Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm review. This or a Jaguar XE Project 8?

[Music] well welcome to a new harry's garage video and today's car is this the alfa romeo julia gta m m is important as we'll get to later there's two variants of this hyper uber saloon car that alfred popped out and i've been really itching have a go in it and it's finally happened as many of you know i also own a project 8 and it'd be silly not to include that but the video is basically going to be on thoughts on the gta m and it just so happens over here look at this bit of i can i can't believe it but we have the alpha remote gta the original 1965-66 d-reg one helping company have got one in at the moment and it's just an absolute delight so we might just have a quick look at the details of that as well anyway getting back to the main event the gta m i have from a few weeks ago sent out a press release because they had sold all 500 examples of this gtam and it's not hard to see why when you have a look at it it was a bit of a surprise they actually did it it was such an extreme car and it's so much more expensive than the regular quattrofolio that i tested over a year ago now this one is priced in euros at 181 500 euros so if you're in the uk let's call it 156 000 pounds if you want to save a little bit money where you can have the gta version that has back seats and doesn't have the roll cage you'll see in a moment but you save yourself four thousand pounds you could actually option the crazy uh carbon rear spoiler and the splitter on the front to your gta but then you're actually going to pay more for that car than a the gtam so this is the main one this is the hot one and that's the one i really wanted to get in now obviously the key thing with the gta version of the quattrofolio was to save weight and they've used a huge amount of carbon fiber to make a dramatic weight saving it initially was declared at 100 kilo saving over a standard quattrofolio it was slightly revised because then they changed the spec of the standard car and that went up in weight and it's all a bit confusing but i've dug down into this they now declare a weight of sda weight which is ready to go of 1580 kilos on this car i actually weighed a standard quattrophodo when i had it into test it came out at kilos watercar weighed one at 1700 kilos so it is around the 100 kilos saving over that car but what you you don't realize is if you get a standard gta and we'll have a look this one's got a roll cage and no rear seats standard gta is 40 kilos heavier so about a 50 60 kilo saving whatever 15 80 kilos is getting down on weight i actually weighed my project 8 and that came out at 17 42 kilos so between the two there's 166 kilo difference but when we get on the road you'll see that it's more much more than that because that's got a five liter supercharged v8 and four wheel drive and this has got obviously the v6 2.9 liter and two-wheel drive but i do love the design on it this is all new for gta this is all carbon fiber this knows and also carbon fiber wings and carbon fiber bonnet and then down here you have an adjustable splitter just like on the p8 which you can actually pull out if you wanted for full downforce mode this is sort of in road mode because they are a bit of a pain they do pull them all the way out come round the side there is a new design of 20 inch wheel carbon ccm brakes as standard and also cut two tires rather than the pirelli rp corsa tyres and then just lovely details on it obviously you get the folio badge there and the auto delta saying this is the race department that has produced this car and this lovely italian-esque flash of color on here that i first saw with pagani doing it on their pagani zondas and chinkuas and things wide attract as well the back it's a full 50 mil wider and they've done that by actually putting these extension these carbon fiber extensions on i should also mention with a sauber sticker here there's a lot of aero work done on this car in their tunnel and i do love how with the gtm version i don't know if you just come around here no rear seats proper nothing on the door electric windows all chucked away polycarbonate uh no glass just potted garment instead and polygomint rear screen as well carbon fiber roof and say carbon bonnet you can see the weave underneath really nicely done a bit of a surprise there's nothing on the engine to tell you this is the gta version it's plus 30 ps talk is the same but there's internal changes on it the pistons they're saying is slightly different how they cool them and it's got different conrods in it as well but yeah nothing wrong with that engine at all and just lovely to see the proper carbon weave on this bonnet i actually went round with a magnet on this car to work out its construction i say it's carbon fiber basically from the front on just like the p80s and then aluminium doors but this bit is this is steel up here so the rear wing is steel and i mean in rear door as well and a steel rear boot lid this is the adjustable wing at the back you get a little allen key here you've got three positions for maximum attack mode is obviously further up this is in streamlined high speed in the back of this well you got a little cage um there's not a lot to see but there is just one thing i wanted to show you if i dig in here because this car has center lock wheels so they give you a great big socket to take your wheels off unfortunately that's all you get you don't get the bar or anything you have to ring the rescue services if you actually want to take a wheel off now a massive difference at the rear here because you get this acropolic exhaust twin outlet in the center and this carbon rear diffuser pretty dramatic on this alpha and it's a good sound and it's valved and there's nothing cooler and i love the way the badges are in black as well gtam just contrast just look at the how dainty the little gta from 1965 66 looks very different no error going on this one is all about lightness how can we make it as light as possible and all aluminium and it's lovely to see you can always tell a real gta if you look down here it's all riveted so you just down there the aluminium onto the structure of the car unique features and i can see that also in the little wheel arch here as well another lovely detail is that door handle how how lovely is that how lightweight have they made it alien door just a riot actually if you want just go around the other side i have to show you the engine on this as well naturally open trumpets twin spark head as well so eight spark plugs even though it's a full cylinder just terrific anyway back to the gta so what there's no mistaking the gtam when you see it on the road just like with the project 8 there's no mistaking a project 8 just the aggressiveness of the width of the wing here this extender this is actually done in body rod and having a bolt on and then this sort of cut out area here it's even bigger tyres on the p8 i think these are 305 35s and these are 285 size so yeah i'm surprised that it doesn't actually have a little bit more meat at the back because remember this is two wheel drive and it's been four wheel drive what both these cars are all about is the driving let's go and take them outside now yeah first thing you notice they're proper seats in here bucket seats the only adjustment is actually with spanners if you want to go up or down or do the rake yeah