First drive: Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA

This circuit at Balocco in northern Italy isn’t unpaved. The Giulia GTAm just makes it feel that way, painting black smears and leaving wisps of white smoke in its wake. This car instantly earns a place in the shrine of sideways, and Alfa Romeo is sure to be adored for producing it.

What have they done? The GTAm is basically a Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde, with modifications. These are extensive. And so they should be. The price of the GTAm is $288,000, not far below supercar money, and double the cost of the Quadrifoglio Verde.

There’s a touch of the exotic to the Alfa Romeo’s engine, at least. The 690T is a 2.9-litre V6 twin-turbo that shares vital bore and stroke dimensions with the version of Ferrari’s excellent F154 V8 used for the Roma and Portofino, from which it was derived.

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For the GTAm, new con-rods, faster-spinning turbos, extra oil-cooling measures and a titanium Akrapovic exhaust up the 690T V6’s output to 397kW, an increase of 22kW. It drives the rear wheels through the same eight-speed ZF automatic as in the Quadrifoglio Verde.

Alfa Romeo invested more time, and money, in weight reduction than power augmentation. After all, GTA stands for Gran Turismo Alleggerita. It means lightened GT, and is a name from Alfa Romeo’s glorious past. The Giulia Sprint GTA of 1965 was developed by the company’s Autodelta racing division and was a winner.

While the original GTA employed aluminium to shed kilos, the new one relies on carbonfibre and other modern materials. It retains the carbonfibre roof and bonnet of the Quadrifoglio Verde, and adds carbonfibre front guards. The rear screen is polycarbonate instead of glass.

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This car instantly earns a place in the shrine of sideways, and Alfa is sure to be adored for producing it

The GTAm – with that last letter standing for ‘modificata’ – goes further. The rear seat is removed, allowing a half roll cage to be installed. Handy helmet storage wells and a fire extinguisher go where the rear seat cushion used to be.

The cage anchors the top straps of the six-point harnesses for the pair of Sabelt carbonfibre shell seats up front. Polycarbonate is substituted for glass in the rear doors, which also have their interior trim replaced by something simpler and lighter. There are pull-loops to open the front doors, and the interior of the GTAm is even more Alcantara-intensive than the five-seat GTA.

It’s equally easy to spot the difference between the GTAm and the $20,000 less costly GTA from the outside. The GTAm is the one with the big rear wing. Made, of course, from carbonfibre. It’s adjustable, where the device attached to the bootlid of the GTA is not. The GTAm also has an adjustable front splitter, which can be extended forward by 40mm for track use.

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The remainder of the aero package – the winglets, flics, enlarged engine compartment vents, wheel air curtains, wheelarch vents, side skirts and underbody fins – are shared by both versions. Sauber Engineering, Alfa Romeo Racing’s Formula 1 partner, contributed to the design, development and manufacturing of the aero components. The Swiss outfit’s wind tunnel was used for testing, too.

According to Alfa Romeo engineers, the GTAm develops three times the downforce of the Quadrifoglio Verde, presumably with spoiler and splitter adjusted for maximum effect, and double that of the GTA.

For both versions, the chassis upgrades are the same. Front track grows 25mm, while at the rear the increase is 50mm, enough to require small wheelarch extensions, naturally made from carbonfibre. Lightweight springs for the double A-arm front and multi-link rear suspensions drop ride height slightly, and specific calibrations for the variable dampers and electric-assisted steering system were developed.

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Single fasteners secure the Alfa Romeo’s forged 20-inch wheels. This makes the super Giulia the only road-legal one-nut sedan in the world, the company claims. The rubber is Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Connect; 265/30ZR20 at the front, 285/30ZR20 at the rear.

Inside the rims are Brembo carbon-ceramic rotors, clamped by massive monobloc calipers adorned with the Alfa Romeo logo. The brakes are the same in both GTA and GTAm.

Balocco is perhaps the most beautiful proving ground in the world. Originally constructed in the early 1960s by Alfa Romeo, it’s now the property of Stellantis and is used by other brands that are part of the group.

