Alfa Romeo GT Junior Restomod

This Alfa Romeo GT Junior has turned into a wild child with a large variety of restomod upgrades. Alfa Romeo was founded in 1910 in Milan, Italy. The company was originally called A.L.F.A until Nicola Romeo took over and changed the company name to Alfa Romeo. The Alfa Romeo GT Juniors were in production between 1963 and 1977, this GT Junior was produced in 1968. This two-door coupe had a 4tipo Restomod upgrade with modern performance and handling.

This Alfa Romeo was originally produced with a 1.3-litre twin-cam engine, with 103bhp, going from 0-60 in 10.9 seconds, only reaching a top speed of 102mph. This classic car remains its original period correct colour, Rosso Amaranto 509, named after a purple South American tropical plant. It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro when he was 19. A unique feature of the GT Junior is the unusual, stepped body moulding on the front panel called a ‘scalino’ or step nose.

One of the main features we upgraded in the restomod was the engine. We removed the 1.3-litre engine and replaced it with a Nord 2.0-litre Engine designed by Giusseppe Busso. The 2.0-litre engine produces 183bhp at 6500rpm, offering nearly double the power of the original 1.3-litre. Additionally, DCOE’s were replaced with the Jenvey Heritage throttle bodies with air plenum and filters. We also installed larger lightweight alloy wheels and semi-slick tyres for better handling on the road, along with the fast road handling kit we placed on the Alfa Romeo. We installed a 2-litre rear axle with Quaife LSD with limited slip disc to help prevent one wheel spinning on low grip surfaces, this also assists with stopping and steering. In addition, we installed uprated large front brakes with ventilated discs and installed a fast road stainless steel exhaust.

Alfa Romeo GT Junior on our rolling road

As the GT Junior is approaching 60 years old some of the features needed updating to remain reliable on the road. We removed the carburettors and replaced them with a fuel injection with a Syvecs ECU. Additionally, to ensure that the Alfa Romeo is showing accurate readings we removed the old-fashioned speedo head, so it now has a digital rev counter with ECU feed and modern sensors.

Some other upgrades include the installation of a modern high torque starter motor which runs a bit more compression than the original starter motor which would struggle to turn it over. In addition, we rebuilt the 5-speed gearbox and installed a small Nippondenso-style alternator to keep on top of the charging. We placed an aluminium radiator with twin brushless electric fans on the GT Junior to ensure the engine stays cool. Additionally, the Alfa Romeo has been upgraded to include a tubular manifold system to get rid of the gases. Some of the original remaining features include the servo master cylinder setup and we kept the fast idle and choke levers, although these are no longer connected, we wanted to keep some of the finer details of the classic car intact.

Alfa Romeo GT Junior engine on our rolling road

Our GT Junior on the rolling road

We also cleaned up the look of the engine by hiding the wiring to the headlights and cooling fan to have a clean-looking engine bay. The Alfa Romeo’s HT leads were made to mimic the same angle as the original ones but instead of there being a mechanical distributor it's now got a Bosch motorsport specification coil pack, so the engine looks standard to the untrained eye. We removed all the loose odds and ends of brackets in the engine bay and relocated the battery into the boot. Additionally, the new fuel injection is operating out of the boot, we also relocated the washer bottle to the boot to tidy up the engine bay and we installed a modern gel-filled race-style battery.

Before handing the Alfa Romeo GT Junior back to the client we need to finish a couple of tweaks to the mapping using our new Speedshop44 service. If you would like to know more about this Alficina restomod you can check out our YouTube videos going over all the details of this restomod and you can see the Alfa Romeo on the open road.

If you are interested in any of our services, please get in contact. Call us on 0115 9262266 or email us at info@alficina.com.