Alfa GT V6 Roadtest

Deeply sculpted leather seats invite complete engagement

"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.

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.

This Naturally Aspirated Engine Will Blow You Away

In fact, taken as a whole, the Alfa GT fails to deliver the leavened finesse of a former age. Indeed, it feels weighty and inclined to industrial strength, as if the idea is to take the road by the scruff of the neck, rather than caress it with a lambent touch. In that respect, the Alfa's muscles are over-developed.

The same could not be said of the 240 horsepower engine. Developed to a quintessent state from the now-legendary quad-cam, 3.0-litre V6, the swept volume of the engine used in the Alfa GT V6 has been increased to 3.2 litres. The extra cubic centimetres do not owe their existence to a process so crude as boring out the cylinders. Instead, the crankshaft has been re-designed to enable a longer piston stroke; the pistons themselves have been changed; and the engine re-mapped. The consequent amelioration of torque and horsepower is most evident in the former commodity, optimised by a six-speed manual 'box (which feels typically Fiat: it would benefit from a snappy bolt-action, in the manner of the Honda S2000).

Considering this car is capable of accelerating from standstill to 62 mph in just 6.7 seconds, it comes almost as a surprise to see that, at motorway speeds in top gear, the engine is turning over at little more than 2000 rpm. Even more remarkable is the way in which the engine pulls from that speed, without the necessity to swap cogs and without benefit of forced induction. No matter your normal aspiration is for a turbo, this naturally aspirated engine will blow you away.

With a peak torque of 289 Nm, the Alfa GT can be teased around in heavy traffic on a very light throttle, but punch the right pedal in earnest, and the car piles on the mph in an aural apperception more seductive (well, almost) than Jane Birkin's bronchial inferences on Je t'aime. Indeed, few engines capture the euphony of Alfa's big lungs, on song. Punch the pedal on a bumpy road, and the resultant torque-steer simply adds a feely touchy component.

Town drivers will, no doubt, quickly familiarise themselves with the engine's traffic-friendly torque and tuning, and they will also develop more than a nodding acquaintance with the filler cap. According to the official figures, the best to hope for on the urban cycle is 15.2 mpg. Conversely, when the long-legged 'box comes into play, the fuel consumption drops to an entirely acceptable 32.5 mpg, which will be your potential lot if you do all your driving in somewhere called Extra Urban (some knowledge of Latin will resolve this apparent contradiction). Overall, you might expect to achieve something close to the quoted combined figure of 22.8 mpg; say 20 mpg, with a trailing wind. CO2 emissions? Don't ask.

Narcissism Comes Bundled At No Extra Cost

One other thing you may notice when driving around town is your own reflection in shop windows. Narcissism comes bundled at no extra cost, and I doubt many owners would be able to resist admiring the muscular lines and thinking 'cool'. Indeed, self-esteem is perfectly in order, given that the price tag is far from plebeian.

The range-topping Alfa GT will set you back £27,295. For that you get molto largesse, roughly equivalent to the Lusso trim offered on some saloon models. For example, the single-trim-level specification includes dual-zone climate control; four leather seats; front, side and window airbags; cruise control; a radio with CD and MP3 player; and a trip computer. Safety hardware includes Vehicle Dynamic Control, and a fire-prevention system.

To make full use of all four seats you would need to choose your travelling companions with some care, and opt for the exiguous variety. Rear legroom is hardly generous; indeed there was none to speak of behind my seat, and I am only just above average height. Even so, access is simple and straightforward - just one catch releases the front seat slide-and-tilt mechanism.

But in keeping with its name, the Alfa GT is much more in the Gran Turismo style: forget in-laws, aunts, hangers-on and worthless dependents; simply load the sizeable boot with folding clothes and skis (there is a ski flap) and head for the Alpes-Maritimes. Seek out the most tortuous route possible. There is no point in wasting this car on autoroutes; set a course across the Route Napoleon and pretend you're driving the Monte Carlo - such is the eager and controllable response of the GT that your imagination is scarcely stretched.

I didn't get as far as the Alpes-Maritimes, but I was there in spirit. Few cars generate the emotional dividend of an Alfa Romeo, and few are so steeped in motor-racing history that to drive one feels like accepting a cameo role in something epic. Even on the A24, I had a sense of merely being on loan to the workaday world. The sign might have said North Downs but the voices in my head told me it was the Haute-Provence.

An experienced driver will appreciated the dynamics of this car: the tight turn-in, even at speed; extraordinary grip as the fat tyres suck on the Tarmac; the instant response of the torque-rich engine; and the clink of the loose change for the Dartford Crossing as the lateral g propels it out of the oddments tray into the far-most corner of the passenger footwell. (Arriving at the barrier during the Friday rush-hour is not a good time to discover that you have recovered only 95p. I presume being a Crossing Keeper makes a chap mordant.)

More than a few cross words were exchanged between the Montagues and Capulets: the turf wars central to the plot of Romeo and Juliet must have given Al Capone a few pointers. But such is the emotive Latin spirit; without it we should live in an anodyne world, deprived of cars designed, ruled and driven from the heart. As Nikolai Gogol once wrote: "Make sure you take on your journey all the human emotions." I know just the car for that.