Reading Time: 4 minutes

Despite the fact that the Geneva International Motorshow was canceled because of Coronavirus, the car industry pursuits its journey into building new icons of elegance and performance. On these points we need to say it: Italians (often) do it better. Alfa Romeo launches two new models this year under the Alfa Romeo Giulia line: the GTA and the GTAm. Here is how the Italian Automotive constructor is releasing the beast within.

The New Alfa Romeo GTA & GTAm, Feel Your Heart Race

Alfa Romeo is celebrating its 110th anniversary. The best way to have a great birthday gift is to dig deep onto the brand’s heritage and revive a true icon that crossed decades of success. Here, the Italian car brand offers two amazing models:

  • Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA
  • Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm

To be clear, no room for baby seats in this car. The sports heritage of Alfa Romeo is everywhere in this two-seated car. The sports seats has 6 point Sabelt safety belts and shells made from carbon fiber. The rear seats were replaced by a sleek Alcantara-trimmed structure with space moldings for helmets and a fire extinguisher.

The two models received a special treatment by Alfa Romeo. They got special light-weight side skirts, spoilers and an active front splitter. The wheels are also different from the original Giulia. They are 50mm wider than usual. The suspension was also optimized further with new springs and shock absorbers. The full package gets the cars under 3.8s on the 0-60mph.

alfa-romeo-giulia-gtam-review
Alfa-Romeo-GTAm-look
Alfa-Romeo-GTAm-side-look
Alfa-Romeo-GTAm-behind-look
Alfa-Romeo-GTAm-detail
Alfa-Romeo-GTAm-inside
Alfa-Romeo-GTAm-interior
Alfa-Romeo-GTAm-dashboard

The inspiration: The 1965 Gran Turismo Alleggerita

Alfa-Romeo-1965-Gran-Turismo-Giulia

Every great project has a start. For the two amazing 2020 models, we need to go back to 1965 and a light-weight version of the original Giulia whose main focus is racing. The car was called the Gran Turismo Alleggerita. The purpose of this car was to get rid of all extra weight that would not be necessary for the race. Alfa Romeo racing department at that time, had to transform the original Giulia in different ways. First, they added a tuned version of its Twin-cam engine (1.7L) delivering raw power from 84kW to 126kW. Second, the engineers have replaced the regular steel body of the car with a full aluminium body which saved at least 200kg. This car became very hard to beat on track. Several victories covered Alfa Romeo with honors.

  • European Touring Car Championship in 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1971
  • Spa 24-hours
  • Trans-Am
1965-Gran-turismo-giulia

The interest to remind us of the initial Gran Turismo project is the connection with the approach that Alfa Romeo developed with the new Giulia GTA and GTAm, especially on the extreme choices to optimize the relation power and weight. Alfa Romeo has a great heritage into car racing that is renewed today for this amazing 110th anniversary.

Alfa Romeo and Car Racing: a whole century of high level performance

The first racing car was made by Alfa Romeo in 1913. The brand competed with great success under different race categories: Grand prix motor racing, Formula one, sportscar racing, touring car racing and even rallies. Alfa Romeo conquered its image of sporty and high-performance car brand thanks to the combination of his heritage in motorsport and the cars they brought to market. Here is a quicl flashback on a century of car racing:

Alfa-Romeo-RL-Targa
1923 Alfa Romeo RL (Targa Florio racing version)
Louis-Chiron-Alfa-Romeo-P3
Louis Chiron after winning the 1934 French Grand Prix with Alfa Romeo P3
Alfa-Romeo-P3-Type-B
Engine of Jano’s Alfa Romeo P3 Type B
Alfa-Romeo-8C-2900B-MM-1938
Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B MM 1938 winner Mille Miglia. Driver: Clemente Biondetti
Alfa Romeo GTA at the 1966 Trans-Am Championship
Alfa-Romeo-182-Formula-one
Alfa Romeo 182 Formula One car from 1982
Alfa-Romeo-Alfetta-GT
Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT at the 1975 Rallye San Martino di Castrozza
Alfa-Romeo-155-V6-Ti
Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti at the 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed
Alfa Romeo 156 at the 2007 WTCC round in Curitiba.

On 29 November 2017, Sauber announced that they had signed a multi-year technical and commercial partnership contract with Alfa Romeo, therefore the team was renamed to Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team for the 2018 season onwards.

Alfa-Romeo-Sauber-F1-Team
Charles Leclerc driving the Alfa Romeo Sauber C37

The Story continues between Alfa Romeo and car racing. With the launch of these two models under the Giulia line, the Italian automaker is faithful to its heritage and build a bright future for its brand. Fans of Alfa Romeo will be pleased and we look forward to seeing these two beasts on the roads around the world.

José Amorim
Information sourced by the author for luxuryactivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. All images are for illustration purposes only.