(Motorsport-Total.com/Motor1) – On the way to the mega-event “The Quali” as part of Monterey Car Week, and after just a few meters, you get quite dizzy from the density of unbelievably beautiful, rare, and expensive cars. Still, there are vehicles that automatically make you slow down. The Totem GT Super definitely belonged to that category.
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At first glance, there stands a beautiful Alfa Romeo Giulia GT Bertone. At second glance, it becomes clear: this is actually no longer an Alfa. I was even told on site that only the door handles come from the donor car. Whether that is true down to the last screw remains to be seen. You can believe it immediately.
Because under the classic shell lies a completely newly developed car. Carbon monocoque, carbon body, own chassis, own drivetrain, modern cockpit. The Totem GT Super is neither a restored classic nor a lightly modernized vintage car. It is a super sports car tailored in the style of a Bertone coupe.
Restomod is currently the hot thing
Hardly any trend is currently changing the world of classic sports cars as much as restomods. Instead of restoring historic cars authentically, companies like Singer, Kimera, Gunther Werks, or Totem combine iconic design with current technology. The result drives faster, safer, and often significantly more suitable for everyday use than the original, but often costs as much as a super sports car.
Photo series: Totem GT Super “Litorale Brado”
Totem goes one step further than many other restomod specialists. Although an Alfa Romeo Giulia GT Bertone serves as the starting point, chassis, body, suspension, drivetrain, and interior are practically completely newly created.
You may like this whole thing or not. Personally, I find such restomods very appealing and technically incredibly interesting. A colleague from the editorial team, on the other hand, as a die-hard Alfa fan, cannot get anything out of this project and is very skeptical about the whole topic. The target group is apparently rather niche…
More new cars than vintage cars
Back to the Totem: The body is made entirely of carbon and sits on a specially developed carbon fiber monocoque. Behind the front axle works a 2.8-liter biturbo V6 from Italtecnica with 640 hp and 655 Nm. It is shifted via a classic six-speed manual transmission in transaxle design. This combination alone is likely to make many purists swoon.
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The “Litorale Brado” presented at The Quail is vehicle number 32 of the GT Series and was created together with its Californian owner. He did not want a flashy show car appearance but a car with understatement. That is why Totem specially developed the color “Big Sur Green” and combined it with silk-matte gunmetal elements. It looks almost inconspicuous. Until you get closer.
Handcrafted down to the smallest detail
The longer you deal with the car, the crazier the details become. The steering wheel is made of wenge and maple wood because the owner is a passionate hobby carpenter. Totem makes the steering column levers themselves from carbon and titanium. Even some switches are located in a roof console modeled after aviation. Such ideas are usually found more in one-offs than in a small series.
Next to it stood his brother “no. 27” in a somewhat more striking light brown and more extroverted interior, just as beautiful, just as noble, and certainly just as expensive.
This effort is of course not cheap. The GT Super now starts at around 539,000 euros before taxes. A one-off like the “Litorale Brado” is likely to be significantly more expensive due to its numerous special customizations. However, Totem does not name an official price.
More restomods:
This Lamborghini Diablo restomod comes with hand-assembled V12
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At The Quail stood Ferraris, Bugattis, and numerous million-dollar classics. Still, the Totem was one of the cars that fascinated me the most. Perhaps precisely because it does not want to be a copy of the past. It takes one of the most beautiful Alfa shapes of all time and builds a car that feels more like a super sports car from 2026 than like a vintage car.
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