you can go backwards and forwards you can do that bit but everything else you need an allen key so yeah aggressive buckets and you get in this colder harnesses being a gtm you still get a conventional belt inside let's just start it up this feels pretty special in here i think i love the way they've used this alcantara and i've got gta m on the dash there and series limiter this is car number 320 of the 500 they build and then yeah level wheel on here obviously stop start on the on there and the dna switched down here which i'll go into detail once we get up and going conventional gear change automatic eight speed gearbox on this which might sound surprising not a nice touch i love the way you've got um wireless charging for your phone in here and oh you can put the key in there to be charged up as well the key sits in a little thing there oh i could put it in there if it needs a charge that's a nice touch and the usual connectivity on there and then in the back just that cage in this car and then the sort of bits to put your um crash helmets in very definitely track i'm sitting low in the car i have to say my dear wife got the other side said well forget about that because it is sitting so low there's only one more height to go up but if you're a passenger you're pretty compromised if you're used to some conventional car and off you go it sets off in n of the dna that's it's normal sort of mode or you put it into dynamic and you get the exhaust oh annoyingly i've just picked up a stone and the brakes if you hear that that's what's going on there yeah and a 330 kilometer per hour speedo in here be left hand drive 20 mile an hour i can see digitally at reds right i'm heading out of here i'm getting on some better roads so you'll be joining me later i'm going to select dynamic on the selector down here you've got this choice yeah as you expect it gets a bit of a move on with 530 horsepower and yeah not a lot of weight to move around relatively speaking the big surprise i suppose when you initially get in it is just the sharpness of the steering that was i didn't get on with the clutch of folio because there was seemed to be a slight disconnection of what you were um what the road was doing what was underneath you the steering on this is still very much electric especially when you're stationary it's bizarre it's really like in a city mode that you really don't need it doesn't bode well for what comes next and the best feature on it is you can actually adjust the damping so just like on ferrari of their bumpy road mode you get a way i can press the damper symbol and get soft damper active and that if you're going to use this car quite a lot there's a great big thick b pillar i can't see a thing around there you're going to do miles in this car well that's a really good thing you can tell it's still you know still a relatively firm ride but when we're getting the p8 that is dramatically harder so yeah that's good and quick steering on this as well not many turns are locked a lot which is what ferrari love and alpha and i'm sure this car has visited marinello during its development time all sorts of things to play with with the dash and get the readouts i've got these temperature gauges now which is oil boost pressure and torque without what i need to know and talk i can sort of guess the way i'm going up the road but um yeah one disappointment is the dna you can't actually adjust as parameters you get with the dna switch you can't adjust to an individual setting like an m setting you can with a m5 or an m3 so i'm going to squirt up the hill here i'm doing 29 miles an hour i'm in auto mode just drive and here we go a bit of wheel spin out of the way and away we go and we've got a bit illegal already it's yeah when he's quick this car is the closest i've car i've been into an automatic gearbox to a regular um dual clutch transmission which is good in auto mode it's very easy just to forget that you've got manual controls you do want it so yeah at the moment it's the usability that's shining through and also there's just this hint that it's actually pretty special under the skin by the bucket seats and just the general environment and a you know non-standard sort of sound coming from the exhaust [Applause] that's nice it doesn't doesn't change up when you hit the rev limiter you have to change up i like that here we are on those bumps yeah it's pretty settled for such an extreme sort of track focused car a little bit of tram lining going on let's put it into soft damping yeah it's yeah almost is too soft on a road like this that that is good though i like having the choice but it does feel cambers and things there's a little bit of bump steer going on here right this is my oh termite i'm just going to go over this compression and see how it copes with that i mean dynamic mode yeah cope with that well good good control yeah i'm feeling the rear drive at this point wow it's wow um [Music] lovely steering i mean charlotte i'm trusting the front end i'm not getting the bumps of feedback that i'd expect but it's the sharpness that gets you it's it's ferrari-esque it's the only way i can describe it it does feel very dynamic the damper setting is perfect it's not too firm it's just on the cusp of slightly soft i can see that you would ratchet it up there is a race setting to go but i don't really want to use have to use that on the road so dynamic i like the setting but it's not too dynamic you know those sports buttons of the past that you just ridiculously firms not like that at all it is a very usable setting on a british b road good good blip down as well that's third into here 10 second round here [Music] now i've got a friend following in the project eight i'm going to quickly swap over to the project eight and see how that what that's like down the same bit of road i feel strange getting in the p8 not straight out of the alpha but it's always a good test when you can do back to back on the same bit of road first thing you notice when you i'm sort of missing the alcantara and stuff there's a slightly dominant um look of sort of plastic that might be leather i'm not sure i think it's probably plastic there's leather on the dash and things bit of stitch quite the ambience of the alpha unfortunately and as a tractor just gone past and that means we won't be able to do anything that's really annoying um yeah alcantara wheel on this one bigger air bag switchgear i've got the dial sort of in red more conventional on here i have got dynamic mode the one thing i do like on on this is i can actually adjust my settings so i have just in here i have um track dynamic comfort i think they term it but the great thing is if i put it into track i can then adjust engine gear shift steering suspension i really like that that's something you can't do in the alpha which i find a bit odd let's go and see how they compare right right well the immediate things you notice steering isn't quite as sharp but i've got more information coming through the steering i just i can just feel the road surface just a better feel break some sharper on it yeah the gear change i wish i had the paddles of the alpha but yeah it's interesting yeah there's the muscularity of that supercharged engine rather than the turbo it's strong that alpha engine but it has a very definite sort of turbocharged character all of this the supercharge is more linear it feels more like a normally aspirated