Is it a GTAM or not?

[carlo rossi]

what chassis number do you have cool jesus
because the only other i have seen is 1954
and Paul quite rightly said the 1900 series are built in1975

[vin sharp]

The Beninca Alfetta GTAM was written off against the old Dunlop bridge at Sandown as I recall, then stripped of parts & shell scrapped.
Somewhere I have a period magazine article on the Wherret Alfetta sports sedan & I think it says built from a near new ( executive's) car from Alfa's Sydney headquarters, no mention F.I. model.
With the sole exception of the single Autodelta built actual race car, all the others were landed just stock road cars assembled with whatever bits needed to use a 2.0 capacity engine for our racing. I suspect the fuel tank between the shock towers was just the regular US road version that had all the appropriate fuel return & vent line outlets to match the Spica injection; - no "big race tank for better weight distribution" special parts, just ordinary US emission & crash regs stuff because it fitted the job off the shelf.

[poohbah]

I was at the Shannon's car show in Perth on the weekend and there was s 2.0L GTV race car on display that was described as being a Peter wherret prepared car. Looked the business. I think it had something like 180 bhp.

[aggie57]

The Beninca Alfetta GTAM was written off against the old Dunlop bridge at Sandown as I recall, then stripped of parts & shell scrapped.
Somewhere I have a period magazine article on the Wherret Alfetta sports sedan & I think it says built from a near new ( executive's) car from Alfa's Sydney headquarters, no mention F.I. model.
With the sole exception of the single Autodelta built actual race car, all the others were landed just stock road cars assembled with whatever bits needed to use a 2.0 capacity engine for our racing. I suspect the fuel tank between the shock towers was just the regular US road version that had all the appropriate fuel return & vent line outlets to match the Spica injection; - no "big race tank for better weight distribution" special parts, just ordinary US emission & crash regs stuff because it fitted the job off the shelf.

I've taken a bit of an interest in these US cars since arriving here and you're right Vin, there are a lot more differences than just the engine and tank. The shells themselves are different, the bumpers require different front and rear panels. The front apron is different in another way as the indicators mount on the bumper rather than in the body like Australian or European cars. Then they have different dashboards with additional buttons and switches, and have side repeaters front and rear for the indicators.  Did these 25 Bathurst homologation specials have those bits as well?

[Cool Jesus]

It's been a while since I've looked at my Alfetta. Really need to pull my finger out. Anyway, from what I recall, these 25 Alfetta were quickly put together and rushed over to Aus. They were actually being delivered at Bathurst the day or night before the race. I can only imagine that 25 US bound Alfetta were quickly pulled randomly off the line or lit. Converted to RHD and shipped by the quickest route. The teams had bigger all time to prep and they weren't very effective as a result. I think there were 2 or 3 entered, don't shoot me here, I'm just going of my poor memory.
I'll have to get back to you with my chassis number. Actually, search my posts here. I did a big write up on my search for this Alfetta. I'm sure the chassis number is on that thread. In any case I'm keeping a record of the Alfetta GT Am chassis numbers that I do come across for a small bio I will be doing on this anomaly of an Alfa.
They did swap over a few other bits also to make it more ADR appropriate for importation. It's such an Aussie story though, of rushing it through with a she'll be right mentality of back in the day.

[Paul Newby]

All of these 25 Alfetta GTAM are 116 11 cars - original RHD GT shells - no indicators on bumpers or rear side repeaters - they just look like a garden variety Australian spec GT.

Our GTAMs had the US 2.0 Spica engine and centrally mounted fuel tank fitted to RHD shells. The only other difference I think was an additional warning light on the dash for the fuel injection or similar.

The GTAM homologation was all about using a 2.0 engine in a racing Alfetta, but in hindsight they should have waited until 1977 when the Alfetta GTV 2.0 was released and just used the 105 2000 GTV for the 76 Bathurst 1000. Unfortunately marketing priorities got in the way of common sense.... 

Cool Jesus, I've included your chassis number in my previous post - 1949.

[Cool Jesus]

It certainly makes sense to just swap motors out of the Aus spec GT, stands to reason really. OK, saves me looking up my files for the chassis. I went and inspected that Alfetta GTAm that was for sale a few years ago on pymble. The seller wasn't an Alfisti, he was just a collector of anything really. I think he was a brick a brick antiques dealer or something. He knew he had something with that Alfetta which was in really poor shape. I low balled him, and he wasn't playing at all. Don't know who bought it. Nobody on the forums fessed up and nobodies noticed it since that I have read. Hopefully it's not just rusting way as it was in pymble. There's less that a handful of this oddity left as it is.

[vin sharp]

I was at the Shannon's car show in Perth on the weekend and there was s 2.0L GTV race car on display that was described as being a Peter wherret prepared car. Looked the business. I think it had something like 180 bhp.

Last I heard about 6 months ago from a guy working on the Wherret GTV sports sedan, it was in central NSW. So I'm not sure of you are talking about the same car. The original Wherret GTV was & is turbo-charged and is very much a modified sports sedan with Gp4 flares, wings etc.
I still have its original Autodelta 16 valve monosleeve engine in my garage. I also had the Autodelta close ratio trans axle too, but sold it some years back to Richard Anderson in QLD for a historic rally GTV Gp4 project.

[poohbah]

I wish I'd paid more attention to it - didn't really do more than glance at it, and just recall the reference to Wherrett on the placard. The bonnet was down, so it may have been a turbo. It had typical red, white, green livery and was part of the veteran racing club display.

[Scott Farquharson]

Compliance Plate

[Scott Farquharson]

And the rest

[Scott Farquharson]

And a few more

[Scott Farquharson]

Plate from my Blue 1975 GT

[carlo rossi]

i dont think it was one of the 25 personally
but it does have an interesting production number
thats worth investigating

[Scott Farquharson]

What's interesting is that the AM "bits" are original, ie they haven't been added in after.  For example the fuel tank mounts are original and look exactly the same as others I've seen.  The way the fuel pres reg is mounted.

One other interesting point is the "splitter" on the fuel tank inlet to allow the bottam tank to be used.