1971 Alfa Romeo GTV 1750 Trans-Am Racer Is Today's BaT Auction Pick

• This Alfa Romeo is one of Trans-Am racing's greatest heroes.

• Repainted in its original 1971 livery, this GTV won its final race, only to be disqualified later.

• The Bring a Trailer auction ends on February 3.

Great racing stories are built on rivalries: Ford versus Ferrari, Hunt versus Lauda, Smokey Yunick versus the NASCAR rulebook. Up for sale right now on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is one half of a duel that defined compact-car racing in the early 1970s. The 1971 Alfa Romeo GTV 1750 battled against the Brock Racing Enterprises Datsun 510 to the bitter end, achieving a short-lived victory after a fuel capacity technicality reversed the Alfa's fortune.

The Sports Car Club of America's 2.5 Challenge Series was exciting if you were a racer on a budget, unable to stretch to the likes of a V-8–powered Chevy Camaro, Ford Mustang, or AMC Javelin. The 2.5 Challenge cars were small and boxy–510s, Alfas, and BMWs–but the competition was just as fierce as in the ponycar field. If you liked small, lightweight road cars, the 2.5 Challenge was the place to be.

Staring down a factory-backed Alfa Romeo team, you might imagine Datsun as the scrappy underdog, but the BRE 510s had the development money behind them. With famed Nissan president Yutaka Katayama (a.k.a. Mr. K) cheering from the sidelines, and with Peter Brock's team preparing the chassis and engines, the BRE 510s were difficult to beat.