It's quite possible the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio GTA will end the year as the most well received car on PH. Raised eyebrows at its £153k price tag aside, response to the 540hp saloon was overwhelmingly positive. As it should be. The GTA is one of those rare cars that promises to unite us all. Exclusive, fast, authentic, likely sonorous, probably phenomenal and, yes, dazzling to behold. But that's not the reason why Klaus Busse, Alfa's head of design, is so proud of it. Form, in this case, was not the priority.
"There was never a proposal to do something just for design's sake, for styling or even GTA heritage," the 50-year-old tells PH. "It was really about how we sharpen the profile of a clay sculpted Giulia design, over the course of many years using constant dialogue with the engineers. The GTA and [even more hardcore] GTAm were born using the original GTA recipe, but very much with a unique focus that was honed via ongoing watercooler discussions, with a team of people who don't just check out of work at 6pm but take their passion home. Those who are most enthusiastic about cars and motorsport."
The styling might have been achieved organically by a chosen few, but Busse emphasises the idea that as far as designers and engineers were concerned, the GTA models were in the pipeline from day one. So much so, in fact, that it was only because of Alfa's 110th anniversary date that 2020 was chosen for its launch; Busse says that long before that, "the design was more or less already there", and required only fine-tuning with engineers and aerodynamicists, some of whom were from Alfa Romeo's Sauber F1 team.
As such, Busse, who's also FCA's vice president of design, says he doesn't "remember a programme that went so smooth", adding that "even as a designer you cannot attempt a GTA without fundamental understanding about what the car is about, and what is therefore needed". This made for a cohesive development process between designers and engineers, ensuring that every new piece on the GTA and track-focussed GTAm adheres strictly to technical requirements. Busse reckons the Giulia's standard appearance, which he says is a true "clay sculpted design", meant that the GTA team could turn up the aggression with digitally designed aero pieces without risk of "going too far". Something he says has happened on "several examples [of other cars] in the marketplace". No prizes for nominating a recent addition to that list...
In contrast, Busse says that, "when you take a car that is just a beautiful sculpture and then you infuse this technical aspect, I think that's what makes the GTA so successful." He explains that the GTA's overall cooling needed enhancing, so designers added slots at the front "which was something we saw on historical cars", while engineers increased the size of the intercooler. To cope with the additional performance of the GTA, the team needed to get more cold air to the brakes, too, and it was thanks to constant discussions - those watercooler chats - that one "ingenious solution" was thought up. Busse says the pair of front one-piece bumper aero bits, each handling its own side, improves cooling and increases downforce, "showing how it all grew organically".
It's much the same at the car's rear, where the GTA sports a larger spoiler and the GTAm gets a fixed rear wing. Both feature a similar top profile, something Busse says was the main technical requirement to achieve the prerequisite aero performance, with the GTAm's wing sides being the only example of design allowed to run with minimal engineering input. "The [wing's] sides were completely up to us for how we style them. We could have done a very racey-looking vertical end plate design, which would have looked very functional, but maybe too aftermarket. So we went with the solution that adds more character." We concur.
The rear-wheel arch extensions though were on everyone's wish list. The engineers needed the space for a still barely believable 50mm wider track, while designers are, as Busse puts it, "always keen to give a car wider arches". The only debate came with the finish: should the arches be body coloured or naked carbon fibre? They opted for the latter because it was felt that it spoke to the GTA's exotic composition, although leaving the weave exposed beneath a clear coat did bring its own production challenges. Now, the carbon had to be "aesthetic", something not normally required of Alfa's off-site carbon producer, chosen via the Sauber F1 partnership. Extra workload, yes - and not purely functional - but likely appreciated by buyers forking out supercar money for Alfa's extreme saloon.
Busse is justly very proud of the finished GTA, although he doesn't go so far as to say that it's his best work. He mentions the just-updated Fiat 500, a car he said is equal to the GTA among his creations, or has he puts it, his FCA "children". While obviously different in many ways, perhaps an underlying similarity to note. Both the GTA and 500 have presence without without being brash; they feel distinctly Italian - which is impressive, given that Klaus is a German national who studied at Coventry University and began his professional life at Mercedes-Benz. He's clearly had no trouble fostering the sort of flair we tend to associate with Italian manufacturers - which is all the more remarkable when you consider that he spent a decade with FCA North America reworking Jeep and Chrysler interiors.
With a rapturous response to the GTA and GTAm in the bag, we gently enquire about the future for Alfa in highly testing times. Busse is tight-lipped. For him, today, it's about highlighting the 'journey' which now spans the Giulia range. "Now you have a performance line-up starting from the Quadrifoglio that doesn't shout much about its performance, then you go into the GTA and GTAm and it gets very extreme. We have a good journey now." When that journey ends with something approaching consensus in Europe's largest and most forthright car forum, it's hard not to nod along in wholehearted agreement.
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