When Alfa Romeo created the Giulietta – "little Julia" – it was naturally a nod to William Shakespeare's famous love drama from the 1500s.
Now Romeo & Julia in the 1962 edition is available for sale at Bilweb Auctions – Italian 60s at its very best.
A Giulietta 1300 Sprint is an incredibly seductive car, easy to fall in love with at first sight. It was the young Nuccio Bertone who was commissioned to design and build a four-seater coupe, resulting in a formidable success produced in 27,100 examples between 1954 and 1962.
The Giulietta Sprint became a triumph for both Alfa Romeo and Bertone and a milestone in the companies' development.
Our Sprint was imported to Sweden in 1980 by an Italian residing here who wanted a dose of his homeland’s automotive culture. It then ended up at the Philipsson dealership's museum in Stockholm before being purchased in 1994 by its current owner.
He had a specialist build a new engine for little Julia, based on a factory-new engine block for a 1300 Junior and equipped with new rods, cams, and pistons – among other things. Since then, it has been driven very sparingly.
Today, the car, as Bilweb Auctions' inspector Peter Sundfeldt puts it, is "in fine working and presentable condition." The minor imperfections present do not detract from the fact that this is one of the most beautiful models Alfa Romeo has ever produced.
Simply reading "Giri", "Olio", "Benzina", and "Km/ora" on the dashboard, and "Carrozzeria Bertone" on the door sill, significantly adds to the "must-have" feeling that likely strikes most car enthusiasts at the sight of a Giulietta Sprint.
The car is valued by Bilweb Auctions at between 340,000 and 370,000 SEK. The auction concludes on November 7.
