turbine-driven blowers. The engines in
these GTA-SA racers could produce a staggering 220 bhp @7,500
rpm, with a top speed of 150 mph.
The so-called standard GTAs won the European Touring Car
Championship in 1967 for the second time, with Giunti also taking
the European Hill climb Championship. The GTA won the
ETCC again in 1968, and was joined in that year by the GTA
Junior, the 1,300-cc version of the GTA. Between 1968 and 1972,
447 of these cars were built of which some 300 were built as competition
cars. Like the bigger 1,600-cc GTA, the GTAJ got the
same Autodelta treatment for selected customers with engine and
suspension improvements.
In January 1968, Alfa Romeo presented to the press a Berlina
version of the new 1750 model, another Giulia, with a larger
engine. Like the earlier Giulia saloons or berlinas, this one was
rather square in shape but, with the bigger 1,779-cc
engine, the performance was impressive. In July, four
of these cars with the saloon body ran as Group 1
standard cars in the Spa 24 Hour race…and took
the first four places. The coupe 1750 GTV then
followed into Group 2, 3 and 5 races, all being
modified to suit the class rules. From the
moment the 1750 GTV was homologated into
Group 2 in April 1969, extensive changes were
made to the basic 1750 chassis and components
to make it more competitive and successful. This
included increasing the engine capacity to 1,985-
cc as Group 2 allowed engines up to 2-liters. The bore
was increased from 80 to 84.5-mm and the stroke of 88.5-
mm was retained. The respected historians Hull and Slater state:
“As it was still desirable for publicity purposes to link the car with
the production 1750, the little ‘m’ was placed after GTA signifying
maggiorat or enlarged, hence GTAm.”
There were two consequences of this event: many people considered
the GTAm to be a modified GTA, and that the “m” did
indeed stand for “maggiorata.” Tony Adriaensen and subsequent
historians, including the author, contest this. To some extent this
is an academic argument, as the basic Giulias were all very similar.
Adriaensen contends, “The GTAm was nothing more than an
improved version of the standard GTV.” Chiti had the GTAm
homologated in its own right, though that was not strictly necessary
as the rules allowed generous modifications. The use of Spica
injection did not present any problems in the process of homologation
as more than 1,000 cars (the 1750 GTV USA) had been
produced with Spica fuel injection for the American market. It
was indeed the elaborated GTV, which was homologated, not a
GTA. The papers for this model had several pages listing the
GTAm modifications including the special cylinder head with
twin ignition.
Adriaensen: “It is said the letter ‘m’ stands for the
Italian word ‘maggiorata,’ which means increased and
refers to the cylinder contents increase from 1,600
to 2,000-cc. I myself choose to believe another
explanation, namely ‘American,’ since we are
not dealing with a GTA at all. The ‘A’ normally
stands for ‘alleggerita,’ which is the Italian
word for ‘lightweight’ by making use of aluminum
bodywork. In this case the GTAm had
standard, full-steel coach work modified with
aluminum and/or plastic parts.” Of course, it is
not beyond the realms of possibility that Alfa
Romeo was happy to have “GTAm” meet both sets of
definitions to appeal to a wider audience, and even within
the company there have been times when different people
explained such phenomena in completely different manners!”
The standard 1750 block was the basis of the GTAm engine,
and some cars did indeed race with the smaller capacity head. But
most engines were quickly built to the larger spec between 1,985
and 1,999-cc. In the 1,985-cc unit the bore was increased but the
stroke remained standard, but by using this process of enlarging
the bore, the four-cylinder liners no longer fit into the engine
block. This led to the liners being cast as a single unit, the socalled
Siamese liners or monosleeves, which were unique to the
GTAm. These were actually glued into the block with Araldite.
Smaller pistons were also required.
To confuse the issue even further, the GTAms were homologated
with the alloy doors and door handles of the GTA but not
all GTAms had them! Indeed, by 1972, there were GTAs with
narrow and wide bodies, GTAms with wide bodies and then the
GTA Junior with the wide body. The “step-front” nose distinguished
most, but not all, cars, and most GTAms had a single
headlight on each side…but not all! Thus, at a race where all
models were present, only the very knowledgeable could tell what
the car passing in front of them really was!
The GTAm in Racing
The number of racing GTAms built has always been disputed, but
the estimate ranges from 40 to 60, though the smaller number is
more likely, and even that may be an overestimate. The number
of cars converted from either GTAs or GTVs into GTAms has
helped to confuse the issue somewhat as these were done in period
and were accepted in events as genuine GTAms, and for all
intents and purposes, they were genuine as they started with
something that was close to a factory-built GTAm and was modified
to GTAm specs.
Dutchman Toine Hezemans was a real star in the GTAm. He
had been approached by Chiti to drive for Autodelta and he was
so good that he was the main test driver during the development
of the GTAm. He had his first race in the car at the Monza 4
Hours in 1970, where Spartaco Dini was on pole, Hezemans 2nd
quickest, Facetti/Zeccoli 3rd and Belgian Christine Beckers, with
Enrico Pinto, was 4th. The opposition was mainly BMWs and 2.3-
liter Capris, but Hezemans quickly moved into a lead he wouldn’t
lose. At the Salzburgring, he led again but a fuel pump fell off,
though he managed 2nd behind a BMW 2800CS. Hezemans then
dominated again at the Budapest Grand Prix and led the
European Championship. While the Fords and BMWs were not
as reliable as they needed to be, the Alfas were clearly the class of
the field, and the weight of numbers just wore down the opposition.
At Brno, in Czechoslovakia, Toine won again, was 2nd at the
Tourist Trophy in England, and crashed at the Nürburgring. After
winning the Spanish round at Jarama, Hezemans had taken the
European Group 2 title, and the GTAm won an additional 16
races in 1970. Leonibus won the 2-liter touring class of the Italian
National Championship. It had been a very successful year.
When the 1971 European Touring Car Championship opened
at the traditional Monza race, it was déjà vu as Toine Hezemans
repeated his win of the previous year. This time he was up against
much stronger Ford Capris and Escorts, and he didn’t take the
lead until very near the end of the four-hour event, and one of the
BMWs followed him into 2nd place. At Brno, the Dutchman only
got a class win, which he repeated at the Nürburgring sharing
with van Lennep, taking 2nd overall. At the Spa 24 Hours, there
were five GTAms, three works cars and two Belgian private
entries. Hezemans had several long stops to change a head gasket
and then his radiator, and spent the rest of the race working back

