We spent many hours watching ETCC, ATCC and BTCC saloon car races on Eurosport. In reality, these saloon cars were of course very different from the street cars, giving them the ultimate ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ appearance and that is exactly the effect manufacturers were aiming for. Touring car races were not just for the fans to enjoy, but were primarily to encourage those same fans to visit the dealer show rooms.
About three decades later we were fortunate enough to meet Maurizio Tabucchi, a well-respected Italian Alfa Romeo historian and the writer of various books about models such as the TZ and GTA. When the esteemed Jolly Club S.r.l. racing team decided to end their activities in 1997, Tabucchi went to Milan to purchase one of their 1982 GTV6 Jolly Club team cars (chassis B60000529B). This car is one of only five official Jolly Club team cars, built by Jolly Club S.r.l. which was licenced by Alfa Romeo to construct these race cars. Jolly Club acquired parts directly from Alfa Romeo’s motorsport department, AutoDelta, who manufactured all the special racing parts and prepared the chassis by reinforcing them. The five cars were known as the ‘squadra Totip’ (Totip Squadron).
Chassis B60000529B
We offer this genuine 1982 Jolly Club Alfa Romeo GTV6 with four spare engines, one of which has the very rare six 40mm Dell’orto FRPA-40 carburettor setup. All four spare engines need overhauling before use. Also included are four sets of the ultra-rare magnesium Campagnolo (MOMO) centre lock wheels plus an official Alfa Romeo RIAR certificate of origin as well as an official Jolly Club certificate of origin and FIA HTP and FIVA passports. Additionally, there are many parts, the original race seat from the 1984 Monza race and lots of letters and other documentation.
Totip
The striking and famous Totip livery was from a large Italian horse betting company which started in 1948 and was at their peak of popularity in the ‘80s. Tickets were sold at kiosks all over the country and in 1998 a €2.1 million jackpot was won by Pescara. Totip was also the main sponsor of the famous San Remo song festival, which is one of the oldest song festivals in the world. They provided the facilities for gamblers to vote for their favourite singer with their tickets and in 1984 Eros Ramassotti won as best newcomer.
Jolly Club
In 1957 racing team Jolly Club was established in Milan. It was a very professional and well-funded race team with about 2,000 members. The team had its own aeroplanes and competed in offshore powerboat racing, and even had its own helicopters to follow their rally cars from the air. For a short time, Jolly Club even had its own F1 team in the ‘70s. As well as the World Rally Championship, in which they won countless events and three world titles, they also participated in Group C Endurance racing and 24hr Le Mans.
Group A
The GTV6 Jolly Club team car in our collection was entered in about 24 group A races in Italy between 1983 and 1985, including the 1985 500 kilometres of Monza as part of the European Touring Car Championship driven by Dr. Roberto De Gaetano, Giorgio Schön and Les Mans driver Duilio Truffo. The car raced at tracks such as Varano, Magione, Mugello, the Cesana Sestriere hill climb, Donnington Park, Vallelunga (Rome) and the Malegno-Borno hill climb.
Alfetta
The Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6 was a great success in racing as well as rallying. It dominated its class in the European Touring Car Championship in 1982, 1983 and 1984. Part of this success was the 50/50 weight distribution as a result of the transaxle gearbox layout and the handling was further improved by the de Dion rear suspension with Watt linkages. Last but not least, there is of course the fantastic sounding and very reliable Busso-designed V6 engine.
Professional driver Colin Bond said: ‘These cars have great handling and such good characteristics. You can throw them into corners as they are very forgiving.’ In Alfa Romeo history books these cars are described as the successor to the iconic GTA. They were equipped with some very clever racing technology manufactured by Autodelta. Next to a reinforced chassis and a special dog-leg close-ratio gearbox, alloy wishbones and ‘knuckle risers’ on the uprights and reinforced torsion bars, there was also a Limited Slip Differential (LSD) and the wheel hubs were changed to centre lock. More important were the two double brake callipers at the front and the enormous rear brakes that came from the Alfa Brabham Formula 1 cars, as brake modifications were basically unrestricted in European touring car racing back then. The dashboard was also modified and much lighter than the original item in the street cars.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us for further information about this historically important and truly original race car.
We can provide servicing, maintenance and race preparation of European Touring Car Race events such as Nürburgring, Spa-Francorschaps or Zandvoort. There are several race classes coming up for this type of historic race cars.
We can provide race preparation, maintenance and track assistance for historic Touring Car events in Europe.
You are more than welcome make an appointment and view the car in our showroom, 15 minutes from Amsterdam Airport.
