Your classic: Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

Features
 | 25 Feb 2025
Classic & Sports Car – Your classic: Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

‘Giulia’ just happened to me.

After driving one of these Alfa Romeos some years ago, I had been crazy about them ever since, but I never dreamt that one would come into my life.

So after it did, there it has remained.

Giulia has a deeply unconventional Mediterranean style that marks her out from more traditional beauties.

Agile and cheerful; small, light and sly; sensitive, but not fragile: she was mine, and was all I’d dreamed of.

Classic & Sports Car – Your classic: Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

‘The Alfa Romeo Giulia is perfect for the regularity rallies in which I participate with my son’

My car is a 1972 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super 1.3 Tipo 115.09 unificata, one of the final chrome-grilled cars.

It was acquired by its first owners to be their macchina di familia, living in Portuguese Mozambique during those early years.

That explains why the steering wheel is on the right-hand side and, I like to think, gave the car its warm nature.

Prepared for the rigours of the climate, it was equipped with an oiled air filter to combat the dust from the dirt roads that run across those beautiful lands.

Classic & Sports Car – Your classic: Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

This Alfa Romeo Giulia Super was rescued from storage and restored, even before ownership was agreed

These were the colonial war years, and when the Republic of Mozambique gained its independence in 1975, Giulia came, like so many others, to Europe and settled in Lisbon.

During the 1980s, the Alfa was left abandoned in its then owner’s dark, uninhabited house, where it remained for 30 years.

The owner eventually died and a friend of mine, who had been taking care of the estate and knew about my passion for Alfa Romeos – and in particular for this model – suggested I should come and see it.

That same day in 2014, I brought the Alfa Romeo Giulia home with me.

Classic & Sports Car – Your classic: Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

This right-hand-drive Alfa Romeo Giulia Super’s first home was in Mozambique

The car was still in fair shape, with the usual rust problems but thankfully nothing very dramatic.

I restored it even before being sure that all of the family’s heirs would agree to sell the car to me, because I simply couldn’t bear to see it like that.

Fortunately, they accepted my offer – I guess they realised they shouldn’t upset this madman who had come to believe that the Alfa Giulia is the most incredible car in automotive history.

I could go on, extolling the many virtues of the model, but you probably know them already or you would not be reading this magazine!

Classic & Sports Car – Your classic: Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

The Alfa Romeo Giulia Super beside Lagoa do Fogo on São Miguel

I own two other Alfa Romeos – a princess named Giulietta from 1957 and a ruffian from 1982 named Alfasud 1.5, with whom my daughter Francisca is in love – but nothing compares to my Giulia.

She has this impressive liveliness, with acceleration beyond belief, taking corners with seductive agility and powerful braking.

The engine almost seems to have its own emotions, purring one moment, howling the next.

When I let it loose, with each blast I hear all about how Giulia feels with her invitingly hoarse growl.

Classic & Sports Car – Your classic: Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

The Alfa Romeo Giulia Super is used and enjoyed by all the family, but most of all by owner Nuno

The Alfa Romeo is perfect for the regularity rallies in which I participate with my son Manuel, for racing nights in Sintra with my daughter Madalena, or for a Sunday drive with my nieces Benedita and Leonor.

Then there is the design and the shape. I lose myself in the details, devoting great time to them even before turning the key.

To this, I have attached a luxurious Chopard keychain just for fun.

I love the Alfa Romeo badge, with the medieval Milanese coat of arms from the Visconti dynasty which ruled from 1277 to 1447: all the charm of a long-lost nobility. 

Classic & Sports Car – Your classic: Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

Classic car fan Nuno Pena fell in love with the Alfa Romeo’s stylish lines and sprightly performance

I delight in looking along the sharp line that starts at the Giulia’s front corners and fades towards the end of the rear quarters.

It’s one of the details that makes this shape so distinctive.

The same line reappears, like a chorus, along the side of the roof, creating a sense of strength and also grace. 

Inside, the elegance of the gauges snuggled up in the wood of the dashboard is special.

Facing me, each one salutes as I turn the key – except oil pressure, which always demands two taps from my index finger to wake up. It is a small tenderness we share.

On the door, even the window-winder is masterfully conceived.

Without having turned this handle at least once, you will never fully grasp the real meaning of interior design and ergonomics.

The steering wheel, instruments, lights and column stalks are all pieces of incredible finesse and good taste. 

My Giulia clearly loves being our macchina di familia. But she knows who loves her the most.

That is why, in her own special, timeless way, she tells me secrets she will never reveal to others.

Want to star in our ‘Your classic’ section of the magazine and online? Get in touch

Factfile

  • Owned by Nuno Pena
  • First classic Volkswagen Beetle
  • Dream classic Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes-Benz 300SL

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