1960 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint

“ I think this is one of the most beautiful little sports cars, and it's in excellent restored condition. It is being sold by legendary motor racing design engineer Adrian Reynard. ”
Even if you aren’t a dyed-in-the-wool “Alfista” the Giulietta Sprint is a hard car not to fall in love with.

Background
Alfa Romeo’s Giulietta range was only the company’s second post war model. It is credited, by many, with transitioning Alfa Romeo from a niche manufacturer to a world-renowned producer of sports orientated cars of great character.

In typical Alfa style they launched the range not with the sensible “Berlina” saloon iteration but with the sublime Franco Scaglione at Bertone styled Sprint coupe we present here. The saloon only arrived almost a year later. The car was shown to an eager public at the 1954 Turin Motor Show. Such was the initial demand that the first few hundred cars were essentially hand built whilst production was ramped up at Bertone’s Grugliasco plant in Turin.

Bertone took care of the Sprint’s bodywork production whilst Ghia provided interior and electrical components and Alfa Romeo themselves took care of the mechanicals and bolting everything together. The technical specification of the car was suitably advanced for the period, too. All Giuliettas were of a unibody construction with a front engine, rear wheel drive configuration. Control arms with coaxial springs and hydraulic dampers took care of the front suspension. At the rear there was a solid axle on springs and dampers with a wishbone control arm linking the rear differential to the chassis. Retardation was taken care of by hydraulic drums all round.

Over 176,000 Giuliettas were eventually built in all configurations between 1954 and 1965. Of those a mere 13% were Sprints, making this a rare and highly sought after model today.

Overview
Our car is a cosmopolitan little number. It left the factory in 1961 and little is known about its first 26 years suggesting, perhaps, that it remained in its motherland until around 1987. The Sprint hits the radar again at that point by being exported to the USA. Over the next 33 years the car passes through the hands of five US based owners. At some point during this period our car underwent a thorough and highly professional restoration, seemingly addressing every aspect of the car.

The last of these US owners was a privately held, 240 car collection called the Elkhart Collection based in Indiana. The collection’s history sadly ended in bankruptcy and our little Sprint was auctioned off as part of a $44M sale conducted by RM Sotheby’s in 2020. At this point the car recrossed the pond to arrive in the UK and into the care of its current owner.

Estimate: £25,000 - £30,000

View Current Bid Price HERE