Alfa Romeo GT Q2
Perhaps the public demand for the launch of the Brera coupe design study was just too strong to resist but the upshot of a productionised Brera has been to render the pretty GT coupe apparently superfluous. Why bother with the older model? It would appear to be yesterdays news, especially in such a fickle market. The reality is a little more complicated. Yes, both the Brera and the GT use a lot of the same engineering and the newer car has hogged the headlines but get the two cars side by side and an uneasy truth dawns.
The GT is the prettier car. Maybe not so striking, its true, but its a more cohesive shape and with the launch of this Q2 model, it might also be the drivers pick too.
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When a car accelerates from a standstill, the weight transfer is such that it squats on its rear wheels, leaving the front pair scrabbling. Suddenly, you realise the challenges facing the manufacturers of muscular front wheel drive models. Alfa thinks it has come up with a solution with Q2 technology. One of the most difficult traits to eradicate in a car of this type is torque steer.
This occurs when a powerful front wheel drive car is asked to deploy all that grunt, and the resultant effect is the car weaving its way up the road as first one wheel, then the other achieves grip. Its hardly elegant, and the tugging steering wheel can be unsettling if youre not quite sure whats happening. Radical redesigns of some cars suspension systems to equalise the lengths of the half-shafts supplying drive to each wheel can be a solution but this isnt a fix that can be applied to a model halfway through its life. Alfa Romeo has instead opted for the best available remedial solution for the GT Multijet 150, the installation of a Torsen limited-slip differential.
This torque-sensing differential works by limiting the amount of slip to one wheel. In simple terms, it directs more drive to whichever wheel is moving slower, the inference being that the slower wheel has grip and the quicker wheel has lost it and is spinning freely. The effect is that theres a cleaner, more natural feel during cornering. Drive the old GT Multijet 150 hard through a corner and as soon as the turbocharger started reaching peak torque, it would overwhelm the front wheels and power would be directed to the inside front wheel which would then just spin impotently in a haze of tyre smoke.
Most frustrating.
"The GT Q2 is capable and has an uncommonly engaging character"
With the Q2 system, the outside front wheel gets the lions share of the torque split and uses it to good effect, driving the GT purposefully through the bend with less throttle modulation or sawing at the wheel to try to get meaningful drive back. It always seemed a shame that such a brilliant engine created such handling issues but thankfully thats behind Alfa now and the engines still a cracker. The Multijet system takes the idea of pilot injection squirting a small amount of fuel into the cylinder to prime the combustion chamber for the main ignition process and refines it still further. In this instance, the main injection is divided into a series of smaller injections, allowing smoother, more gradual combustion that utilises fuel more efficiently.
The electronic control units have to be astonishingly precise to achieve this. Whereas before the time lag between injections was a relatively yawning 1,500 microseconds, the response time has been slashed by a factor of 10. A variable geometry turbocharger and a high pressure direct injection system make the 150bhp output possible but the key is a torque output that makes the GT Q2 feel gutsier than the 3.2-litre V6 model.
Youll believe that too when you drive the car. Fire it up and the engine settles into an unobtrusive background thrum that never threatens to rattle the expensively moulded dashboard. Yes, you can tell its sups from the black pump, but its hardly what youd describe as coarse. On the move the engine remains pleasantly muted without the whistles and bellows of many powerful turbodiesel cars.
Between 1,750 and 3,250rpm, theres a huge shove in the back, the elastic power delivery catapulting the Alfa down the road in a deliciously addictive manner. Even in sixth gear, the GT Q2 will dispatch the 50-75mph increment in just 7.9 seconds. From rest, it will accelerate to 60mph in 8.
8 seconds and run on to a top speed of 129mph. Average fuel economy is pegged at 47.9mpg and emissions amount to a mere 157g/km. Priced at £21,430 in this guise (which offers striking Blackline trim), the GT enjoys a fair price advantage over the Brera, although this diesel model is not directly comparable due to the fact that the Brera sports a 2.
4-litre diesel whereas this makes do with 1.9-litres of JTDM engine. Hefty dealer discounting has made this car even better value, so that you should be able to secure one for comfortably less than youd pay for something like a well-specced Golf GTI. But then you will have to make do with just 150bhp, although the powerplant is certainly modern enough.
The styling house Bertone were responsible for most of the design and the GT was originally pencilled in to be assembled at their Turin plant where spare capacity had been freed up by the demise of the Fiat Punto Cabriolet. After many beans were counted, however, Alfa Romeo thanked Bertone very much for their penmanship and decided to build the GT alongside the 147 at their Pomigliano dArco plant just outside Naples. Given the solid feel of latest generation 147s, thats perhaps no bad thing and the first impression one gets dropping into the drivers seat of the GT is of decent build quality. The GT is the slow grower of the Alfa Romeo range and the Q2 model shows that its more than just a pretty face.
Itll probably need a little more than a trick diff to worm its way into the public eye though.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Alfa Romeo GT Q2
PRICE: £21,430 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 15
CO2 EMISSIONS: 165g/km
PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 9.8s Max Speed 130 mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 45.6mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and curtain airbags, ABS
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height, 4489/1763/1365mm
