Words by Marcus Boothby
A few months ago, Alfa Romeo bought back the GTA moniker for the go-fast version of the Giulia. The Giulia GTA and GTAm models sit above the excellent Quadrifoglio as Alfa’s flagship models. These are the first production cars to wear the GTA badge since the 147 and 156 models of the early 2000s. However, there was another.
Alfa Romeo introduced the MiTo at the London Motor Show in 2008, with production commencing not long afterwards. The most powerful model at launch had a 1.4 litre petrol engine which produced 118bhp and had a top speed of 121mph. Not what you call a proper hot hatch then.
Granted, in 2009, Alfa did bring out a more powerful model using Fiat’s multiair technology which granted a welcome power boost to 167bhp and a higher top speed of 136mph, which could compete with the Mk6 Fiesta ST. But, Alfa Romeo had an even fast version up their sleeve and presented the MiTo GTA to the world at the Geneva Motor Show in 2009.
The MiTo GTA was only ever a prototype to test the waters to see if people would buy a fast little hatchback. Power came from a 1.8 litre petrol engine producing 237bhp, allowing the MiTo to reach a top speed of 155mph. These numbers were and still are impressive considering it was revealed in 2009. Alfa didn’t just give it a big heart though, as it went on a diet. Said diet consisted of carbon fibre panels which included the door mirrors, roof and boot mounted spoiler. Along with carbon fibre bits, the reset of the metal in the car was all aluminium. Suspension was also fiddled with with the most obvious part being the ride height, which was reduced by 20mm.
So, why didn’t Alfa put the MiTo GTA into production? First of all, it would have faced internal competition from the then recently announced Abarth 500. Secondly, the MiTo GTA would have been ridiculously expensive. No actual figures were ever announced but it would have cost somewhere between £20,000-£25,000 in 2009 prices.
And perhaps, the most important factor to why the Alfa Romeo MiTo GTA didn’t reach production was the 2009 financial crisis. This stopped development of any expensive projects like the MiTo GTA. A quote from June 2009 sums it up perfectly; “It’s hard to justify building such a high performance car at this present time as the financial crisis means that it’s not economically viable. And sadly, it may never be.”
Fast forward 11 years, the world is facing a new difficult phase thanks to COVID-19 and more recently, the riots in America and global economic downfall. This may also mean that the new Giulia GTA and GTAm may not reach production either.