up to 3rd overall and 1st in class behind a Capri and a Mercedes.
The Dutch driver then had a class win at Zandvoort, was 3rd at
the Paul Ricard 24 Hours and was a championship-winning 2nd at
Jarama. The GTAm continued to win a large number of non-title
events, and did so again in 1972 and 1973, though Autodelta
reduced its works program in 1972 and left the fighting to privateers,
who continued to win.
The Monzeglio Mauler
One of the long-standing and successful Italian privateer teams
was Squadra Corse Monzeglio, which was running a number of
racing Alfas from the late 1960s into the 1970s. In addition to
their major concentration on the Italian Touring Car
Championship, they had a GTAm in the Monza 1,000 Kilometers
for Zanetti in 1970, and entered GTAJs for Luigi Pozzi/Mario
Zanetti and Picchi/Dini in the Monza 4 Hours in 1972. They also
had a quick Lola T212 with an Alfa 2-liter engine in the 1972
Targa Florio where Zanetti and Locatelli finished a competent 8th
overall. They even went as far as the German F3 Championship
in 1974 where they raced a GRD-Ford, one of their few ventures
away from Alfa power.
The car you see featured here, chassis AR 775092, was a
Squadra Corse Monzeglio team car from 1969 through 1971.
Now, before you chassis number fanatics go wild, let’s backtrack
in the story a bit. Remember where we said that there were
GTAms and GTAms? Well, this is one of the latter! Now that
means it was not one of the cars with a 153**** serial number,
the GTV-based GTAms built from 1970 on. But this is a GTAm!
AR775092 started life in 1968 or 1969 (the Fusi bible manages
to list this chassis twice!) as a 1,300-cc GTA Junior. It was
sold to Squadra Corse Monzeglio, Via Cabotto 35, Torino and it
raced as a team car from 1969 to 1971. It ran first as the GTAJ
that it was in the Italian Touring Car series, mainly driven by
Luigi Pozzo, though he was not the only driver. At the end of
1970, the car was converted to GTAm specifications but used a
1,300-cc, fuel-injected, eight-valve engine, and with this set-up
Pozzo won the Italian Touring Car Championship. Pozzo then had
20 wins in 1971, and toward the end of that year, it was converted
with a 1750-based engine and GTAm 16-valve head, which
gave a capacity of 1,992-cc with Spica fuel injection. It then ran
in the GTP class and had further wins including the Bruno
Deserti Trophy at Imola in September and the Coppa AC Torino
in October. It is also interesting that through this long period, the
car retained its road registration…TO B14679…which was necessary
for some of the races on public roads. It remains something
of a mystery as to how many GTAms had 16-valve as opposed to
8-valve heads. The jury is still out on this one.
The car was sold to Rudi Franz, a Brazilian who lived in
Switzerland, and he did a number of races between ’72 and ’75. It
was put into a protective storage unit in 1976 where it remained
until 1996 when it passed into the hands of Robert Fehlman but
was looked after by Siggi Brunn. Brunn did what would appear to

