1974 Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV

This one is a left-hand drive American import, sold in 2017 by a dealer in Pennsylvania but originally a California car. And this shows…it is remarkably dry and clean and it’s recently benefitted from a very expensive re-spray. It’s showing a mileage just over 20,000 which is not supported by printed history but is actually plausible.

The vendor believes the shell has never been welded. In his ownership, which began when he bought the car from the importer in October 2017, he has changed the original American fuel injection for a pair of side-draught carbs, European style, and he’s fitted new wheels. But by far the biggest expense was a glass-out re-paint in the original red, performed in the summer of 2020.

This one is about as good as 2-litre GTVs get, and bar a few tiny details the next owner may or not want to fiddle with, it needs nothing. Yes, it’s left-hand drive, but good luck finding a right-hooker that’s never seen a welder.

As you’d expect after a recent and expensive respray, the paint is superb. Deep, even, reflective and rich in tone, it’s how one of these should look. The body underneath the paint adds to the feeling of ‘rightness’ with lovely crisp lines, tight and consistent panel gaps and of course no dings or dents.

The brightwork is very good too – you wouldn’t fix bent trim and scruffy bumpers onto a perfect body, after all – and of course the glass and lamp lenses are undamaged. The small front numberplate under that neat grille is a really nice touch.

The wheels are GTA replicas supplied by Classic Alfa and are shod in Michelin Energy radials in 195/70 14, which have plenty of tread but are showing minor crazing in the sidewalls. The car has none of the nose-in-the-air stance of some tired Giulia coupés- it just looks spot on.

The inside is even more impressive than the outside, because this really is 47 years old. Italian interiors of this period generally age about gracefully as a teenage movie star but this one has held up in remarkable condition. All four tan vinyl seats are free from rips and splits and even the door cards are good, with just the suggestion of an age-related wobble on the driver’s side.

The dash is equally nice. All the gauges work and where you’d normal forgive a bit of loose, rattling plastic and peeling veneer, it all seems intact. A word about the heater controls: those sliders are no longer connected as the car once had an air-conditioning system fitted. This was removed before importation and the heater output routed through the A/C vents under the centre of the dash, so it’s there that you control the flow of warm air.

Lifting the boot liner reveals a smart-looking spare wheel in its well and the top of the fuel tank. Once again it all looks remarkably dry and sound.

The vendor tells us it starts on the button and drives like one of these nimble coupés should, which is already high praise. The video in the listing makes the engine sound rather tappety or rattly, but we don’t think it is, really – the vendor was surprised when he watched it back and says the car doesn’t sound like this in the flesh.

Have a good peer at the shots taken with the car on the ramp: if you can find anything less than clean, sound, fresh-looking Alfa-Romeo, you’re doing better than us. The re-spray has left the details of every factory spot-weld in the sills and even the jacking points are almost too pretty to use. Smart Koni dampers and an apparently new exhaust contribute to the unused look.

The engine bay is smart and clean too, following the extensive work to the cylinder head when the SPICA fuel injection was removed. Maybe it would have been nice to find the original system in place, but do you want to drive the car or just admire Alfa’s rather compromised approach to getting past American emissions regulations? If we’re forced to find fault, we could point out some paint runs on the nearside inner wing from a previous touch-up, unless that’s factory carelessness.

Like so many American imports, the car’s pre-export history has gone. It’s a great shame as it doesn’t allow us to confirm or deny that low mileage but at least we have plenty of printed evidence of the money spent on it since it came to the UK.

The vendor some four-figure bills connected with the removal of the cylinder head and the conversion from injection to carbs, while other papers cover the acquisition of parts including clutch cylinders, window mechanisms, a new front screen trim and a new grille.

It all suggests the methodical improvement of a car that arrived as a basically excellent survivor needing investment in various sundries (as well as the two big jobs to the engine and paint) to bring it up to A1 condition…which is where it now resides.

Somehow, it’s the interior that makes us love it. So often with 1960s and 70s Alfas, Fiats and Lancias you just put up with split seats and tatty dashboards because it’s tedious and expensive to put them right, when they’re only minor cosmetic issues. But here there’s nothing to do but enjoy it.

We’d investigate what’s involved in re-connecting the heater controls but that’s about all there is to fiddle with. It’s a car you could be proud of at any club meet, or indeed much more exalted company: someone once said you could park a Giulia coupé next to any million-pound exotic and it wouldn’t look out of place.

For all these reasons, we think this car could sell between £33,500 and £38,500. Top money, yes, but you could look a long time before finding one with as good a shell as this, never mind the interior. And who says it would be any cheaper?

The car can be viewed in Essex. Please click on the contact the seller to make an appointment. The car is stored in a facility close to the vendor’s house, where distanced viewings can be carried out safely.