engine which is what it's trying to mimic the reason you do supercharged over turbocharged how are these bumps yeah much firmer damping in the p8 and it's on the cusp on a b road like this but then it and then it does breathe with the road it just feels more dynamic it's just a different feel to the outfit slightly softer steering the other thing that's very different the seats you've got sort of conventional seats that the bolsters don't cut into as you get in or the rear backrest just have a reasonable support but not quite the bucket support that you get in the alpha does it feel like you're here yeah oh it's quick around there ah [Music] interesting yes such a different it actually feels more composed than the alpha again i didn't really expect i think it's the four-wheel drive isn't overload in the rear axle when you're coming through there it is a wide stance car and it just feels so sorted there's a confidence you get with this car nice full ball acceleration oh it's still quick it's still a quick car i quite like this aggressive nature i have to say alpha is right tucked up the back of the p8 at the moment it's a great sight in the mirror of that alpha god they've got that design absolutely bang on oh that was tough over there yeah they are a couple of real bruises these two cars the differences that's quite dramatic but there doesn't make them any worse they're just different characters one quite italian one british bulldog you know it's like those aston martin vantage 600s but this is it then a p8 it is absolute bull terrier type of character to it while the alpha just has an easier going nature at low speed and then when it's just feisty not a little bit skittish not skittish but you're very conscious as it's two-wheel drive you can overload the rear axle yeah well that was really interesting what i'm going to do now go jump back in the alpha and then wrap it up and think of the conclusion between the two cars [Music] right back in the alpha same bit of road dynamic here we go it's a naughty car [Music] i'm gonna run through the likes and dislikes on the two cars i suppose if i start with the dislikes i have to mention that the the exhaust does have a resonance um just a crucible it's piggly sort of 60 70 when you're in dynamic it's they've tried really hard i think to get the sound right in this car because this has obviously gas particular filters on it when the p8 actually does not have gas particular filters and it's a bit more vocal and freer on the exhaust purely on legislation you know i'm going to put it back in the dynamic again because i don't like it does actually this is a testing bit of roads why use it it doesn't it feels a little too loose in normal so dynamic is good for this bit of road another dislike really is the steering it does feel very much an electric rack on here so that you know all the characteristics you don't really want so the super light parking speeds and then not a lot of feel coming through the rim when you really would quite like to know a bit more about the road surface but it's disguised with this quick rack and it got great turning in the front so the steering's okay into the corner you can really hit apex things but it's just just lacking that little bit of feedback and expecting a car like this going through some of the likes i just love that it exists and i love that it's alfa romeo and there is a magic the sense of style and the history of racing comes through i think absolutely terrific and brave of them to do this cup unlimited run yes 500 cars just seem quite a lot but who am i to say if they've sold them all well well done alpha 155 000 pounds another thing i love right hand drive available so left and right hand drive which is really good on a car like this it opens up the markets and you can get to enjoy the car the accessibility of the performance is actually quite low geared in the lower ratios and that is such a good gear change for an automatic gearbox that's fantastic and it's so snappy you don't need the dual clutch transmission in this car but yet it's got the usability of the torque converter so they've done a really good job on that it's definitely better on better gearbox than the p8 but then there's four years between these two cars but it's just a feeling that this could spit you off if you're not being careful while the p8 has loads of composure it'd be an easier car to get a quick lap time out of the p8 than out of this i think one of the tricky bits of this outfit is there's something called a porsche gt3 that he's probably a better track where he's a better track car but it doesn't really matter i think in the where the p8 and the alpha come together they're just a different way of doing it gt3 is fantastic there's no doubt about it but if you rock up attack track day one of these when it's gonna be novel and you're gonna enjoy it just as much and it's feels made for it you know it's got the carbon brakes on it they're slightly softer on the on the pedal than on the p8 but what a what a wonderful car to travel europe and go do the tracks in europe coming one of the alph this alpha gta or the p8 [Music] love having these two cars together trying to pick a winner of just in impossible unlike the p8 for its composure it's usability the seats are more user-friendly the gta version incidentally of the alpha has the same seats in this have the same bucket seats with only allen key adjustment for height and rake so that it is a pretty extreme car but it goes with the nature of this this car is what you'd expect it to be i do love that gearbox around here [Music] you would have such a ball in this car so different the character between the alpha and the jaguar jaguar is just a thug from start to finish it hasn't been to finish in school it's a closer horsepower and it just flies down the road yes it's got the comfier seats it's slightly softer even though it's supercharged got more power the delivery is easier to modulate and it just gets super aggressive at the top end softball vocal this is quite vocal the alpha but it's it's sort of force noise while the jagger just has no real tune it's just and it flies down the road it's it's quite character choosing between two just impossible both five-star cars both offers something slightly different um it depends on your needs if you're going to do more track i have a suspicion that jaguar might be more fun in more conditions the alpha you want a dry day to really enjoy it but you've got to be really on your metal if you want to give gta's a run for the money and the p8 you can anyone can four-wheel drive or horsepower yeah and yeah it can surprise a lot of people both super rare cars you've got to remember actually the project 8 is half the production is they didn't make the 300 cars in total i think it was near and 220 they haven't actually announced a figure but less than half the number of p8s around compared to this alpha which one to choose gta or gtm with the price so close i think i actually would have had the two-seater version i've only used the rear seats and the p8 a handful of times and it's that much lighter 40 kilos lighter than the regular gta so yeah hats off to alpha producing it well done to everyone who's ordered one of these you've got a very special car coming i've enjoyed driving it i hope you've enjoyed this review if you have well keep watching keep subscribing more videos coming along very soon you

