Is it a GTAM or not?

[Scott Farquharson]

Ive just picked up an Alfetta GT that is compliance plated as GT however it appears to have all the GTAM parts and appears to have had the fuel injected engine.  It has the big fuel tank with original mounts, return fuel line looks factory, fuel pressure regulator mounting, fuel pump, injected cold start cable and so on. It has a 11611 chassis number, no 3207 with 6/76 on compliance plate.

I'll attach photos, hoping that the GTAM experts could assist in working out this mystery. It was to be a parts car but after looking at it, it is probably worth saving so I'd like to unravel the history.

[Scott Farquharson]

Ive got to resize photos.

[LukeC]

I will admit it has been over 20 years since I saw one, but I seem to remember they actually had ALFETTA GTAM on the compliance plate. Cool Jesus has one, and Festy's uncle (I think) has one of the ones I have worked on (ex-Gulson/Canberra car).

The cold start was not a cable from the factory. I assume this is the one Monza had on Fleabay... Does it have the injection or injection timing cover?

[carlo rossi]

congrats I think it is a gtam right month  send photo of compliance where did you score it from
I tried to get one recently but to no avail

[Scott Farquharson]

As per the original post, its not compliance plated as a GTAM but yes it is a 6/76 build. Once I can resize photos, I'll post.

Engine is not original, so no injection equip. 

Yes, got it from Hugh.

[vin sharp]

Hi Scott,
As they were an Alfa Australia invention, the GTAM was the normal GT compliance plate with AM added on some cars, but not all depending on when , where  or if they could be bothered perhaps! So far as I recall, only 1.8 was being made in RHD at that time so in order to run 2.0lt engine in touring cars racing here, they secured US 2.0lt Spica California emission engines (as they were the 2.0lt 116 engines in production at the time) and plonked them in 25 RHD bodies to come here. I'm not sure what the local tag of GTAM ever really had to do with the cars, other than reference the US emissions engine, all of which were eventually converted to carbs for the track anyway as the emission engine was hopeless. I remember going with Dad to road test one at Talbot Motors & its performance was awful compared to the 1.8 Sedan they also had available for test drives!
All these cars had the GT slatted C-pillar vent rather than the usual GTV item, as RHD GTV didn't exist (here) yet, so there is no reason to think that any markings other than a regular Alfetta GT would be on the shell.
Cheers,
Vin.

[carlo rossi]

this is a plate from one I was trying to buy


http://car-from-uk.com/ebay/carphotos/full/ebay141363364045148.jpg
http://car-from-uk.com/ebay/carphotos/full/ebay141363365378480.jpg

[poohbah]

What happened to it Carlo? I saw you had bid on that one on the UK website (it was in Pymble though wasn't it?). The bids still show up online.

[carlo rossi]

No i think it was a scam
never heard from from anyone over it
but this info was gold

[poohbah]

That's a shame. At US$1000, it looked like a bargain!

[Scott Farquharson]

Thanks Vin, the bit that confused me was no AM on the compliance plate, but other than that all the AM bits are there (bar the motor).  But if they weren't that rigorous with the plate then that would make sense.

[carlo rossi]

 scott what is the number build on  the plate they were sequential so not so sure !
the other way i beleive is to measure by jacking the rear and checking
the 5th gear ratio
where is fuel tank located and the battery

[carlo rossi]

good news scott found this in the us site
We have now had a good chance to look over this car, the one recently in Western Australia (with GTAM plates) as described by Andrew M.

Judging by the original modifications made to the car it is most similar to the Autodelta Grp 2 cars. It bears Chassis # 11611-0003206 and originally logged as a Alfetta GTAm in deference to the limited run of RHD 2L Spica GT's imported contemporaneously. All the chassis and suspension modifications are as described for the Grp 2 cars and all the parts with the exception of the engine were at one time present. The engine origiginally fitted was the Spica injected 2L Nord as required by Australian Production Touring Car (Group C) rules at the time. It appears to me some of the chassis mods may have stretched the letter of the law as far as the rules are concerned, but hey, what of it 34 years down the track. It initially ran as a narrow body car but grew the Grp 2 flares later and finally ended with the Grp 4 rally flares. Should it then be known as the Autodelta GTAm Corsa? And it's all still there with the exception of the alloy (ergon) lower arms that were apparently accident damaged in the '80's. More photo's when I get the car home from Giulia_Veloce.


this is the car immediatly before yours so yes I think you have a group c car even better than the gtam or same

[Paul Newby]

good news scott found this in the us site
We have now had a good chance to look over this car, the one recently in Western Australia (with GTAM plates) as described by Andrew M.

Judging by the original modifications made to the car it is most similar to the Autodelta Grp 2 cars. It bears Chassis # 11611-0003206 and originally logged as a Alfetta GTAm in deference to the limited run of RHD 2L Spica GT's imported contemporaneously. All the chassis and suspension modifications are as described for the Grp 2 cars and all the parts with the exception of the engine were at one time present. The engine origiginally fitted was the Spica injected 2L Nord as required by Australian Production Touring Car (Group C) rules at the time. It appears to me some of the chassis mods may have stretched the letter of the law as far as the rules are concerned, but hey, what of it 34 years down the track. It initially ran as a narrow body car but grew the Grp 2 flares later and finally ended with the Grp 4 rally flares. Should it then be known as the Autodelta GTAm Corsa? And it's all still there with the exception of the alloy (ergon) lower arms that were apparently accident damaged in the '80's. More photo's when I get the car home from Giulia_Veloce.


this is the car immediatly before yours so yes I think you have a group c car even better than the gtam or same

Chassis 3206 is the Group C Alfetta GTAm that belongs to Bill Magoffin, currently in Gil Gordon colours. It was entered by Autodelta (Australia) Pty for Richard Carter/John Leffler at the 1976 Bathurst 1000. I know this car well and written about it in Australian Muscle car magazine as well as Amatori Alfa, the NSW club magazine. It has all the Group 2 Autodelta gear that it raced with in period (gearbox, brakes, adjustable torsion bar, etc). There were two other GTAm at Bathurst that year. The Frank Porter "Clemens" Alfetta and the Brian Foley entered Alfetta for Marie-Claude Beaumont/Christine Gibson. I'm not sure what became of the Porter car but I'm pretty sure that the Foley car was converted back to road spec and sold on. I know that ex-Foley mechanic Steve Perkins showed me photos of this car and even dyno sheets from Town and Country at Hornsby, but I haven't seen a log book for it and I don't  recall anyone knowing what the chassis number was.

I wouldn't get too worked up with sequential chassis numbers - I've seen GTAM compliance plates for #1949, #1954 (on Alfa forums) and a logbook for #2496 (sold by Foleys in Dec 76) and someone else (on a forum) said they had #3505. A 1900 chassis was most likely built in 1975, but all these cars would have been Australian Compliance 06/76 - the last month before ADR27A came in and the last month for GTs.

While we are on GTs - the ex-Peter Wherrett Pye sponsored GT (Am?) exists in much modified sports sedan form. The ex-Evan Green Group 4 Alfetta GT rally car became the Tony Edmondson Alfetta sports sedan that was destroyed at Surfers Paradise in 1979.

[Cool Jesus]

Yeah, chassis sequence was Mario and Luigi running out to the lot to grab the nearest US GTs as they were being loaded for export. Didn't know about the 'Am' being omitted on some compliance plates though.

Where did you find this one?

Hurry up with the pics!