2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA Announced

The Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA resurrects classic Gran Turismo Alleggerita name from 1965 (and beyond) and comes in two very fast flavours.

Just when you think bonkers cars were dead at Alfa Romeo after the demise of the 4C and the 8C replacement, Alfa goes and does an Alfa. Given the death of this year’s Geneva Motor Show at the hands of COVID-19, Alfa released the car online.

Normally when you turn 110, you’re meant to take things easy, but that’s not the Italian way. The Giulia GTA takes the awesome Quadrifoglio and sends it to the fat farm. Carbon fibre replaces steel, more aluminium replaces more steel. And then you get a bunch of carbon fibre aero parts.

Alfa replaces (or adds) carbon fibre in the form of drive shafts, bonnet, roof, front bumper, front wheel arches and rear wheel flares. The seats are also carbon fibre shells.

If you want to really go crazy, go for the GTAm. It doesn’t have a rear seat but does have a roll cage and six-point harnesses for driver and passenger. You also get a set of Alpine Stars racing gear, a Bell helmet and place to store that gear where the back seat used to be. Steel door components are also replaced with aluminium and window glass goes in favour of Lexan.

All up, the GTAm is 100kg lighter. No door cards and a pull strap rather than doorhandles complete the picture.

Driveline and Chassis

The engine and transmission are fundamentally the same, but with a cheeky 27kW power boost. Tuned by AutoDelta, power is up to 402kW from 275kW. Alfa didn’t post a torque figure. In the standard car it’s a substantial 600Nm, so one imagines it will be higher. Given the weight loss and the already lively performance, it won’t matter if there isn’t more.

The ZF eight-speed is along for the ride as it is more than capable of handling all that grunt. Which delivers a 0-100km/h time of 3.6 seconds, 0.3 seconds quicker than the standard car.

If you need reminding, the 2.9-litre V6’s origins can be traced to Maranello and Ferrari’s twin-turbo V8, which helps explain the noise. The GTAs will be noisier courtesy of an Akrapovic titanium exhaust.

As well as the weight-saving, the GTA features 20-inch centre-lock alloys, a 50mm wider track front and rear. The press release goes all vague and hand-wavey about aluminium suspension components and there is nothing about any changes to the brakes.

Along with the wider track, Alfa says the GTAs have a new set of springs, shock absorbers and bushings.

The aero package was supposedly developed in conjunction with Sauber. If you’re not up with F1, the Sauber team was renamed Alfa Romeo last year. The huge wing only goes on the GTAm, while skirts and front and rear splitters made of carbon fibre add to the aggro look on both.

How much and when?

Yeah, here’s the thing. Alfa Romeo is making just 500 of them and given a few of the technical components and the scourge of luxury car tax, it’s almost entirely unlikely we’ll be getting them here, officially at least.

Shame. I’d quite like to drive one.

Peter Anderson

Peter Anderson is the Editor and founder of the theredline.com.au. He’s been writing about cars for years and finds it difficult to talk about anything else.