30 Jun 04
The 156 GTA is a car you just don't want to get out of. Cementing you to your seat are the wail of a 250 horsepower V6, lightning performance, more grip than a glue factory and the direction-changing abilities of a politician under fire. The seat itself isn't bad either, its tall back and substantial bolsters securing you in a gentle leathered clench while you give the Alfa the best of your badness. Considering Alfa Romeo's sporty credentials, it's a bit of a surprise that it hasn't produced these high performance variations on the saloon and Sportwagon before. Instead, the Milanese maker has taken over four years to spit out a high performance 156, though with it comes a minor facelift that's applied across the range.(See the 4car Road Test of the 2002 156).
That said, the GTA is more than merely a 156 engine with a bigger engine. Although the visual make-over is subtle there's been an awful lot of change down under to turn the 156 into a thoroughly convincing performance car. The engine is a stretched version of the 3.0 V6 used in the Spider, GTV and 166 (the standard 156 V6 has a 189 bhp 2.5 litre version), the extra capacity, bigger inlet and exhaust ports and a remapped engine management system responsible for the climb to 250 bhp. At least as important, and the reason for the capacity increase, is the gain in torque, the engine delivering strong pulling power right through the rev range rather than only at the top of it, or so Alfa claims. A six-speed manual gearbox allows you to make the best of this, and there will also be a Selespeed sequential transmission as an option.
