"O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name." Quoting Shakespeare always sounds pretentious; like humming the overture from La Nozze de Figaro, and knowing it's by Beethoven. But Juliet asked the very question I am sure many tifosi will be asking of their favourite Italian car-maker. (OK, second favourite.) What happened to Romeo?
Why the Alfa GT, and not the Alfa Romeo GT? I know that Alfa GT slips out more readily than the full moniker, but Alfa, after all, is just an acronym, and once was written ALFA. Maybe that's the answer - ALFA, as a company, was in existence for a number of years before being acquired by Nicola Romeo, and in naming its latest four-seater coupe an Alfa GT, the company is no doubt paying homage to its roots.
More than that, the Alfa GT also pays homage to what the company is proud to describe as '...a peerless heritage of benchmark GT cars'. Even the styling is evocative of the Bertone years, which included the drop-dead gorgeous Guilia Sprint GT, surely one of the most desirable Gran Turismo cars ever created.
 |
 |
Deeply sculpted leather seats invite complete engagement |
|
 |
|
Since those heady days, the company has suffered a period of mixed fortunes, but its renaissance, which began with the seminal 156, is now a matter of fact, and the Alfa GT is yet another example of Alfa Romeo doing what it does best - raising the pulse and tempo of day-to-day motoring.
Yet for all its evocative styling and emotive appeal, the Alfa GT is far from highly strung, and even the range-topping V6 requires only modest skills to exploit the genius of its power-plant. Even so, just sitting in the car makes you empathise with Nicola Larini.
Deeply sculpted leather seats invite complete engagement, and something as mundane as a trip to the offy takes on the air of a practice lap. Even the instruments - not normally the most inspiring of life's essential details - serve as a reminder that this car is none-too-distantly related to one of Europe's most successful track cars: at rest, the deep-set tacho and speedo needles point to six o'clock - competition style. There is a caveat: at first glance, the needle at 50 mph is in about the same position as 30 mph in all other cars. This will sound to Plod like a weak excuse.
The only facet of the classic Alfa Romeo interior that disappointed was the thickly rimmed steering wheel. I know most of you like that sort of thing - especially when leather-clad - but I grew up on the likes of the Lancia Fulvia Rallye, which had a wafer-thin wood-rim wheel. I expect tree-wood steering wheels nowadays are outlawed on Health and Safety grounds, but nonetheless, a thin-rimmed wheel does provide more feel and infinitely greater tactile pleasure - witness a brief showing in the Jaguar X Type Sport.
|