be a sensitive restoration and the car appeared in the Tour Auto

in 1997, with an 8-valve, 2-liter motor. It then was sold in 2000
to John Ruston and came with the 1,300-and 1,992-cc engines
disassembled, and it was built up by Gareth Burnett, who prepares
and races cars for Ruston and others, with the 1,992-cc unit with
16-valve, single-plug head but on carburetors. The 2-liter, 16-
valve heads are single-plug rather than twin-plug heads. Gareth
Burnett drove the car in the Tour Auto in 2003 with a borrowed
8-valve engine, until the 16-valve one was finished, and that
appeared in the Tour Auto in 2004.
Driving the GTAm
Gareth says the car was and is set up for the circuit stages of
the Tour Auto, and on the circuits it was extremely quick. On the
dyno the engine is showing 230 bhp and that accounts for very
considerable poke in quite a small car. With massive torque, it was
capable of running at the front at the circuits, even beating much
lighter Elans. The handling was good, with a feeling of controllable
balance. A fair amount of testing had gone on before the
Tour to achieve this, though the GTAm in period was found to be
a real handful for many drivers. Testing led to the use of stiff front
springs, but it still had a degree of bump steer on the special Tour
stages and rougher sections. It apparently went very well on the
smooth sweeps of Dijon, yet proved tractable on the road.
So, we decided to find a mix of tarmac to do this test, and that
involved some long, open-road sections in deepest Suffolk, with a
touch of damp weather, and a second chance on dry fast roads
with a twisty wooded section and a heaping of mud! This gave
plenty of variety, tested the 5-speed gearbox and the brakes, and
provided scope to feel the stunning acceleration and torque, and
generally just settle down into this fine road/race machine. The
car sits on Yokohama Advan 023R tires—205/50R15 at the front
and 225/50R15-91V on Minilite wheels and looks mean. Inside
it’s standard-ish…that is, you can see the production origins. It
does feature a modified gearshift with remote change. I had the
excitement of having the nut that locks the remote change come
loose and the whole assembly drop to my feet at an unwelcome
moment! That was quickly fixed…twice…and the gearbox works
like a charm. It’s usual Alfa 5-speed with first left and back and
then a conventional H-pattern for the other four gears.
Having raced standard Alfettas, FIA Giulia Saloons, Suds,
33s, 156s, a modified GTV amongst others, I was really expecting
the GTAm to be something of a beast. It did do everything quicker
than all the above…got off the line quicker, took the bends
quicker, and stopped much quicker. The low-down driving posture
helps you feel what the car is doing and the superb balance
was rewarding on quite dodgy roads, with bumps, wet spots and a
bit of mud.
The rev counter reads to 10,000 rpm and the Speedo to 240
kph, but we weren’t going into those areas. Nevertheless, on some
private and isolated piece of swooping roadway, it was possible to
squeeze a real sense of the thrill inherent in this famous old beast.
The rorty noise was there, the quick responsive handling once up
to speed, all inspiring confidence in blasting into and out of corners
at rude speeds! While the GTAm was magnificent at Monza,
Spa and all the high-speed venues, here it was flying low on tough
bits of road. Unexpected, but great. There was a moment tearing
up a long hill with a crest at the top and a sweep to the left, all
blind. The GTAm just dug in and went around, and whistled
away into the distance. Lovely car for an Alfa-lover.
Buying and Maintaining a GTAm
Because there were so many 105-based coupes racing in the
1960s/70s, many cars survived. These include the whole range of
competition models and, once you leave the Sprint GTs and
GTVs behind and move to GTAs, GTAJs and GTAms, they get
rarer and they get pricier. There are GTAms on the market that
are bringing enormous prices and they are recent conversions and
shouldn’t really count. The number of surviving GTAms which
were built as GTAms with 153 serial numbers is very small. This
car, which started life as a proper GTAJ and was a racer from its
beginning, was beautifully converted to GTAm specs, has its two
original engines, won the Italian National Championship, is spectacular
to drive, and is a competitive historic racer. That means
the price has to come in at some 160,000 Euro $180,000. That’s
at the top end, where it needs to be.

1971 Alfa Romeo GTAm (Tribute)

Sunday, March 25, 2007

AutoDelta GTA/GTAm Specs

Vintage Race Car Magazine

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Wheels

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