1984 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce Convertible 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Notes from the 2016 Alfa Romeo Giulia reveal in Milan [w/video]

It's an interesting time for Alfa Romeo. Wednesday marked the brand's 105th birthday, but also a rebirth of sorts. The new Giulia is the first of several new vehicles to come out of the Project Giorgio skunkworks that has been quietly working to reimagine the brand. Fiat Chrysler is banking on these cars to finally turn Alfa around. Before the Giulia was rolled out, Alfa Romeo CEO Harald Wester acknowledged that the brand has had its share of missteps in the past. He then called out today's sporty offerings for having evolved into near-perfect but boring, commoditized cars across the industry. They have no soul, he said, nothing to differentiate one from the next. While I'd argue that each brand in the performance space still has something to differentiate itself from the others, anything that can be done to restore some of the man-machine connection lost to electronics and added weight can only be seen as a good thing. I like what I'm hearing from Alfa so far; below are some notes gleaned from the unveil event that make me think this reawakening might just work. The head of the skunkworks is Philippe Krief, a former Ferrari engineer. This is certainly a good sign for the car's dynamics and powertrain. Krief was quick to note that the Giulia uses "real" torque vectoring, not a brake-based solution like some others use. The rear differential uses a pair of clutches to apportion torque side to side. Alfa claims the car's steering will be the quickest in its segment, which I take to mean the one that currently includes the BMW M3, Mercedes-AMG C63, and Cadillac ATS-V. Immediacy translates to the braking system, as well. Alfa has come up with a new design that combines the stability control and brake servo into one unit; it's said to be simpler than two parts and also improves brake response. I'm pretty sure Krief even called its design beautiful while it flashed briefly onscreen. Quadrifoglio cars get carbon-ceramic brake discs to further improve performance and reduce weight. I didn't get to sit in the car, or even open the door, but I liked what I saw of the interior. The center console is angled to hem the driver in a little, which works well with the canted, sweeping dash. It kind of reminds me of the look in newer Mazdas – clean and simple with a good balance of organic curves and straight edges.

Alfa Romeo Milano revealed as brand's first full EV offering

Alfa Romeo has made it clear it's going to fully electric models over the next few years, and that seems to be starting with the newly revealed Milano. It's a subcompact SUV, and while it seems that it will be offered with an internal combustion engine (similar to its platform-mate, the Jeep Avenger), Alfa has only talked about the EV powertrains to start with. And at least one of them sounds quite entertaining. Styling-wise, there's no mistaking the Milano for anything but an Alfa. It's very curvy, and has the prominent inverted triangle grille that's the brand's signature. It adopts some boomerang-shaped headlights that blend into additional air inlets on either side of the grille. That inverted triangle grille can feature different patterns, such as the mesh with classic "Alfa Romeo" script shown on the blue example, or the zoomed-in Alfa shield pattern shown on the red one. The tail features a wide rear that attempts to ape the "kamm tail" of the Alfa Romeo TZ sports car. We're not sure how successful it is at that, but it still looks solid. The Milano is fairly small. It comes in at just over 164 inches long and 70 inches wide, or around the size of a Kia Soul. It's also about 2 inches shorter in length than a Jeep Renegade, but that also makes it about 4 inches longer than the diminutive Jeep Avenger.  The interior is pretty typical Alfa, too. The 10.25-inch instrument screen is housed in a double-barrel shroud, and the 10.25-inch infotainment screen is mounted a little lower and canted toward the driver in the center stack. Round air vents bookend the dashboard. Powertrain details aren't complete, but the basics are there. The standard versions will get a 156-horsepower single motor at the front, while the Veloce gets a 240-horsepower single front motor. Both get a 54-kWh battery pack. On the WLTP cycle, the 156-horsepower version gets 250 miles of range. That would undoubtedly be lower on the EPA cycle if the car were to be offered here. And while there's no number for the Veloce, you can also count on that being lower than the standard model. The Veloce doesn't just get more power, though. It sits an inch lower on 20-inch wheels, and it gets stiffer front and rear anti-roll bars. The front brakes are upgraded to four-piston calipers with larger 15-inch rotors. Capping everything off is a Torsen limited-slip differential. It sounds like an awful lot of fun (and also sounds a bit like the setup for the Fiat 600e Abarth).

Alfa Romeo working on high-performance engines

During the big Fiat Chrysler Automobiles FCA US LLC announcement of its five-year plan earlier this year, the strategy for Alfa Romeo was easily summarized by brand boss Harald Wester: "Go back to the Alfa Romeo that people admired." Easier said than done. With the 4C as one step in that procedure, we might see the next when the company unveils its midsize sedan in June with a trio of new engines with up to 480 horsepower. Anonymous sources at suppliers are already making some big claims about the new mills to Automotive News Europe. The top of the heap is reportedly a 2.9-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 making up to 480 hp, based on the 3.0-liter engine in the Maserati Quattroporte and Ghibli. Below it is a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder that's claimed to produce between 180 hp and 330 hp for rear- or all-wheel drive applications. Finally, there's potentially a 2.2-liter turbo-diesel four with between 135 hp and 210 hp. Little has been officially announced about the midsize sedan, but it was possibly spied testing recently hidden under the body of a Ghibli. It was rumored to be rear-wheel drive with a size between the BMW 3 Series and 5 Series, and a high-performance GTA version was also speculated. According to ANE, the vehicle won't be called the Giulia and won't hit the market in the US until 2016. In addition to the midsize model's engines, FCA is also reportedly working on an updated version of its 3.0-liter diesel V6 sourced from VM Motori with new 275-hp and 340-hp versions. They are likely slated for Alfa's future large sedan and SUV. News Source: Automotive News Europe - sub. req.Image Credit: Copyright 2014 Drew Phillips / AOL Alfa Romeo Technology Sedan FCA alfa romeo giulia fiat chrysler automobiles