Road test: the Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm grips the street like a rottweiler

GTA. Merely three letters, however immensely significant when utilized as a suffix to an Alfa Romeo. The acronym is normally shorthand for Gran Turismo Alleggerita, which means Grand Touring Lightened. Put in a little “m” - for Modificata, meaning altered - on the end (as in GTAm), and the result is a monstrous-seeking sedan that annihilates the distance-over-time equation.

The first Alfa Romeo to wear this nomenclature was the Giulia GTA, born back 1965. Although it looked like a standard road-heading Giulia GT, the GTA was conceived with an overt motorsport concentrate, with drivetrain and suspension uprated accordingly and every surplus gram pared from the automobile.

The spirit of the historic light and portable special has been reprised on the modern-evening Giulia GTA and GTAm, of which a combined total of just 500 units will be built. Available just via special order, prices starts off at an eye-watering Dh750,000, but this sizeable outlay gets you an automobile that’s quicker across a mountain highway or racetrack than, arguably, other things with four doors.

As with nearly every go-faster particular, the revamp commences with an uprated engine that pumps away 540hp (a 30hp bump above the already quick Giulia Quadrifoglio), achieved primarily with a remapped ECU, redesigned con rods and a good free-movement Akrapovic titanium exhaust. The energy hike is certainly offset by an aerodynamic system that adds up to 300 kilograms of downforce, while stiffer springs and dampers, and revised suspension geometry deliver sharper responses and higher cornering thresholds.

Befitting their performance functions, the GTA and GTAm own a bodybuilder stance as their pumped guards happen to be loaded by widened wheel tracks (by 50 millimetres at the rear and 25mm at the front end). Stuffed within the steering wheel arches are51-centimetre rims shod with chunky Michelin Pilot Sport Glass 2 tyres and housed within they are massive Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes.

Crucially, the GTAm trims more than 100kg of girth vis-a-vis the Quadrifoglio, thanks to a lightweight carbon-fibre bonnet, front bumpers and fenders. Also fabricated from carbon fibre will be the rear steering wheel arches, rear diffuser and all of the aerodynamic addenda. The GTAm will take it a step beyond the GTA by using polycarbonate rear and area windows instead of glass.

Peer in to the cabin and you’ll look for Sabelt carbon-fibre-shell chairs, Alcantara trim everywhere and a good composite backside door panel. In addition, the GTAm ditches the trunk seats, has door pull-straps instead of handles and contributes a roll cage and six-point harnesses to create it genuinely track-worthy.

The GTAm’s cabin is normally a nice destination to be, but there’s a disappointing ordinariness to the instruments and switchgear for an automobile with such exorbitant pricing.

It looks ferocious, the bewinged Alfa fires up unobtrusively and trundles from the Balocco proving surface - nestled in the northern Italian countryside - in civilised trend. From real-world roads, ride top quality is usually compliant and noises levels aren’t excessive.

The real fun commences as a winding mountain road looms in advance. Flick the get selector into Dynamic function and the GTAm episodes with the same vigour as a rottweiler that’s latched on to a juicy piece of meats. The steering, although somewhat mild for my liking, responds with crispness and immediacy. There’s so much grasp from the Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres that you desire a racetrack to totally exploit its restrictions of adhesion.

The two 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 has already been a jewel in the Giulia Quadrifoglio, but with 30 extra horses and that crackling Akrapovic centre-mount exhaust, it’s positively spine-tingling. The eight-speed auto can be pleasingly decisive and quick-shifting.

The track session at the Alfa Romeo test track at Balocco merely adds an exclamation indicate that which was already learnt from the street loop. Even in Competition mode, which completely deactivates the ESP digital back-up, the ballistic GTAm is so predictable you can enjoy power-sliding hooliganism with relative convenience.

Verdict? The GTAm’s stratospheric pricing - almost dual that of a BMW M3 Competition - is usually a sticking point, but it’s so intoxicating that you’d nonetheless grab the chequebook in the event that you got the wherewithal. It’s quickly Alfa Romeo’s finest supplying to date.