GUIDED MISSLE
Setting off, the decision to drive the Golf before the Alfa causes a problem. You think ‘big torquey engine, small car’ and expect it to wrench itself away from a standstill on the same lump of low-down grunt that the R32 offers. But it’s missing in action… drive this Alfa in the bottom half of the rev-range and it could almost be any old 147.
The reason would be obvious had we glanced at the numbers before climbing in. The Golf R32 peaks with 236lb ft of torque way down at 2800rpm, with somewhere between 150 and 200lb ft available when you’re barely off idle. The Alfa makes less, at 221lb ft, and you have to wind it out to 4800rpm before that figure is achieved.
Wring its neck and the GTA comes dramatically to life. The big V6 whangs round to the 7000rpm limit as if detached from its flywheel and you’re grabbing for the next gear before you know it, catapaulting from one bend to the next. The diff’ gets the power down alright but a big stab at the throttle without a firm hand on the wheel can provoke a twitch into the opposite lane.
The steering remains light but reveals far more precision than you dared hope for. Grip is high but not infinite; you feel that the little hops and shifts over midcorner bumps could send you well out of shape with provocation. The uprated brakes on this car, giant Brembos with cross-drilled 330mm discs, stop you like a strip of Armco as you heel-and-toe down two ratios to charge away again.
The Alfa’s pedals are arranged in such a way as to make this rather easier than it is in the Golf. It’s another old Alfa trait; anyone who started with an Alfasud or a 33 probably learned to heel-and-toe almost by accident. Throttle-blipping downchanges in a 147 GTA come with a fabulous noise. This car has a ruderthan-standard exhaust producing a voice that you associate with expensive historic motor sport, especially when heard from outside the car.
The sense you’re left with is of a more old-fashioned approach to creating a hot hatch than that which VW used. What you’re buying is still a three-door shopping car – just one with a posh interior and a weaponised engine.