A rare open Alfa Romeo comes to light in Northern England
Firstly I should say that it was Jack Wood who was responsible for finding this Spotted in the Wild entry, but he’s not really into old Italian cars so he's deferred to me to write something about it!
Not that I mind, since the Alfa 105 series Giulia is one of my favourite cars, especially in the so-called split front form as shown here. What marks this particular Giulia out is that it is a convertible.
Alfa Romeo produced approximately 1000 Giulia GTCs when new, with around 100 of those being made in right-hand drive. Whilst the coupe was designed by Bertone, it fell to Touring of Milan to execute the open conversion. It’s a handsome design, although the purity of the coupe is lost with the roof up. The Wikipedia entry for this also refers to the GTC suffering from some rigidity issues
I’m not sure if the small numbers made were due to lack of sales interest or another reason (Touring was in financial trouble and went out of business shortly after GTC production ceased) but whatever the reason, the car was replaced by the far more famous Alfa Duetto (a.k.a. Spider a.k.a Graduate) designed by Pininfarina.
Returning to this particular car, I’m not able to tell from the photograph if it is one of the factory GTCs or a conversion made on a coupe. Finished in matte black with a contrasting gold front valance, this car has the look of a race or rally car, aided by the spotlights and removed front bumpers.
A rally-styled convertible might not be to everyone’s taste but coincidentally to Jack’s spot, I noticed that the upcoming Historics auction at Brooklands has a genuine RHD Giulia GTC consigned with an estimate of £30,000 - £38,000. The coupes having been rising in value over the last year or two, so it's inevitable that these rare convertible versions are doing the same.
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