Words by Karsten Weiss | Photos by DiecastSociety.com

 

Alfa Romeo is one of the oldest car brands, even older than Bentley, with a long racing and performance history that includes the origins of the Scuderia Ferrari. They celebrated their 110th anniversary in 2020 and celebrated it with two sporty editions of their Giulia, this GTA and the even more hardcore GTAm, both commemorating successful Alfa race cars in the 1960s and 70s and limited to 500 vehicles in real life. Motorhelix´s limited edition triples that number and is just plain gorgeous.

Like the original sports saloon, this comes in the three colours of the Italian tricolour flag, metallic green, white or this metallic red. The paint is smooth and consistent throughout. The GTA is abundant with carbon fibre, not least because of the Sauber Engineering aero kit: Nose, Roof, Italian-flag-striped mirrors, wheel-arches, side-skirts, rear spoiler and diffuser have excellent glossy carbon weave at BBR level. All the mesh, not only the front grille kidney and front air intakes, but nostrils on the hood and underneath the clover symbol too, even the extremely small ones on the rear diffuser are all perforated, not plastic plates.

The replicas of the 20” telephone dial rims reveal excellently detailed brakes and have fine logos at the center. Tire branding, all too often absent from even more expensive models, has not been forgotten either.

I am usually hard to impress with models´ underbodies, but this here is impressive. The engine´s bottom plate comes extra and magnetically clicks into place. From the top too, the replication of the engine bay is an absolute delight. Rising on struts and fine hinges, this Ferrari-derived 560hp V6 bi-turbo engine model is anything but shallow, so that for the collector to be able and admire it, the engine cover that all too often blocks too much of the view, comes separately to be attached magnetically. And as if that did not allow enough of an insight, Motorhelix provides the buyer with a second engine in a display case, again with a magnetic extra engine cover and a workshop engine crane from whose chains the collector may suspend this engine to admire it 360 degrees.

The interior, too, is awe-inspiring. The cabin is not only fully carpeted but has extra floor mats in the footwells. For this red GTA, you get the red option of the stitching on the door panels, dashboard, center armrest and seats, red cloth seat belts, chrome trim and carbon fibre patterns on the back of the front seats and various trim parts such as the door release housing and centre console. Mind the extremely fine buttons and symbols on them. But really makes my jaw drop is what seems to be real metal shift paddles with + and – embossed. Wow!

With quality issues on models on the rise, I would like to remark that the model is flawless, not least of all because quality control seems to be strict. All too often we get mass-manufactured certificates and QC passes carelessly flipped into the box. From Motorhelix you get a hand-numbered certificate and on the flip side of the round cardboard Alfa logo a QC Pass filled in by hand! Other additions are an opening tool and a brochure booklet with information on the real car. It is not a replica of the original car´s brochure but mixes pictures of the real car and the model. I usually don´t pay much attention to packaging and other than the extraordinary length that suggests a stretch limo inside, but is needed for the extras, one detail is remarkable: The box says Giulia GTA and Giulia GTAm which means Motorhelix will definitely release the GTAm version later for you to upgrade from the Solido placeholder budget model.

Although the original does not get the same hype as some supercars, I am deeply impressed with this model and the extras by Motorhelix. This is BBR level on par with our 2020 Model of the Year Award Winner BBR LaFerrari and I whole-heartedly nominate it as one of the best models this year for our next Awards.