Alfa Romeo UK has gone to enormous length boasting the Giulietta’s D.N.A system, it’s all-weather A mode to be more specific. They took it to the Coventry Skydome ice rink and pit it against two professional hockey players. The result is not as impressive as you might think, even though the car performs some cool trick shots. They could have just taken it to the Alps. That’d be much nicer, and cheaper.

]]> http://www.motorward.com/2012/02/alfa-romeo-giulietta-plays-ice-hockey-video/feed/ 0 http://www.motorward.com/2012/01/seriously-alfa-romeo-8c-general-lee/ http://www.motorward.com/2012/01/seriously-alfa-romeo-8c-general-lee/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:14:07 +0000 Arman Barari http://www.motorward.com/?p=30696

Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione is a quintessentially Italian supercar, a reflection of the brand’s remarkable pedigree and racing heritage. So you’d think, would you not, only the most sophisticated people with great taste in style would ever buy it. Well…

Turns out idiots who like The Dukes of Hazard are also interested in the 8C! I mean look what he’s done to the car for crying out loud. This General Lee paint job has absolutely ruined the car and its reputation.

So the guy’s a fan of the show, that’s fair enough. But this is just wrong. I mean on a bloody Dodge Charger, yes, but an Alfa? Really? And what an Alfa it is. The picture was snapped near Alfa Romeo’s test track in Balocco, Northern Italy. So chances are this is not an aftermarket treatment and Alfa Romeo themselves did it based on the customer’s order.

If I was in charge of Alfa Romeo, I would do whatever it takes to confiscate the car back from the owner, and set it on fire.

picture by trcoff.gr

The Alfa 4C, as you know, has been green-lit for production by Fiat’s top brass. Here we have a few details on the actual car.

The 4C name suggests it is half the car the 8C supercar was, but these two are in fact from different planets. The 8C was just about the looks. It wasn’t built with much care and it’s V8 was anything but fuel efficient. It also had a mahoosive price tag and limited production numbers.

The Alfa 4C is more of a proper sportscar. It still sports a hefty price tag of around 45,000 euro, £38,000, or nearly 60,000 USD in today’s money, and that’s not very sportcar-ish. But then the specs of the car are brilliant, and even better than those, are the looks.

The 4C will be powered by Alfa’s 1750 four-cylinder turbo engine developing 230bhp, which doesn’t sound like much but given the kerb weight of just 900 kg, it enables the car to hit 60mph from standing still in just 4.5 seconds. The reason the car is so light is because it is made from a cocktail of aluminum and carbon fiber.

Alfa Romeo 4C is a brilliant coupe, fast and efficient, and when it’s launched it’ll undoubtedly be the best-looking car in its class. Justifying a car’s price tag has never been so easy!

via: Autocar

Alfa Romeo will supply European dealerships of its sister company Maserati with a special version of the Giulietta to be used as courtesy car.

Alfa will make 100 units of this Giulietta for Maserati, based on the 235 hp Quadrifoglio version. These cars come with unique 18-inch wheels, bigger brakes and red calipers to be distinguished over the normal models.

Other features are to be found inside the cabin, and include Maserati Brown full-grain leather upholstery, brushed-aluminum “Alfa Romeo for Maserati” dashboard plate and side sills.

Thanks to this Italian partnership Maserati doesn’t have to use its own expensive models as courtesy car, but sell them and make more money, then pay Alfa back a small sum of it for the service. Lovely jubbly!

Romeo Ferraris has revisited the Alfa Romeo Brera and used Autodelta parts to give the old gal a new burst of energy.

The Italian tuner and Autodelta have together supercharged the Brera’s 3.2-liter V6 from 260 PS to a massive, at least for this car, 358 PS. That is a gain of 98. The torque is increased as well, to 440 Nm.

With this significant boost in power, as a result of using a complete supercharger kit complete with intercooler, ECU, piping, and exhausts, the slightly fat but incredibly charming Brera runs the sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in around 5 seconds, and can reach 260 km/h. That is much faster than the standard car.

A nice body kit, bigger wheels and an adjustable suspension rounds up this great package.

Alfa Romeo UK’s latest publicity stunt is a good one. They decided to have a crack at the world record for popping balloons, which is clever as never before have so many balloons been burst by one car alone.

They’ve also launched a Facebook competition for it. The stunt driver Terry Grant has left four balloons unpopped. Now if you guess which ones, you will enter a draw to win an exclusive Alfa Romeo track day at the famous Goodwood Motor Circuit. Visit Alfa UK’s Facebook page for more details.

And check out the videos here. The slow-mo is filmed with a 300 fps Red Epic camera, so it looks pretty cool.

