A Small-ish Blog About Cars (#2)- The Alfa Romeo 147 GTA

30 Dec 2016

Alfa Romeo has always been known to be a performance-oriented car maker with a prominent presence in the world of motorsport both in and out of the tarmac, and that has no doubt had a significant influence in their share of the mass-produced market. Their builds and sports cars were truly exotic in every sense of the word: rare, gorgeous, sonorous and exorbitantly priced. Almost every car enthusiast who’s tastes lie in the Italian car world dream of having a classic Alfa Romeo in their garage, and we wouldn’t blame them; Alfa Romeo has made some of the most beautiful cars the world has ever seen.

The Alfa Romeo (Tipo) 33: Both beautiful and historic.

Being one of the oldest Italian car makers, Alfa also churned out decent every day cars over the course of time, mostly ranging from small hatchbacks, sedate coupes and saloons. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not that bad, but not really remarkable either. Fast forward to the noughties (00’-09) and there is one particular model in the bunch that strikes a delightful chord in a burgeoning new generation of affordable performance hatchbacks that we soon call hot hatches.

That car is the Alfa Romeo 147 (Tipo 932). Specifically, the 147 GTA.

While it may be seen to those who know less as some ordinary two-door hatchback for greenhorn workers and college seniors, those of us who do know a thing or two about it love it for what it is; a generally unassuming, deceptively fast hatchback with Alfa Romeo’s legendary “Busso” 3.2L V6 engine. Fans absolutely adore them for the beautiful noise they make, the polished, clean looks and solid build. Even you wouldn’t be able to understand at first how such a regular-looking hatchback could make a sound so glorious.

Some might dismiss it for being FWD, but that shouldn’t be a deterrent at all. In fact, it should be a selling point to some; the car’s design and suspension pliant and responsive to driver control and giving it nimbleness and agility in sharp corners. Not only does the engine sound good, it also goes fast; the car can launch itself from 0-60mph in 6.3 seconds and reach a top speed of 153 mph (245 km/h)! By all means, this was a proper sports car in a FWD hatchback body. Able to reach over 150 miles per hour while being perfectly viable for daily driving.

But among hot hatches, the 147 GTA comes across as one of the slightly more uncommon ones; only about 5,000 were made in its build history, meaning that finding one in the classifieds or in second hand lots isn’t going to be easy. Or exactly “affordable”. However, those negative elements should be expected out of a sporty Alfa Romeo after all, for they know how to entice the masses with their exotic nature and classic Italian pompadour.

In conclusion, the Alfa Romeo 147 GTA is one of few high quality Alfa Romeos that shouldn’t be overlooked when looking for a fast, practical and stylish car for yourself. For a sporty Alfa Romeo, the 147 GTA isn’t as rare or exotic as its older, more popular poster cars but rest assured, if you already have this, take care of it well, and you won’t regret every second of having some tasty, authentic Italian car treatment in a nice little two-door package. +

chirp chirp

ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪

Comments

And here in the USA, the sportiest Italian hatch we can get is a Fiat Abarth. :(

Not even the 595 Competizione. Ah… How sad. I want one of those in the future (as I will move to Canada some day) but not even they sell them.

tweet tweet

GTC4Lusso :P?

It’s also related to the 156 GTA. That and this were truly great cars.

My dad used to own one of these and omg it was mint it had a full remus system as well. Much torque steer though

My dad too
Such a nice car
But he replaced it with an e46m3 and some years later with an e92m3

I think I’ll have the prettier Alfa Romeo GT

I’m driving one of those. But it was meant to be cheap to drive and fully reliable, so it’s Fiat’s 1.9 diesel. Still great car, though.

Close enough. Okay, not that much.
I drive the “normal one” but with the 2.0 TwinSpark (and a manual transmission), and this one already sounds really nice! This engine really likes to go up in the revs and remains a pleasure to drive, even in town. No doubt the Musso is a little beast!
Any 147 GTA owner around Sydney, Australia? :D

I didn’t even know they sold those in Australia. Nice.

I have the chance to be a passenger in the GTA of a friend sometimes. The n/a V6 sounds awesome

Im lucky enough to own a 147 DC,limited to 500 produced wordwide. (Yes its a diesel) But performance wide is great,especially with Q2 LSD. Next on the list is a GTA :)

Only 500? Wow. You found yourself a unicorn. A coal-rolling Italian unicorn.

caw caw

I miss mine pretty much every day. I absolutely loved that car, although to me it was more of a ‘GT’ hatch, than a hot one and if you drove it accordingly, very little could keep up point to point. Down a tight British B-road, a Clio 182 would just drive away from it, but get on to faster sweeping B-, A-roads, and motorways and very little could match its blend of style and speed.

Mine had a Unicorse type exhaust on it, a Q2 diff, and anthracite powder-coated teledials on it (as per the pic) and my god, it was such a complete package. I stupidly sold mine for an absolute steal and since then, prices have gone up so much…. My dad still has his 156 GTA tucked away for dry days though/ in the vain hope he’ll make money on it one day!