I make fun of the return of the greatest-of-the-great Alfa Romeo GTAm because I love it. With 540 horsepower, over the top aero, and carbon fiber down to the driveshaft, it’s probably the most desirable sports sedan on the planet. And that’s why it’s funny that the car comes out with a shitty Photoshop.
It’s Alfa Romeo. We wouldn’t want it any other way.
Again, look at this excellent photoshop from Alfa Romeo itself, as noted by former Jalopnik EIC Travis Okulski:
The Alfa Quadrifoglio is already one of the most innately desirable cars on sale today, one of the few cars with its kind of performance that feels exciting to drive at any speed. It is also particularly entrancing in that you never know if your car is going to make it home, given modern Alfa Romeo’s reliability record.
The obvious solution to the car is, as Alfa rightly assessed, is to give it 35 more HP and make it even more compromised for road use.
There is now a GTA and a GTAm version. The former saves 100 kilos (220 pounds) from the Quadrifoglio, which is quoted at 3,806 pounds in American spec. In the GTA/GTAm press release, Alfa says that the extra-extra light GTAm gets down to 1520 kilos, or 3,351 pounds. The GTAm must save some weight on its own because Alfa only offers it with the two front seats, but both models get some lightweight materials, per the press release:
To achieve this the GTA uses lightweight materials such as carbon fibre for the drive shaft, bonnet, roof, front bumper, front wheel arches and rear wheel arch inserts and the shell of the sports seats with six-point Sabelt seat belts in the GTAm. Aluminium has been used in the engine, doors and suspension systems and various other composite materials have been used throughout.
In the GTAm, Lexan – a unique polycarbonate resin which comes straight from the world of motorsport – has been used in the side and rear window frames, further contributing to the weight reduction.
The GTA/GTAm name is a throwback to the 1960s and early ’70s Alfa coupes of the same name, which were very much my dream cars back when I was a teen just discovering vintage machines that weren’t muscle cars.
There was more out there with fender flares than Trans Ams, I was discovering, and photos of GTAms on two wheels or cutting through fields of flowers stirred my imagination. They were outrageous and extreme, and I wanted to live as bonkers a life as their widebody kits, pulled out to fit ultra-wide tires, implied. I couldn’t be happier a new version is back.
Only 500 units will be built covering both GTA and GTAm together. I look forward to seeing each and every one of them flame out in glory.
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