Totem GTElectric review: a gobsmacking 590bhp restomod

That’s some of the most beguilingly shaped metal I’ve seen in a while.

Carbon fibre.

What’s that?

It’s carbon bodied, not steel or aluminium. Lighter and actually more cost effective if you’re only building a handful of cars.

So it’s not an original Alfa Romeo GT Junior?

Consider it more of a tribute. Much more mod than resto if you get my drift. About the only thing Totem carries over in the creation of this gorgeous car is a small part of the chassis and the VIN plate. It’s bigger – getting on for 30cm longer and wider – stiffer, stronger and much, much, much more powerful than it ever was 60 years ago.

How much power are we talking?

590bhp. Although, it’s more a matter of how that power is delivered. You see Totem’s GTElectric is, well, electric.

Giuseppe Busso will be spinning like a crankshaft in his grave!

Good knowledge. However, I suspect the designer of the legendary Twin Cam Nord engine was actually more of a pragmatist, and besides Totem fully appreciates that e-power isn’t for everyone, so you can have the GT with a bespoke 2.8-litre twin turbo V6 with 640bhp, or even a 3.2-litre version that develops 810bhp. And yes, you did read those towering figures right – these cars develop multiples of the original's power outputs. In all cases 0-62mph happens in a little over or quite a bit under three seconds.

That does mean the electric version is the least powerful version available, although 663lb ft more than makes up for that in a car that only weighs around 1,490kg.

A couple of squirts of acceleration and the battery’s probably flat.

Far from it. There’s a generous 81kWh battery tucked away very unobtrusively in the chassis and although that makes it around 150kg heavier than the petrol versions, in the grand scheme of electric cars 1,490kg is a feather. Totem reckons on a range of 250-300 miles, top speed is restricted to 130mph and it can fast charge at up to 90kW.

It’s light because the original chassis is strengthened and enhanced by a carbon fibre monocoque with aluminium subframes at either end and double wishbone aluminium suspension all-round. But this isn’t the first thing that strikes you about the Totem.

What is?

From a distance the looks, the proportion, the stance. It’s absolutely fabulous. Entirely faithful to the original, while at the same time appearing emphatically modern. It’s so perfect it’s like you’ve asked AI to update the original for the year 2100.

It’s all the more remarkable when you learn the guy who has built the car from scratch is yet to celebrate his 30th birthday. Riccardo Quaggio was a designer at Alfa Romeo before making a beeline for the exit in pursuit of his dreams. His business partner, COO Riccardo Sorgato has a similar background, but at Maserati, leaving when he saw the writing on the wall after the Stellantis takeover. Both were clearly wasted on column stalks and cupholders, because the whole of this car is a work of art – the quality and execution is simply unbelievable.

It's not just the harmony of the bodywork, because once you get up close you just find yourself poring over the detailing. It is exquisite. Look at the attention to detail on the grille, the inside of the headlights, the door handles. Each individual component is a work of art. To be convinced that this car is worth the €539,000 (£445,000) asking price, you don’t have to drive it, you just need to touch and feel it, let your eyes linger over it.

Is it as impressive inside?

Possibly more so. Because it’s not just the aesthetic perfection of it, it’s the operation of everything from the click of the switches to the oily slickness of the rotary air vents. I keep being gobsmacked by the tightness of the shutlines, drawing a fingernail along them. This is such difficult stuff to get right even if you have dozens of engineers and a huge budget, and yet this tiny outfit has managed it.

First principles haven’t been ignored. The driving position is good (although I wouldn’t mind the steering wheel sitting a little lower into my lap), the windscreen is upright and there’s wonderful simplicity and clarity to the instruments, especially the retro hi-fi which conceals Google Maps functionality in its small 3.5-inch screen.

Have a close look at the centre console – that’s carbon fibre woven to Totem’s specific pattern requests. It’s a €14,000 (£11,500) option, twice the price of having regular carbon finish, but it shows such imagination.

