GTAm

[South Africa]

Dear Barryh, Mvcoller, Toydc and other South African Alfa 'lovers',

Find attached a photograph of a GTAm racing at Kyalami. Before you 'all' scream at me i do realize that this is a right hand drive car (this can be explained - but later).

Do any of the BB members have information on the GTAm's raced in South Africa?

[gtaj]

check my somewhat related thread "superformance gta"

[mvcoller]

I see that the name on the side says "SUPERFORMANCE". I would hazzard a guess and say that this was Basil van Rooyen's car (and him racing it). He used to race the Superformance sponsored GTAm in those days, before moving to V6 and V8 Ford Capri Perrana's with Basil Green.

Toy, Barry H, can you eloborate?

[Rubel]

It definitely is Basil van Rooyen. Have a look at the article in the Superformance GTA thread mentioned above.

superformance gta

[mvcoller]

See my reply to the other thread! Great to see the article again!

[Barryh]

Mal,Good to see this again huh??

[toydc]

Hi Y'all.
As Autodelta only made 12 GTAms, I doubt they made any in RHD form. I've got the feeling this car might have been a replica, made in S.A. by Sampie Bosman, that I believe were faster then the Autodelta cars. On one occasion, after having beaten the factory built cars, in Angola, Arnold Chatz was made an offer he could not refuse and return to South Africa with an empty trailer.
The lower slots look too big (in height).
Toy,
Marlands, South Africa

[vsharp]

Toydc,
I'm told that the South African car was assembled in SA using A/D parts and a local RHD shell. It it indeed posible that it may have been faster than factory LHDs because this had previously been shown with GTAs. The weight balance across the car is much more even on a RHD apparently. (I will confirm this or otherwise, in the coming months.) All factory GTAms were LHD.
As for the number of 12 built, Tabucchi's anf Adriensen's books both show about 19 or 20 confirmed, and this is without one or two known others.
#1531068 was supplied by Alfa in 1970 to Australian racer/Alfa dealer Brian Foley, and this is not in either book.
See attached pics of Foley's car in 1971.

[toydc]

The SA made ''GTAm'' were fitted with locally developed engines, with single plug heads.
The 1600 GTA arrived here in 1966, but never lived up to its promise, ending up lapping Kyalami slower than the GT Veloces of the Production Championship in the hands of Basil van Rooyen (now residing in Australia) even if 300 Kgs ligther and equipped with lsd.
Production numbers as far as Alfa Romeo is conserned is always a guess. (How many disco volantes were made?)
I also thought that the figure of 12 cars was a bit on the low side (it might refer to 2000 GTAms alone), but got it from Alan de Cadenet's DVD ''Alfa Romeo-Victory by design''. According to Fusi bible, the total numbers of 1750 and 2000 GTAms made was 40, between 1970 and 1971. Engine power varied between 195-220@7200rpm (1970) 210-240bhp@7500 (1971). Unfortunatly I can not get chassis/engine numbers for these vehicles, but if you so wish, I can supply these figures for the GTA and GTAj. Total number of 1600GTA made was 500 (50 in RHD) and 447 GTAj 1300.

[gtaj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by toydc The SA made ''GTAm'' were fitted with locally developed engines, with single plug heads. The 1600 GTA arrived here in 1966, but never lived up to its promise, ending up lapping Kyalami slower than the GT Veloces of the Production Championship in the hands of Basil van Rooyen (now residing in Australia) even if 300 Kgs ligther and equipped with lsd. Production numbers as far as Alfa Romeo is conserned is always a guess. (How many disco volantes were made?) I also thought that the figure of 12 cars was a bit on the low side (it might refer to 2000 GTAms alone), but got it from Alan de Cadenet's DVD ''Alfa Romeo-Victory by design''. According to Fusi bible, the total numbers of 1750 and 2000 GTAms made was 40, between 1970 and 1971. Engine power varied between 195-220@7200rpm (1970) 210-240bhp@7500 (1971). Unfortunatly I can not get chassis/engine numbers for these vehicles, but if you so wish, I can supply these figures for the GTA and GTAj. Total number of 1600GTA made was 500 (50 in RHD) and 447 GTAj 1300.

[toydc]

I agree with what you've just said.

[South Africa]

Dear Toydc and others,

I am very interested in finding any history of the GTAm racing in Southern Africa.

My information to date is that there were possibly five GTAm's sent to Southern Africa.

According to M Tabucchi and others two were sent to Angola and raced there in the early 1970's. T Adriansens lists races and results for 'some' of these cars. One of these cars was 'found' in Angola by MP Racing in London and sold to its present owner in England in the early 1990's. It is described as 'unmolested' and very original. To the best of my knowledge it is chassis number 1532346.

I have personal experiences that indicate that Sampie Bosman did have a 'fairly' large amount of GTA/GTAm spares. My information is that when Sampie 'closed' his worshop in Booysens, South Africa 'all' the engines were sold to Dawie De Villiers of Glenwood motors in Pretoria. The remainder of the items, distributors etc, were sold to Philip Gairns also in Pretoria. Dawie sold many parts to his friend in Germany, a Mr Schumacher, and also some in South Africa. Philip Gairns sold/swopped the items he had in South Africa. I also have photographs of GTAm items sold to a person in Holland. Sampie then was employed by Arnold Chatz in his Nissan/FIAT(?) dealership in Craighall Park. Dawie was responsible for converting most of the twin plug GTA type cylinderheads to 1779cc engines by using 1750 engine blocks and liners.

According to the Alfa Romeo Racing Department Manager in the 1970's, P Nardin (not related to myself), and one of the race drivers, Arnold Chatz, three of these cars were sent to South Africa. Mr Nardin has stated that these cars were not raced in left hand drive configuration but were dismantled for parts. There were definitley GTAm type engines in South Africa. Is the photograph of the GTAm racing at Kyalami, in a previous post, the assembly of the GTAm parts into a right hand drive shell by Sampie Bosman and others?

[South Africa]

Dear vsharp,

We were hoping to have some input from other South African/Alfa lovers but alas nothing to date.

After studying a document for the Springbok Series in 1970, the 9 hr at Kyalami, two GTAm cars were entered as competing. The one is entered for Arnold Chatz/Eddie Keizan and the other for Basil van Rooyen/Nanni Galli.

Do any Bulletin Board members have acces to any more details?

[martinue]

1970 Kyalami 9h: note the fenders on the second car

[South Africa]

Dear Martinue,

Thank you for that photograph. The two cars in the photograph are right hand drive cars. This ties in with my information. The 'narrower car' seems to have fender extensions similar to the GTA raced in Southern Africa by a certain Alderton (?). Do any of the Bulletin Board readers have any additional information?

The two photographs attached are of 1532346 arriving in England after being imported from Angola. The condition was described as 'unmolested' but it looks quite 'well used' to me. Note the rear tail lights and colour scheme. Original colour was red. Maybe the car had some accident repair?