Carlos Lepro’s Giulia—The First Winning GTA
By Bernardo D. Martínez, MD
For ten days, in October 1965, a grueling, 4,236-km touring car race—the Gran Premio Internacional de Turismo—was held around Argentina. During that race, a young teenager named Bernardo Martínez watched the race and was spellbound by the winning car, an Alfa Romeo GTA driven by Carlos Lepro. Thirty years later, now Dr. Martínez, happened upon a photograph of the Lepro GTA winning that race, and the wave of nostalgia drove him to start an eight-year quest to find and restore this most historic Alfa.
Carlos Lepro’s Giulia—The First Winning GTA is part Alfa Romeo history, part Argentinean race history, and part diary of one man’s obsession to locate and research the history of what many Alfa experts believe to be the winningest GTA of all time. Martínez starts off by laying the groundwork for his introduction to cars and motor sport in Argentina in the ’50s, and then transitions from there into the history of Alfa Romeo sedan racing in Argentina. Next, he picks up the thread of Carlos Lepro’s history with Alfa Romeos, and in particular, his amazing career with the GTA. Finally, Martínez devotes the final three chapters of the book to the search for, and the restoration of, the Lepro GTA.
While the text may read too much like a personal journal for some enthusiast’s taste, this is an amazingly thorough and detailed study of a tiny, but fascinating, sliver of South American racing history. Published by White Fly, which has in recent years released a beautiful series of books on Alfa Romeos in South America, this current work is a worthy addition to that series. A must have for any Alfisti or enthusiast of South American racing history.
Available for US$125 (worldwide shipping included) directly from the publisher at www.whitefly.cc or at better bookstores.
