One of the advantages of an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is the way it flows on a bad road. Instead of pounding and banging, our favorite sports sedan has skill and flexibility in the way it rolls and steers.
The great news is that, while striving for more performance and engagement, the new limited edition Giulia GTA, tested here for the first time on UK roads, retains (spoiler alert) all of that appeal.
It might come as a surprise. This is an Alfa Giulia with the Jaguar XE Project 8 or BMW M4 GTS treatment: full of bounce. This is a limited series of 500 assembled and tuned super sedans, available in GTA form or, as tested here, as an even more hardcore GTAm. Buyers would be roughly evenly split between the two. Either way, that’s a huge amount of money – no matter how much € 176,500 (GTA) or € 181,500 (m) when it arrives.
And it’s an extreme car. Both flavors have more horsepower than a standard Quadrifoglio in common, with the output of the 2.9-liter 90-degree V6 increased from 30 hp to 533 hp, while torque is unchanged at 443 lb-ft. It still only drives the rear wheels, via an eight-speed automatic gearbox. .
The weight went out everywhere. The hood, roof and front fenders are made of carbon fiber. This GTAm version goes even further – steps that might be too much for some, hence the equal split between the two models. Pull out the rear seats, opening rear windows and door cards, while a roll cage, six-point harnesses and carbon fiber-backed Sabelt fixed-back seats are integrated. The rear door covers, the rear side windows and the rear window are made of plastic. Where each rear seat base would have been a mesh locker to hold a hard hat, there’s a shiny fire extinguisher between them and an Alcantara bulkhead between it all and the trunk.
The GTAm is claimed to be “up to” 100 kg lighter than a standard Quadrifoglio. We weighed one of them, full of fuel, at exactly 1,700 kg (the claim was 1,580 kg), so call it 1,600 kg at the curb.
Put in some more Alcantara and cloth door handles and things in the GTAm really look very racy; although, reasonably, the air conditioning and infotainment system remain. I guess removing them sometimes seems like a good idea without compromising on a boardroom table. But I’m told that when a supercar maker came up with a special model without all of these niceties, but allowed buyers to specify them again as a no-cost option, only one car was delivered without air conditioning or sound, and that was a press demonstrator.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-08-08 23:01:23