Mazda MX-5 as you know is a brilliant sports car. Now imagine it with Alfa Romeo looks and an Alfa badge. This dream is turning into reality.

Alfa is developing a new Spider to pick up where the Brera Spider – now deceased – left. The Brera was an unbelievably gorgeous car, but it always felt heavy and slow and nothing like a sportscar it should have been.

The new Spider is said to be a true successor to the ‘Graduate’ Alfa Spider of 1960s. Alfa has learned its lesson with the Brera so they are shifting focus to lightness and compact size with this new model. They will follow Mazda Mx-5′s recipe of sense and simplicity.

The new Spider will be powered by a detuned version of the Giulietta Cloverleaf’s 1.7-litre with around 150 bhp, which is fairly enough to deliver good performance, as long as they keep the weight of the car down.

Alfa’s MX-5 will almost certainly be more expensive than the Mazda. But it will look great – because it’s an Alfa – drive well, and will be efficient. And at the end of the day, it’s an Alfa!

Source: AutoExpress

Alfa Giulietta hatchback is now available to order in the UK with the innovative new TCT dual-clutch transmission.

The TCT can be had with either the 1.4 TB MultiAir 170 bhp petrol or the 2.0 JTDM-2 170 bhp diesel engine. Its real advantages are in terms of fuel economy, as the petrol version does 54.3 mpg over a combined cycle and 121 g/km of CO₂ and the diesel 62.8 mpg with CO₂ emissions of 119 g/km.

Performance-wise the MultiAir has a top speed of 135 mph and 0 to 62 mph time of 7.7 seconds. The JDTM diesel does 0 to 62 mph in 7.9 seconds. The TCT gearbox can be had with optional paddle shifters.

Alfa Giulietta 1.4 TB MultiAir 170 bhp ALFA TCT and the 2.0 JTDM-2170 bhp ALFA TCT are available in Lusso and Veloce trim levels, with prices starting from £21,855 OTR.

ALFA GIULIETTA WITH ALFA TCT TECH SPEC

Alfa Rome announced production of a new 1.8 liter turbocharged four-pot with a maximum output of 300 hp.

That’s extremely good rating for a 1.8, even with turbocharger. Besides the power it will also be very efficient. The new engine is compatible with future emissions standards in both Europe (Euro 6) and the U.S. (Tier 2 Bin 5).

This unit features 200-bar gasoline direct injection system, dual variable timing and a high-efficiency turbocharger and it’s made entirely out of aluminum. The aluminum architecture, combined with the most innovative technologies, will offer power-to-weight ratio, fuel efficiency, acoustic and vibrational comfort, and driving performance that are the very best in its category and characteristic of Alfa Romeo engines.

Alfa has not confirmed which models will be getting this engine, but says it is designed for both transversal and longitudinal applications.

“This is an extremely important step for Alfa Romeo, as we continue to reposition our brand and prepare it for global distribution. The United States remains our primary objective as we prepare for a 2013 introduction of our models,” added Harald J. Wester, Fiat’s Chief Technology Officer and head of the Alfa Romeo and Maserati Brands. “The dedication of Group-wide resources to develop specific powertrain solutions for the specific needs of Alfa Romeo is a reflection of the renewed thrust we are placing on the development of this brand. This is a first step in a series of initiatives to be implemented in the near future which will reconnect Alfa Romeo to its historical roots as a premium Italian sports car brand.”

At this year’s IAA Frankfurt Motor Show Alfa Romeo will show the stunning 4C Concept in a new color called ‘fluid metal’.

With this version, the 4C gets one step closer to its production, which is due in 2013.

Alfa 4C is the firm’s new sportscar which makes efficient performance through lightness. It only has a 200 bhp turbo engine, but then it only has 850kg weight to carry around. So it achieves a power to weight ratio less than 4kg per hp, which in English means it’s pretty sprightly!

It also has the classic recipe of a proper sportscar with two seats, engine in the middle, and rear-wheel drivetrain. It is compact too, with a length of approximately 4 metres and a wheelbase of less than 2.4 metre, which means it’ll handle well. And it looks swell. And above all, it’s an Alfa Romeo.

So on paper, everything suggests it should be a fantastic driver’s car. Can’t wait to see the final produciton model!

The Alfa 4C Concept uses technology and materials derived from the 8C Competizione – carbon, aluminium, rear-wheel drive – and technology from Alfa Romeo models currently on sale: the 1750 turbo petrol engine with direct injection, the ALFA TCT twin dry clutch transmission; and all the best of Alfa’s DNA technology, obviously including the Alfa DNA dynamic control selector.

Alfa Romeo confirmed the two-cylinder MiTo TwinAir will make its debut at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.

