TOTEM AUTOMOBILI - THE SUPER-LATIVE GIULIA GT
It was the year 2018 when, from the skillful hands of automotive designer Riccardo Quaggio, Totem Automobili was born: a project that comes to life straight from the passion and ideals of its founder, an incurable car enthusiast, a man who respects past legends with the absolute sacredness they deserve, but is brave enough to link them to a technological vision of the future - with zero emissions.
Photo by @aureuscarspotlight
The icon we are talking about here is the immortal Giulia GT of the '70s, a pillar of automotive sportiness by Alfa Romeo, which Riccardo has skillfully reworked with thousands of hours of work put in on the drawing board, hundreds of tests and refinements, together with its team of 21 mechanical and electrical engineers, 9 craftsmen and over 150 suppliers, who were immediately able to grasp the value and ambition of this project.
Well-known Italian stylist Valentino Garavani once said: “Fashion is cycle and transformation. Fashion never stops." Of course, a statement made by a man of his caliber cannot apply just to the field of clothing. It was also validated in the automotive world, when in 2020, after two years of meticulous, assidous work, Riccardo Quaggio and his team presented the first born of Totem Automobili: Giulia GT Electric.
"Fashion" derives from the Latin modus, which among the many interpretations finds a proper translation as time, rhythm, elements that echo the return of classic cars as a stylistic line for the cars of the coming decades: Totem, in fact, presents a revisitation of design of the historic Giulia GT, with a focus on an eco-sustainable future.
I already hear purists muttering, but after having the pleasure and honor of hearing the story of this car directly from those who first imagined it and then made it a reality, I can’t do anything else but advise you to continue reading: the reasoning of how this work of art was conceived is sensational to say the least, I'm sure it won't disappoint even the most ardent supporter of the internal combustion engine.
And if after discovering the details making up the Giulia GT Electric you are still not convinced that you want to have in the garage a car with a fully electric drivetrain, do not be afraid, Totem has also thought of you die hard romantics with its next creature: Giulia GT Super, featuring the all conquering 2.9 V6 Twin-Turbo Quadrifoglio engine, available in 3 power stages: from 560 to 620 horsepower on a car with a total weight of only 1140 kg, with the more powerful configuration capable of delivering as much as 780 Nm of torque.
Are you still not convinced? Let Riccardo seduce you with his answers to our questions…
Photos by @aureuscarspotlight
What made you fall in love with Alfa in the first place?
More than being an Alfa Romeo lover, I love Italian style and car design, no matter what car are we talking of. I'm a big fan of the GTs of the '60s and I've always thought that the Giulia GT has those sinuous and curvy lines that I personally think could be reinterpreted for a restomod project. Moreover, as some of you may know, I've been working as a designer in Alfa Romeo before funding Totem. My designing style was formed back then when I've been trained to follow some stylistic principles that Alfa Romeo has been carrying out since its very first days. I think that lately some of these principles have been lost - especially with regard to some brand-new vehicles - but those ones are the same design rules that represent most of my my personal way of designing cars.
Photos by @aureuscarspotlight
What’s the first Alfa you would recommend somebody to buy?
Definitely the 147. Maybe you could think it's outdated or not fancy-looking but for being a '00s hatchback it has a great chassis and amazing road holding. On the front axle it has a great high-quadrangle suspension scheme, which is pretty rare for cars of that segment. I daily drive one, bright yellow. Name me a better car in that price range!
What project would you most like to build or get involved with?
I dream of Lancia calling me to design their "new" brand philosophy because it's a pity to see that such an iconic brand hasn't got new ideas for its future. First of all I think that Stellantis-FCA should stop a second and study the heritage of Lancia. It's plenty of astonishing designs that could be brought back to life and I'm sure that the entire world would go crazy for them.
However, at the moment I'm very focused on the future of Totem. Now everything is kept top secret, but you will discover soon what we will come up with.
Photos by @aureuscarspotlight
From Left side: Riccardo Benetton (Engineer Chief ), Riccardo Sorgato (Vice-President), Riccardo Quaggio (CEO & Founder). - Photo by @aureuscarspotlight
What’s your favourite event?
Definitely, Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in the US. Within this year's edition, next August, we will unveil the final Totem GT Super production car at "The Quail", which is the main and most exclusive event of the whole Concours.
Photos by @ironfoxmedia
What’s your favourite place to take your Alfa to?
Other than being a car fanatic, I love to eat and drink well. After all I'm Italian, and being Italian means growing up gathering with family and friends around tables full of seasonal food coming from our farming culture, which is very very simple, like the silhouette of an Alfa Romeo. The concept behind the Italian way of designing cars is not as that far as the one behind our cuisine: keep it simple.
This is why I would spend an entire weekend (if I had the time to stop working) behind the wheel of a Totem GT around the twisty roads of Tuscany. It's all about "driving fast and eating slow food", with good friends, no need to say more. Is there any better way for a petrolhead to spend its free time?
