1971 Alfa Romeo Gtv on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Alfa 4C to set the pace as WTCC safety car

With just 240 horsepower on tap, the Alfa Romeo 4C may not be the most powerful sports car on the market. But its lightweight construction ensures that it has a power-to-weight ratio better than cars with twice the output. In short, it belongs at the front of the pack, and that's just where it will be for this year's World Touring Car Championship. That's because Alfa's nimble little sports car has been selected as the new safety car (what we'd call a "pace car") for the WTCC, starting next month with the season opener at the Moulay El Hassan Circuit in Marrakech, Morocco. For that purpose it's been fitted with the special red and black livery you see here, and will presumably carry some extra safety equipment like emergency lighting, and a couple of fire extinguishers and a first aid kit on board in case it arrives at the scene of an accident before the medical support car can get there. This year will see some new entries in the FIA's top touring car series as the new Honda Civic WTCC makes its debut with four cars on the grid, Citroen entering the series with the new C-Elysee with nine-time rally champ Sebastien Loeb and four-time WTCC champ Yvan Muller behind the wheel. After a Euro-centric start to the season, the series heads to the US in mid-September for the race at Sonoma before winding up with three rounds in the Far East. The Alfa Romeo 4C Will Be the FIA WTCC Safety Car - Eurosport Events, promoter of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) appointed by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), has chosen the captivating Alfa Romeo supercar as Safety Car for the 2014 season - The multi-award-winning coupe will make its debut on the track with a special livery on 12 and 13 April on the Moulay El Hassan circuit of Marrakech - The recognition is linked to its winning the prestigious Grand Prize as Most Beautiful Car of 2013 at the 29th International Automobile Festival of Paris On display this week at the 84th Geneva International Motor Show with the preview of the Spider version, the Alfa Romeo 4C was chosen by Eurosport Events as the Safety Car of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) for the entire 2014 season. The multi-award-winning coupe will therefore be present with a special livery on the World Touring Car Championship circuits starting from the first event that will be held on the Moulay El Hassan Circuit of Marrakech (Morocco) on 12 and 13 April.

The new Alfa Romeo Giulia needs to be a BMW beater

The introduction of the Alfa Romeo Giulia as a BMW challenger is a claim that historically has meant that it will not be as good as a BMW. Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, Infiniti, Cadillac, and a few others have tried to loosen BMW's grip on the sports sedan market with little success. It was BMW that was doing the copying when in the early sixties they looked to Alfa Romeo's sport sedans for inspiration. Alfa Romeo's pre-war racing pedigree was second to none, and series production Alfas were sporting twin cam engines, and fuel injection years before BMW. What the post-war Alfa cars did not offer was reliability and an North American dealer network that knew how to service or sell their products. Consequently in 1995 Alfa abandoned the US market. Now it is the Alfa Giulia taking aim at the BMW 3-series. The Fiat/Chrysler group has a lot of resources (think Ferrari), and the engineering chops to beat BMW at its own game, but it will take a long time to build a reliable dealer network, not to mention the quality issues that have dogged them for decades. Alfa will follow what has become a familiar recipe to challenge the 3-series. With 3 sets of trim available, the most affordable model, the Giulia, and further upscale, Giulia ti, both with a turbocharged 4-banger and 276 HP compares favorably with the BMW 328i and the Audi A4. The 505 HP Giulia flagship is shooting for the M4/3. Good luck with that, Alfa. A delayed introduction hints of troubles to come. Unfortunately for Alfa both the Audi A4 and BMW 3-series have millions of dedicated fans, most of whom do not have to be reminded about their automobile's pedigree. Millennial have never had the chance to aspire for an Alfa, and the older generations that still remember them are only a very small share of the market. Alfa has to avoid joining the automotive graveyard of models that have tried to attain BMW's status. Just to be cruel I will mention the Cadillac Cimarron. If you are too young to remember, it was the cheapest Chevy front wheel drive platform with a Cadillac badge. Panned by both GM management and the automotive press, it was a spectacular flop. I hope that the executives of the Fiat/Chrysler group remember it well. We do not need a Fiat in a stylish suit.

Marchionne on Alfa's US return, Dodge Dart's powertrain weakness and minivan plans

As a reporter covering an auto show, the one opportunity you never want to miss is going to the Sergio Marchionne press briefing.
"This undertaking to bring Alfa back is a one-shot deal... We are not going to do this twice."
There just aren't that many real characters left in the auto industry. Marchionne, who sits atop both Chrysler and Fiat, is not only one of the smartest execs in the business, but also the most frank. Herein, a sample of the quotable always-sweatered executive: