COLLECT TO DRIVE
GIULIA GTAM
15 August 2025 • Written By Virgiliu Andone
The 750-year-old town of Kitzbuhel, in Austria’s Tyrol province has made a name for itself as one of the world’s most exclusive ski resorts. Just some ninety minutes away from Munich, it has become a destination of choice for the discerning mountaineers who flock to its slopes come winter time and can’t get enough of its jagged peaks and crystal-clear lakes in the height of summer. Filling up the windows of its many five-star hotels is the Wilder Kaiser mountain range that sits a stonethrow away from the German border. A century ago, its barren towering rocks started to attract the attention of Bavarian climbers and it rapidly became the cradle of the then-nascent sport.
At 5AM the alarm clock ruptures Fabian Körber’s sleep. As he inches his way to the day’s first espresso the sense of anticipation slowly makes up for the abrupt awakening. It’s a weekday and he took a day off. The reason is a glowing red GTAm that waits patiently on the other side of a Kitzbuhel living room window. Christmas comes once a year. So does your birthday. Given current conditions and its scarcity, taking a GTAm for a spin in its natural habitat is an event of comparable magnitude.
After an hour of sedate driving we arrive at the toll booth on our chosen mountain pass of the day, just as the shutters lift. In exchange for a rather substantial fee the barrier raises and we are treated with a completely deserted road, as it only just opened. It’s probably the closest you can get in Europe to what the Japanese enjoy on their fabled skylines, pay-roads designed with spirited driving in mind. The air is crisp and, as the fog lifts, the sky clears and the sun starts to peek from behind the rocky curtain. After a few corners the tires reach their operating window and the engine can finally open up. We soon forgive the carbon fibre bucket seats for all the pain they gave us getting here and we thank them for holding us tightly when the G-forces try to shift us overboard.
“To all intents and purposes, the Giulia GTA is now a collector’s car.” Alfa Romeo’s press release from September 2021 proudly announced that all of the 500 cars in the limited edition program, which included both GTA and GTAm models, have already found customers. Launched as a tribute to the 1965 Giulia GTA, the modern iteration marked the 110th anniversary of the Milanese brand. On the surface it was a track-focussed car, an extreme evolution of the range-topping Quadrifoglio. Lighter by some 100 kg, with a hike in power to 540 hp and fitted with wheels with a single locking nut as well as a centrally mounted titanium Akrapovič exhaust system, it looked set to lock horns with the competition on the racing tracks that made its predecessor famous some half a century ago.
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