Photo by @aureuscarspotlight
How does owning an Alfa change you?
Well, you can reach your workplace quicker for example! Joking aside, being behind the wheel of an Alfa Romeo I think is a one-of-a-kind experience. It isn't like driving a Mercedes, or a Fiat or any other brand. In an Alfa Romeo the driver is always put at the centre of the attention. This aspect is very, very important to see if a car is worth the pennies. Perceiving this feeling is fundamental while driving a sports-car, no matter how old or fancy it is, no matter how powerful it is: you, the drive, have to be in the spotlight.
Photos by @aureuscarspotlight & @ironfoxmedia
What differentiates the Italian automotive style from other cultures for you?
I think that Italian design is unique and beautiful for definition. Italian designers look towards the purity of the shapes. An Italian car "must satisfy the eyes", it has to look like Monica Bellucci. Not all the car-makers are focused on this element. Do you think that, averagely, a BMW does look good ? Don't get me wrong, a BMW is modern, it's up-to-date, but I don't think it brings to life the word "beauty".
Automotive history is full of examples where cars that weren't Italian have been actually designed from Italians. I'm talking about the best ones, of course!
However, being a car designer nowadays means respecting too many technical requirements, especially when a brand is part of a bigger holding. This aspect doesn't allow the designers to be creative and to express what they have in their mind while designing, but following the rules of the system is a game we all have to get used to.
Photos by @ironfoxmedia
Photo by @aureuscarspotlight
The freshness of your GT project involves both the technical upgrades but also the curation of the aesthetics, allowing the classic icon Alfa GT to astonish the public even today. What are the details you worked on in order to modernize the car?
Our concept represents just the 1% of what the final production car will be like. Starting from Pebble Beach, we will deliver 1 up to 2 cars per month to our customers. The vehicle has been completely redesigned and engineered from scratch and it's been a process where each detail has been curated with the utmost care. If you think that our concepts look good, you should see what's next.
Totem team has worked maintaining the purity of the GT's silhouette. It's a car which, quite simply, is built on just three lines, and we started exactly from those three lines to redesign the whole car. There's not a particular detail of it we've been focusing on while studying the design. It's the vision of the whole thing that has been completely revised.
The greatest challenge when it comes to an electric car is fighting to keep the weight down in order to achieve a satisfactory level of performance, without having to lower the battery capacity. How did you achieve this?
The greatest challenges in the electric sports-cars segment are the battery pack's dimension and its positioning. We have tried to make it as big as possible in terms of dimensions and as low as possible in terms of placement. Moreover, the work we've carried out with the materials has made the difference: our battery pack of weighs only 350kg due to the utilization of future-focused alloys coming from the world of aeronautics. This is something you can work on if you are an innovator and if you make few/one-off vehicles. Big manufacturers can't use this technology for economic reasons, their cars would cost too much. In addition to this, Totem GTs' overall weight has been kept extremely low thanks to the implementation of a full carbon-fibre monocoque and body- shell. I think that with today's technology reaching better results than ours would be difficult. On the other side, the whole battery's management software has been developed in-house by our engineering team so as to maximize its performance and longevity.
Photos by @ironfoxmedia
Car lovers are still connected to the decades-long emotions generated by the internal combustion engine. Was it the desire to emphasize this passion that pushed you to accompany the GT Electric project with a petrol powered version?
You know, when we launched the GT Electric we have sold it all over the world, except in Italy. Ok, I'm glad that customers from abroad have placed orders, but I would have preferred to receive some requests even from Italian clients.
Italians have high-octanes in their veins, thus I thought that by making a petrol-powered version of the GT Electric with a Ferrari derived power unit and a manual transaxle gearbox (open gated), I would have raised interest even in my native country. Result? The GT Super is sold-out and still no Italian bought it. Quite funny.
Photos by @aureuscarspotlight
The aspects that raise the most doubts regarding electric cars are the lack of the engine rumble and perhaps the linear response of the vehicle to the driver’s inputs. How did you overcome this, in order to ensure a driving experience capable of evoking emotions similar to those generated by a classic internal combustion powered car?
I think there's no way to replace the emotions evoked by a traditional, naturally aspirated combustion engine. I think we all do agree on this.
The whole automotive industry has to innovate itself and it has to look towards the future. This means accomplishing the responsible duty to be environment-friendly (even if nowadays we're still very far from being "green" while manufacturing electric-cars).
However, if we wonder where the driving emotions specifically come from, we would discover that it's all about the perception of the engine's sound and of the torque delivery that is felt within our bones. This is why we're developing a built-in simulator emulating all of this. Driving Totem GT Electric must be the closest driving experience to a high-octane one.
Electric Power Unit and Brembo Brake System close-up. - Photos by @aureuscarspotlight
GT Electric Components, Brembo Slotted Disc with AR Badge and Totem Battery Pack. - Photos by @aureuscarspotlight
Photos by Aureus Car Spotlight and IronFox Media.
