Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA and GTAm: History Reborn.

We all know that any true car fan will always have a soft spot for Alfa Romeo’s, they’re cars that acquire a certain clientele, a certain niche but most of all they are bought by people who buy with their heart and not their mind. We proved at how superior the standard Giulia QV is against its competitors from BMW and Mercedes, but their newest project the Giulia GTA and GTAm may have made its competitors shake right to the very axle.

At first glance, it looks as elegant and stunning as the standard Giulia QV, but it isn’t until you look closer and in-depth that you start to realise what a monster this thing really is. It is a fast as it is gorgeous to look at, and if it were down to me, I’d leave it with the black rims and the breath-taking red paint. The obviously noticeable changes are those found on the exterior, the wheel arches are wider, allowing for wide tyres, the front and rear bumpers look as though they’ve come from an S&M catalogue and don’t be fooled by that rear spoiler It is not there just for show. The rear diffusor and the two gaping rear exhausts found slap bang in the middle will make even the meanest BMW M3 or Mercedes C63s feel intimated, and rightly so.

Right, so a bit of history for you directly harnessed and quoted from Alfa-Romeo themselves: “Born in 1965, GTA is the legendary acronym for Giulia Gran Turismo Alleggerita, meaning lightened Gran Turismo, a specially tuned version of the Giulia GT built from Autodelta. To celebrate Alfa Romeo’s 110th anniversary, we used the same recipe, adding power and reducing weight, to deliver the best ever Alfa Romeo driving experience, with only 500 units available”.

I’ll be honest with you here, most car manufacturers that try to reborn their old cars from the heritage collection tend to often be well a bitter disappointment that ends up costing a fortune and serves no purpose in the world. The Giulia GTA and GTAm oh I gotta tell you, I’ve been dying to write this article and get my first look at this. I feel like a 10-year-old on Christmas day looking at this beautiful monster. It is powered with the same 2.9 litre V6 Bi-Turbo engine, only this time getting a fine-tuning and increase of 540 bhp. Along with the added benefit of over 100kg weight reduction thanks to the use of ultralightweight materials such as carbon fibre, aluminium and other composites. Allowing for 0-62 mph to be achieved in 3.6 seconds and onto a top speed of near enough makes no difference 190 mph.

The difference between the GTA and GTAm are minor but also massive at the same time, the GTA is more road-going, you have to do with basic everyday car luxuries, in the GTA you get Alcantara galore being lined literally everywhere including the dash, door panels, pillar and centre of the seats. The GTAm however well this is more of a hardcore track-based version that turns every up to 11, it comes with carbon fibre seats, no rear seats at all and the rear glass windows are replaced with Lexan windows for further weight reduction. Furthermore, both the GTA and GTAm come with a bell helmet in a special colour scheme, along with the car cover in the same livery as the actual vehicle (more on that later). The GTAm, unsurprisingly, comes with a full Alpinestars racing suit, which does indeed include the overalls, gloves and racing shoes. Interested in all this? Well, it’ll set you back £150,000.

Before I round things off here, buyers of the GTA and GTAm can have an option of having the car painted infamous racing liveries from the original GTA in the 1960s. Some examples of the liveries available are the classic white mask on the front bumper with stripes running down the hood. Or the Toine Hezemans yellowish ochre nose for the 1750 GTAm and the 2000 GTAm that he used to win the European Touring Car Championship in 1970 and 1971 consecutively. Along with many more other livery options and choices to choose from, but if you ask me, I would just stick with the standard full-body red.

Sources: Alfa Romeo Website