FIRST LOOK | Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA: Italys hardcore 532bhp super-saloon

This is the Giulia GTA. Angry, innit? And the new vents and grilles are just the beginning of a wholesale diet and gym regime that promises to turn the Giulia QV into a proper track monster. And there’s a lot to learn about this hardcore 532bhp super-saloon, so let Top Gear magazine’s Jack Rix give you the complete lowdown.

If you’ll indulge me i’d like to quote the always eloquent chris harris from the july 2016 issue of top gear magazine the first time that he or anyone for that matter drove the standard julia qv i’m driving a car i never thought would exist a rear driven 500 horsepower alpha saloon yippee holy tits fast and i hoofed the right pedal into the bulkhead and my inner

Chimp yelled that’s fast and finally i can’t think of another turbo motor that better disguises its false lungs at high engine rpms it’s a magical feeling and uh very fast anyway you get the idea fast and four years on this is an even faster version of an already very fast car it’s called the alfa romeo julia gta and it’s a bit of an animal built as a 110th

Birthday celebration for alpha this new gta pays homage to the 1965 julia sprint gta race car or gran turismo allegorita that last word which i just mangled is italian for lightened and they weren’t kidding with its all-aluminium body magnesium wheels and plastic windows it weighed a mere 745 kilograms almost exactly half of its modern incarnation but then it

Only had 170 horsepower to play with from its 1.6 twin cam engine this on the other hand has a fair bit more it is essentially the same fizzy flamboyant 2.9 litre bi-turbo v6 you get in the standard car but here it’s been tuned up to 532 horsepower which is about 30 horsepower more donna setter brave pants use launch control and it will do not 62 in 3.6 seconds

Which is three tenths faster than standard and it should sound a fair bit naughtier too thanks to a new center exit titanium akrapovic exhaust the lightening is thanks to carbon fiber used for the driveshaft bonnet roof front bumper front wheel arches rear wheel arch bolt-ons and the standard sport seats there’s alcantara everywhere on the interior and the more

Extreme gta m version you’re looking at here even swaps the rear windscreen and back window for lighter lexan polycarbonate and uses thinner glass for the windscreen the result a not exactly skinny 1520 kilogram kerb weight but to be fair that’s still 100 kilograms less than the standard julia qv so there are two versions of this car the first the four-seater

Gta which let’s face it is for wusses or this one the more hardcore gtam which you can spot thanks to the massive carbon fiber wing that sits on the bootlet also with the gta m on the inside it ditches the back seats you get a roll cage you get harnesses in the front you can’t actually sit back there but there is hollows for you to secure your personalized

Helmet in and for your fire extinguisher if things go horribly wrong and in the front instead of normal interior door handles you have fabric door pools for maximum race right let’s talk about the way this car looks starting around the front because it’s quite an angry little fella isn’t it look at that mainly thanks to this much bigger air intakes you’ve got

This bigger front splitter at the front these carbon fiber dividers here you’ve also got vents either side of the shield grille here vents ahead of the front wheel arches ah speaking of arches probably my favorite bit this the track is 50 millimeters wider at the front and the back so you need larger arches to accommodate that this entire panel then is carbon

Fiber and is brand new as is the front bumper at the back they stick with the same panels but just add a carbon fiber extension on the wheels themselves 20 inch center locking you’ve also got carbon ceramic brakes you’ve got new springs in there new shocks so this car should be as adept at doing a flat tidy flying lap as it is cremating its rear tyres badges

We need to talk about badges honestly it’s more exciting than it sounds because look at these two here this of course the cloverleaf badge that we know the quadrifoglio badge and down here an auto delta badge now that’s the in-house racing team that developed the 1965 julia sprint gta and what’s interesting about both of these badges is they’re actually painted

Directly onto the car and then lacquered over the top because that’s lighter than actually adding additional badges and for all you super nerds out there you might have already spotted it but this car wears very special black alfa romeo badges for no reason other than it’s very cool there are however a couple of concerns the recipe is extremely close to the one

Jag used for its 150 000 project 8 and it had a tricky time shifting then and then there’s the nagging suspicion that this is alpha trying to paper over the cracks to create a diversion from the lackluster sails that forced it to slash back its product offensive and ditch the mid-engined 8c supercar and hybrid gtv coupe we were promised look whatever its reasons

For existing it exists and the world needs more exciting alfa romeos but if you fancy one you better be quick and absolutely caked because alpha is only building 500 gtas and gtams combined and the price at current exchange rates 160 000 pounds for the gta 165 000 pounds for the gtam which is quite a lot of money but hey console yourself with this as you’re

Writing your big fat check the gta m comes with a free race suit a free helmet a free set of racing booties and a free car cover and you can always tell your mates down the pub that if ferrari made a four-door saloon it would look like that you

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FIRST LOOK | Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA: Italy’s hardcore 532bhp super-saloon | Top Gear By Top Gear