But it’s an electrified classic. That’s sacrilege surely. Especially in Italy…

Up to a point. Because it moves the game on from an original so much, because it’s much bigger inside and there’s a boot at either end, because it isn’t just an original with a transplanted Magimix motor in it, the fact it’s electric isn’t so troubling.

I can understand why people might want one of these – in fact I’d go one further – I can’t think of many cars I’d rather zero-emission around a city centre than the Totem GTElectric. It fits places, it’s ultra-cool, it’ll be the fastest thing off the lights and everyone will love it.

I sense a ‘but…’ coming.

It’s not finished. The car we drove high in the Italian mountains west of Turin (the road the finale of the original The Italian Job was filmed on, no less) was cosmetically glorious, dynamically basic. The biggest issue was the damping, which made the car feel nervy, but I have a feeling that’s a secondary issue, a knock-on effect from elsewhere.

The rear differential knocked as it locked and the car fidgeted its way along the road. And with all that instant access torque (not to mention way more wet weather than we deserved), traction was a constant issue. Totem has developed a traction control system, but it’s primitive and snatchy at present. In short, the car currently has more power than it is able to deal with.

There were some good points: throttle calibration was smooth and precise, making it easy to modulate power (important when you’ve got such potency under foot), and the steering shows promise. But it’s hard to evaluate individual elements of a car's dynamics, because everything has a knock on effect on everything else.

Totem is aware of all this and working hard to fix it. If they can get the handling to the same level as the cosmetics, this will be a genuinely wondrous car.

Alfaholics do amazing things with these cars, don’t they?

The GTA-R is one of the most intoxicating cars I have ever driven, straight into my top 10, but don’t forget this is a very different car. That is a modified historic, weighs only about 850kg and has had decades of race experience poured into the driving experience. This is essentially a new car from the ground up, Totem can’t take learnings from existing cars.

And while it might look similar, the whole vibe of this car is different. It’s much more luxurious, more laid back. In that you chase the driving experience and hope to keep up. In this you want to waft prettily along.

That’s surely because it’s electric.  

In part, certainly. And despite what I said earlier, I couldn’t have an electric one because I need the connection that only internal combustion can bring. The GTElectric serves a purpose, but it misses the magic – it felt a little empty to me. Smooth, silent, but too slippery, nothing for your senses to grip on.

As a tease Totem brought along a 2.8-litre V6 version, the GT Super, but unfortunately as a private customer’s car we could only ride in it. That, with its formidable purpose-built 640bhp engine giving it a power to weight ratio not far short of a Ferrari 296 GTB, showed real potential. Further down the line Totem will do a GT Modificata with a 3.2-litre 810bhp twin turbocharged motor. Personally, I think that might be slightly excessive.

I know it’s hard to evaluate because it wasn’t quite the finished article, but are you persuaded by it?

100 per cent. All restomods do it differently, and that’s why they’re interesting. They are very bespoke cars, each made in the image of the people that created it. This is a very different interpretation to the Alfaholics. I’d be surprised if it ever reached the same dizzying dynamic heights but that’s not the point. The Alfaholics has its audience, the Totem will rightly appeal to an entirely different group of people. That might not be you, but for those who prize visual appeal, this is quite the object.

In fact it’s one of the most stunning cars of any type we’ve come across. Quaggio is clearly a very gifted designer and engineer and the GT shows single-minded clarity of vision and real talent. If you have five minutes, go to their website and get on the configurator – all the prices are listed, so that’s a bit of fun, but go mainly to indulge in the detail of the car, get into the paint samples and options, decide if you should fork out €1,500 (£1,236) on luggage and gloves matched to your interior trim.

Hopefully one day we’ll get to drive a finished V6, and hopefully it’ll handle as prettily as it looks, but however you look at it the Totem cars exude passion. The GTElectric might not be that soulful to drive, yet as an object it still manages to grab you, to make you yearn to own one.