PART YANIMAL
I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING. IT’S EASY to be cynical about the Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm. For starters, there’s the issue of slapping Alfa’s most evocative designation on a car that, though usefully lighter than the model on which it’s based, can hardly be described as truly alleggerita. You can also question the point of a four-door saloon with only two seats. Likewise the legitimacy of a near-£160,000 asking price.
Such dispassionate reasoning is water-tight, right up until a nice man from Alfa Romeo drives into view in what is currently the factory’s only GTAm, whereupon one longing look at the gorgeous, spangly green, carbon-clad device sees any argument against it crumble to dust. No doubt about it, this is one stunning machine.
The backstory only adds to its desirability. Where the vast majority of manufacturers would have to justify such a project by using it as the pinnacle of some grand marketing plan in which the GTA name would be bastardised into some AMG-esque sub-brand, Alfa’s motive was far simpler: a 110th birthday gift to itself and a fabulous totem for the world’s Alfisti to worship. Better still, rather than build a one-off, Alfa has committed to building 500 units, with the split between stripped-back GTAm and the full four-seat GTA decided by the market.
Most of the changes
