Small sports car manufacturers and coachbuilders were proliferate in the 1950s and ‘60s, but the much larger and more robustly industrialized companies often played the same game—and often employed the same people running the smaller operations. Prototypes, limited-production re-bodies, and other low-volume specialty cars offered a way to probe the consumer market, experiment with new motorsport projects, and in certain cases both of these aims could be accomplished.

Which brings us to this car, the lightweight and competitively focused Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider “750G,” which has recently emerged from a full restoration by the Alfa Romeo motorsports specialists at Scuderia Del Portello after being found a few years ago in poor health in Portugal, where it had seemingly been socked away for decades untouched. Rarer than any other of the original Giulietta’s many variants (including the all-alloy Sprint Zagato), this car is one of just 24 Giulietta Spiders originally built by the factory in this special specification—it’s estimated that only about a dozen remain today.

For the classic endurance race on the old airport turned circuit, the little Alfa’s aerodynamics were altered in accordance with the regulations that allowed for single-seat conversions in 1956.

Photos Courtesy of Petrolicious