Channel: Harry's garage

Views: 276,348

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Id: UrLQleDKcOs

Length: 28min 47sec (1727 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/d0rito5]

I'd be OK with just a "regular" QV for the extra money, but this thing is pretty awesome.

[u/sharmanas14]

Obviously I’m a little biased towards the Jag, but honestly these two are absolute automotive perfection. Even their regular versions are the most engaging drives in the compact segment.

[u/kaelis7]

Both look awesome. That green on the Alfa is something else too !

[u/Amro_dir]

Would take either in a heartbeat but think i'd prefer the Alfa by a smidge. I mean, look at it, it's bloody gorgeous.

[u/TODO_getLife]

GTAm is way too expensive, but I would absolutely buy a regular Guila and give a GTAm body kit because it looks so angry

[u/YouAreMentalM8]

The best two cars in the segment, for the driver. The Project 8 did make it to Canada, but for C$200,000 it was a hard pass...I could have bought a 2nd hand GT3 touring 6MT and had money left over! (Pre-used car market crunch).

Absolutely love the looks of the GTAm. My preference would be for the GTA plus the carbon body work from the GTAm. If I'm making the sacrifices (in terms of size) of the four door, I'd rather have the usability of four doors as well.

[u/BikAnacondaSanchez]

Great car, but putting in a cage instead of back seats must be one of the stupidest things I have ever seen (funnily enough, the Project 8 had the same option). If you are buying a 4-door, it's because you want the extra pair of seats. If you don't want the seats, why not get any number of 2-door coupes that will handle even better, be faster and in this case possibly even less expensive? Just madness.

[u/HackeSpitze]

Jag for me in this case. What a lovely thing! Heavily considered one as a replacement for my CLS.

But both are THE drivers car in the segment.

[u/applesauce12356]

Wish the GTAm was more than a collectors show piece. Pretty sure they’re only making 250 of them

Edit: 500 instead of 250. The point still stands