Three owners and just over 35,000 miles from new
1966 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Speciale Coupe
Chassis no. AR 381349
Late in 1962, Alfa Romeo debuted the Giulietta's ostensible replacement, the Giulia, although production of the earlier car continued into 1964. The Giulia, initially a Berlina, featured a 1,570 cc four rated at 92 bhp and a five-speed gearbox. Sprint coupe and Spider convertible models followed, with engines available in several stages of tune. The suspension had been revised and disc brakes were featured all around.

Bertone's Sprint Speciale continued as a Giulia model, joined by a new Zagato style, the TZ. The Sprint Speciale was in many ways the more dramatic, based on the BAT series of concept cars built from 1953 to '55. The BATs were a joint Alfa-Bertone project, intended to embody the lowest possible drag coefficients. BAT stood for Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica (technologically aerodynamic coupe), and the cars - low, fuselage-shaped forms with inwardly-curved finned flanks - achieved coefficients as low as 0.19. There were three, BAT 5, introduced to great acclaim at the 1953 Turn show, and BATs 7 and 9 in 1954 and 1955, respectively. BAT 9 incorporated traditional Alfa cues in front, and this whole theme was replicated, without the fins, as the Giulietta Sprint Speciale. It became immediately popular, and combined production of Giulietta and Giulia Sprint Speciales totalled 2,765.

Its owners recount the 'SS' as being the 'older dream of youth' they recall the mother of a dear family friend owing one and it having been a very rare sight on the roads of Sixties Italy. The collection's car was sold new on December 28, 1965 through Springfield Imported Motors Ltd. of New Jersey to Hemming Siiberg of Union, NJ who part exchanged his 1960 Corvette against it. Siiberg kept the car until the early 1980s when it was acquired by a young Alfista, Keith Berkery in New Jersey, still with only 32,000 miles on the odometer. Impecunious, he couldn't afford to keep the car and the current owners stepped in.

Accompanying the Alfa are copies of the original bill of sale and some invoices. The sellers prize this car for its originality and panel fit, while loving its styling and speed, commenting 'it is a masterpiece.....a bullet, very very fast'. Of the driving experience they say it drives like a dream too, and can proudly attest to its 120 mph! In their ownership it was shown here at Greenwich in 2001.

Estimate: $40,000 - 60,000