Alfa Romeo: no plans to expand GTA range
Italian maker has reintroduced GTA badge to Giulia but is unlikely to launch SUV variants
Alfa Romeo has no plans to use its famous GTA nameplate on the Stelvio, following the reveal of the Giulia GTA last month.
The Italian maker hopes the renaissance of the GTA badge will help create a halo effect for the brand - especially in the absence of the GTV and 8C rebirths, for which plans were ditched last year - but product marketing boss Fabio Migliavacca said the ethos of GTA doesn’t fit with other cars in Alfa Romeo’s line-up.
“The GTA is an important name for Alfa Romeo," he said. "Frankly speaking, we had a meeting on a Stelvio GTA but it’s just not in line with customer expectations. It has to be the best possible [on track]. On the Stelvio, we have a higher centre of gravity [than a Giulia] so it won’t achieve the same goals.”
The Giulia GTA was launched to celebrate Alfa Romeo’s 110th anniversary this year. Migliavacca said: “The idea for our anniversary was to renew GTA as an important pinnacle for Alfa Romeo. The [original Giulia GTA] car from 1965 was really important. If you think about the brand’s icons in history, there is GTA. We decided to bring back the old values. The car had to be special compared to the Quadrifoglio. It had to be lighter. We worked a lot to reduce weight and have better performance in terms of lap time over the Quadrifoglio.”
Migliavacca added that reaction to the Giulia GTA has been “amazing”. Referencing the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit Italy and, in turn, Alfa Romeo hard, he said: “In this particular moment, people - not only customers - are willing to see something positive in a really difficult reality. A lot of people are raising their hands and saying, ‘I want to have one’, ‘I want to have four’. It’s truly an amazing reaction considering the timing.”
Only 500 examples of the GTA and more track-focused GTAm will be made and Migliavacca said that although orders were not yet open, it already had more than 500 expressions of interest. Currently, the split is biased towards requests for the hardcore two-seat GTAm.
Performance figures for the range-topping Giulia are yet to be confirmed, but it will eclipse the Quadrifoglio’s 3.9sec 0-62mph time and 191mph top speed. However, Migliavacca said the main focus was not to make the car faster in those terms but to achieve more speed around corners.
“We are talking about particular tracks where the car can be faster than the Quadrifoglio," he said. "It is easy to drive, unbelievably quick and effective in corners. For aerodynamics, the front and rear fascias and side skirts have been redesigned to achieve downforce not achievable on the Quadrifoglio.”
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