The Alfa Romeo GT JTS will make its Australian debut at the Melbourne International Motor Show on 3 March 2005, providing visitors with a car that delivers award-winning style - it is the 2005 winner of the Coupe award for the World's Most Beautiful Car - but at a price that makes the Alfa Romeo GT JTS surprisingly affordable.

"The Alfa Romeo GT JTS is a truly surprising car," says Kevin Wall, General Manager for Alfa Romeo in Australia. "On one hand there are the million dollar looks, the plush interior and the list of standard equipment as long as your arm, but if a customer was to offer a million dollars, we would be forced to return AUS$935,050 because at AUS$64,950 the Alfa Romeo GT JTS has the million dollar looks without the million dollar price tag!"

As with the Alfa GT 3.2 litre, which was on sale in Australia before Europe, this market was one of the first to get the Alfa GT with the combination of the JTS engine and the Selespeed gearbox, thanks to the fact that 80 per cent of Alfa Romeos sold in Australia are equipped with the sequential manual gearbox that owes its origins to the Ferrari Formula One team.

The 2.0 litre 121 kW engine is the same lean burn, direct petrol injection engine seen in the Alfa Romeo 156 and like that car, this powerful, light weight unit use its supreme efficiency to provide the Alfa GT with strong performance, excellent economy and low emissions. Top speed with the JTS engine is 216 kmh and it dispatches the dash to 100 kmh in 8.7 seconds and to a kilometre in 29.2 seconds. In the European combined fuel consumption test it achieves 6.8 litres per 100 km, a remarkably low figure for such a stylish performance car.

With its best-of-both-worlds offering, the Selespeed gearbox combines the excitement of changing gears manually in the same fashion as a racing car, via paddles on the steering wheel, or the convenience of letting the system change the gears itself. But, unlike a conventional automatic, because the Selespeed is based on the manual gearbox, it offers the performance, economy and emissions of manual gearbox even when changing its own gears.
 
The Alfa Romeo GT JTS is, like its V6 brother, is spectacularly well equipped. Naturally there is the equipment you would expect in this market position, such as power windows, remote central locking with remote boot opening, full leather interior and a powerful sound system, trip computer, cruise control and heated front seats.

But each of these items has been honed to match Alfa Romeo's requirements. Hand crafted, fine Italian leather is used on the elegant shaped and styled seats that offer both comfort and the lateral grip required in a sports car; the powerful stereo system is fitted with a Bose power amplipher and speakers, as well as a Bosch stacker CD unit and the ability to play MP3; the central locking includes auto-lock to ensure security; the readout on the trip computer may be changed to suit individual requirements.

Styled by Bertone, the legendary Italian styling house, the Alfa GT takes all the Alfa Romeo elements that have lead to the Alfa Romeo sports cars, the 147, the 156 and the 166 to be lauded for their unique elegance, style and eye-catching beauty and added their own unique additions to produce a car that is, quite simply a new byword for beauty.

The Alfa Romeo GT has been named the most beautiful Coupé in the World in annual awards that recognise excellence in car design and styling and which are awarded by a jury of the world's leading car designers, artists, architects and engineers.

No less of an achievement is the interior and, like Alfa Romeo's existing range, it can be expected that this interior will, too, become a palette from which other car makers draw their inspiration. But few will match the clarity of view that Alfa Romeo provides to produce an interior that is both snug like a sports car and spacious like a sedan; stylish to the to ultimate level, but easy to use and ergonomic, in summation an interior that is always an occasion in which to sit, whether in traffic jam or on a favourite stretch of road.

But practicality has not been sacrificed at the altar or emotion. This is a coupé that is also remarkably practical. There is comfort for four people, space and seat belts for five, matched by a spacious boot of 320 litres, which may be enlarged by folding down the split rear seats and a through loading device only adds to the load carrying options.

"When the Alfa Romeo GT was launched last year, it was clear that it offered a remarkable combination of style, performance and value for money," says Kevin Wall. "With the launch of the GT JTS Selespeed, we have enhanced ease of driving, boosted value for money and improved the cost of ownership without having any affect on the beauty of this fabulous car. With this combination of features and price we felt that it was only fair to warn people that the GT JTS was at Melbourne, so that they could start planning what they were going to do with the change from buying a car with million dollar looks for just AUS$64,950!"