It says a lot about the impact made by the current Giulia over the past decade that when the name is mentioned, it is almost certainly now the Alfa Romeo that comes to mind for most of us. Where once the dedicated fans would have wistfully recalled dainty old coupes and saloons, now there’s a modern version that’s a real credit to the name and deserves to be fondly remembered as well. In fact, the recently revised Quadrifoglio is better than ever.
That being said, there’s never a bad time to talk about classic Alfa Romeos, especially when they look as good as this 1967 Giulia GT. Very low mileage (at just 40k) but recently restored ‘as Alfa Romeo intended’, it looks like offering up everything we all dream about from this era of Italian sports cars: beautiful to look at, a joy to drive and a privilege to own, share and experience. There’s surely not going to be a classic car situation this Giulia isn’t going to suit.
Now, we’d be here the whole Bank Holiday weekend going through every derivative of 105/115 series Alfa Giulia two- and four-doors from the ’60s and ’70s. Then probably get a detail wrong anyway. So let’s not get too bogged down in Junior Zagato this and GTAm that; suffice it to say, this is a 1967 1.6-litre GT Veloce, which Wikipedia says there were 14,000 of, produced between ‘65 and ‘68.
This one, as you probably noticed, holds additional intrigue as a right-hand drive model, which was only about 10 per cent of the run. As ever, that fact makes us go all gooey inside and, of course, means there’d be no excuse for not using it at every opportunity over here.
Moreover, this Giulia has been restored by the selling dealer. And not just back to factory standard, either, as it’s now been upgraded with bigger exhaust valves for the rorty little twin cam, an Alfaholics suspension kit comprising Koni dampers and lighter springs, better brakes and a rebuilt gearbox. That in addition to a bare metal respray and the fabulous gold wheels. Pretty is par for the course as far as classic Giulias are concerned, but this one really does look very special indeed. There’s not a blemish anywhere, and yet it’s still bursting with retro charm. The gloriously patinated original toolkit deserves its own exhibition.
Of course, the best of anything never came cheap, and you’ll pay almost as much as a new Quadrifoglio for this Giulia – the asking price is £79,500. But to bring any other car up to this sort of standard would take a lot of time and money; the (considerable) attraction here is a turnkey example that’s ready to go for the summer, with so much already invested to make the Alfa as good as it can possibly be. And given how good this has turned out, it’d almost be rude not to take full advantage.