Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm 2021 review

A brilliant return to form for Alfa Romeo and the GTA name The Giulia GTA is the most powerful road car Alfa Romeo has produced and, at a projected £152,000 for the standard model and an even steeper £156,000 for the stripped-out track-focused GTAm driven here, its most expensive, too. Production is limited to just 500 of both - all bearing a numbered GTA (Grand Turismo Alleggerita) build plaque attached to the dashboard, so don’t expect to see many here in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter.Which is a shame, because the new lightweight saloon is arguably Alfa Romeo’s finest road car to date: an exclusive and very special performance car that proves the Italian car maker can still turn out world-beating models when its accounting department permits, despite dwindling sales in most markets and, next to the higher-volume competition, a rather threadbare model line-up.The starting point for the brilliant new Alfa Romeo flagship is the Giulia Quadrifoglio but, as its price suggests, the modifications run deep. The extent of the changes, and there are many, is glaringly obvious from the very the moment you clap eyes on it.For a start, the Giulia GTA gets a comprehensively reworked aerodynamic package with lots of new carbonfibre parts. Combined, they give it a highly functional race-car-for-the-road appearance that screams performance in a way that its rivals from Audi Sport, BMW M and Mercedes-AMG visually fail to convey. There’s an intricate and rather expensive-looking front splitter that adjusts by 40mm, a heavily reworked front bumper, altered grille, larger air ducts behind the front wheel arches, beefed-up sills under the doors, new rear wheel-arch flares, a sizeable boot deck spoiler and a revised diffuser. That’s not the extent of it, though. A series of aerodynamic tests in the wind tunnel of Alfa Romeo Formula 1 partner Sauber Engineering during development has also led to the Giulia GTA receiving a series underbody trick fins to help accelerate air underneath the car towards the rear. The result? An additional 300kg of downforce compared with the Giulia Quadrifoglio, according to the engineer responsible for its development, Daniel Tiago Guzzafame.It’s not all about pure downforce, though. Alfa Romeo says many of the new Giulia GTA's exterior parts are aimed at providing more air to an upgraded cooling system, which is claimed to have a 10% increase in capacity compared with the standard system.A new GTA model wouldn’t be true to its name without some exotic weight-saving measures, and they’re present in abundance. Along with most of the additional body parts, the bonnet, front wings and roof are all made of carbonfibre. At 100kg, the overall weight saving isn’t quite as significant as you might expect. Still, the 1580kg Giulia GTA is lighter than the Audi RS5 (by 147kg), the BMW M3 Competition (by 170kg) and the Mercedes-AMG C63 S 4Matic+ (also by 170kg). The more hardcore Giulia GTAm takes the savings a step further with lightweight plastic rear door panels, polycarbonate rear windows, Sabelt carbonfibre-shell front seats, nylon door pulls in place of the standard handles and the removal of the rear seating. Even with the addition of a rear roll cage, Alfa Romeo says these measures trim a further 40kg from the kerb weight, taking it down to 1540kg.   Under the lightweight bonnet, the Giulia GTA uses the same Ferrari-designed and -developed turbocharged 2.9-litre V6 petrol engine as the Giulia Quadrifoglio. Power is up by 30bhp to 533hp through the adoption of new conrods, additional oil injectors, a revised oil cooler, tweaks to the software controlling the turbocharger and, most obvious of all, an Akrapovic titanium exhaust system featuring twin centrally mounted tailpipes. Torque, however, remains the same at 443lb ft.Drive is sent to the rear wheels via a ZF-produced eight-speed gearbox and electronically controlled differential, both of which receive unique mapping specific to the new headlining Giulia model.Further changes are focused on the Giulia GTA’s chassis. It receives tracks that are 25mm wider at the front and 50mm wider at the rear, together with new mapping for the electromechanical steering and a lowered double-wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension with firmer springs and dampers as well as beefed-up anti-roll bars, among other detailed changes. Bespoke 20in forged alloy wheels with a centre-locking nut wear Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, 265/30 ZR20 up front and 285/30 ZR20 at the rear.