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Though the site is adjacent to a flyspeck village and surrounded by the mosquito-and-rice-producing paddy fields of the Po Valley flatlands west of Milan, on clear days there are views of the Alps that form Italy’s borders with Switzerland and France.

There’s history here, too. It has all you expect to find at a modern proving ground, but there’s also a cluster of charming old farm buildings that Alfa Romeo likes to use as a base for launches. One of them used to be Autodelta’s workshop, and it’s aptly the venue for the presentations delivered by Alfa Romeo engineers and designers before we’re allowed to drive the GTAm and GTA.

The Balocco handling circuit that’s been selected for this launch has been somewhat journalist-proofed; temporary chicanes have been installed in a couple of the faster places. But there’s nothing obstructing the slower corners...

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The chassis’ brilliantly communicative nature make the GTA a precision corner-carving tool

The Giulia GTAm and GTA have an extra Race mode added to their DNA dials. Those letters stand for Dynamic, Normal and All-weather, which basically means wet. Turn the dial beyond Race and hold it there for at least five seconds, and every electronic driver aid, save for ABS, is deactivated.

After exploring the place in Dynamic and then Race, the GTAm is almost begging out loud to be switched to no-safety-net mode. It’s the kind of car that quickly builds both confidence and trust.

The steering is, well, perfect. Not too heavy and divinely precise, it speeds the process of bonding with the car. Soon you discover the chassis is fabulously fluent in the jargon of cornering, able to translate steering inputs into apexes nailed while at the same time offering the option of throttle-guided line adjustment.

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Oversteer is very easily accessible in the super Giulia. And once the rear rubber is slipping, the degree of drift can be controlled with similar ease. This is immense fun, of course, but not the way to cut a great lap time.

Aim instead for speed and the Alfa Romeo co-operates. The fade-free power of the big Brembo brakes, the accuracy of the steering, and the chassis’ inherent balance and brilliantly communicative nature make it a precision corner-carving tool. The skill of the team that created the GTA and GTAm is evident, as is the dynamic focus of the Giorgio platform that’s the foundation for every Giulia.

The engine, raspy at low revs, sings loud and lusty as a flood of boosted torque propels the tachometer needle towards the cut-out, a little beyond 7000rpm. Its work is made even more impressive by the expert calibration of the eight-speed transmission. It’s excellent if left in auto, and a snappy shifter when the steering column mounted paddles are used.

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There’s little difference to be felt around Balocco between the GTAm and the GTA. The sports seats don’t hold torso and hips quite so securely, of course, but the performance and handling feel identical.

There’s only a 25kg difference between the two versions, according to Alfa Romeo’s specifications sheet, after all. Alfa Romeo Racing driver Kimi Raikkonen, who provided input during development, might be able to feel a difference in downforce between the big-spoiler GTAm and the GTA, but I couldn’t.

Stunningly, this track-worthy Alfa Romeo is an excellent road car. In either Normal or Dynamic mode, the ride quality is simply superb for such a ferocious car. And none of the Alfa’s charisma disappears when driving at sane speeds on a winding hill road or making a quick autostrada overtake. It truly makes the hideously stiff Mercedes-AMG C63 S feel like the work of suspension amateurs.

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The only dismal thing about using the GTA in a normal way is that it’s impossible to miss noticing the second-rate infotainment system that has blighted the Giulia since launch. The navigation in particular is simply awful. It looks like something on a cheap Android phone.

While it’s imperfect, and very costly, the Giulia GTA is a truly great car. Alfa Romeo, against the odds, has created something both thrilling and able. And awesomely memorable...

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Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm specifications

Engine 2891cc V6 (90°), dohc, 24v, twin-turbo
Max power 397kW @ 6500rpm
Max torque 600Nm @ 2500rpm
Transmission 8-speed automatic
Weight 1580kg
0-100km/h 3.8sec (claimed)
Economy 10.8L/100km (WLTP)
Price $288,000
On sale Q4 2021