The MiTo, in fact, comes with two new engines. One is the award winning TwinAir engine developed by Fiat Powertrain, developing 85 bhp at 5,500 rpm and torque of 145Nm at 2,000 rpm and famous for its great driving fun, and thanks to the Start&Stop device, 98 g/km CO2. The other is the a new 1.3 JTDM 85bhp.

It has the same output as the TwinAir, but thanks to a variable geometry turbocharger, a new variable displacement oil pump and alternator with “smart charge”, the 1.3 JTDm produces just 90 g/km of CO2 emissions in the mixed cycle.

Besides these eco models, Alfa also shows the new Quadrifoglio Verde MiTo at IAA, equipped with the powerful 170 HP 1.4 MultiAir Turbo and “Alfa Active Suspension”, offering three different dynamic control settings of the “Alfa DNA” device (“Dynamic”, “Natural” and “All Weather”).

The finest Italian tuner Novite Rosso has come up with a kit for one of the finest Italian cars, Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

The Giulietta is a very gorgeous car as it is, so not much visual work was necessary. Novitec just adds a subtle front spoiler, side skirts, a racing rear diffuser and four tailpipes. They have also lowered the suspension, blacked-out the roof, and added 20-inch multi-spoke wheels in either silver or black finish, which really suit the car and look great.

Then they got busy with the engines, tuning every single one of them in the range. The 1.4 TB 16V gets 20 more horses to 141 HP (104 kW). The 1.4 MultiAir also gets the same treatment to make 195 HP (141 kW).

The better choice is the 1.8 liter Turbo engine which now develops 261 HP (192 kW) and 386 Nm of torque. It does 0 to 100 km/h in 6.5 seconds. If you want a compromise between performance and economy, get the 2.0 liter diesel with 195 HP (143 kW) and 400 Nm of torque.

With only a month remaining to the 2011 IAA Frankfurt Motor Show we are getting bombard with the teaser pictures of cars to be unveiled at the show. One of the most important ones, at least for us, is the new, revised Alfa Romeo 4C Concept. It is still not yet ready for production, but we can’t wait to see what’s changed in this gorgeous Italian sportscar. The picture is too dark to see anything, but it seems to have a two-tone body color.

While the world is still waiting for the Alfa Romeo 4C to finally launch, Alfa teases us with a new video of this gorgeous Italian sportscar. The recipe, at least in the concept version, is spot on perfect. It’s a mid-engined rear-drive car with a dual-clutch transmission. It’s got an efficient 200-hp four-cylinder turbo engine and vehicle dynamic system that let’s you choose different driving modes. What we absolutely love about this car though, is the way it looks. It’s just pure art!

In a joint project between Alfa Romeo UK and Castle Galleries, artist Louise Dear created this art car you see here based on Alfa Romeo MiTo.

The car celebrates the launch of the new eco-friendly Alfa MiTo 1.3 JTDM-2 85 bhp Sprint. This car emits only 95g/km of CO₂ emissions and is therefore congestion charge free. The art car is designed to make awareness about the arrival of this model. We’re just not sure how could you guess that fact looking at the design of this car!

The artwork was revealed in an exclusive evening at Artica Galleries, Covent Garden (part of the Castle Galleries group) on July 14, attended by a host of VIPs and will now tour galleries across the UK.

Louise modelled the flamboyant art, entitled ‘Because I Can’, on her 17 year old daughter and introduced unmistakable influences from the Alfa MiTo into the work.

Louise said: “I really wanted to capture Alfa Romeo’s heritage and elegance within my creation, while bringing out the stylish and fashionable aspects of the Alfa MiTo.

“The Alfa MiTo is targeted at a young, stylish audience who have a positive attitude to life, and are focussed on being successful, and within my painting I have tried to bring this across using a combination of designs that convey powerful imagery mixed with elegance and beauty.”

Alfa Romeo UK and UK Athletics have devised a challenge to see which would win in a race around London, man or machine.

Years ago Top gear came up a similar challenge in which they pitted an Alfa  159 against a man in a race. But that time the man had to cross a muddy lake instead of London! Also featured on Top Gear was a race between a man, a marathon runner, and Jeremy in a car across London in the rush hour. So it’s a mixture of both.

The man in this challenge is the former European and Commonwealth 400m Champion, Iwan Thomas and the machine, an Alfa Romeo MiTo 1.3 JTDM-285 bhp. The challenge is a 3.8-mile race around central London’s city streets, starting and finishing at Tower Bridge.

The car was driven by two of Britain’s brightest World Championship medal contenders; European and Commonwealth 110m hurdles Champion Andy Turner took the driver’s seat, with ‘pinpoint’ navigational assistance from World and European Long Jump medallist Chris Tomlinson.

Alfa is not telling you who has won, but they will be releasing a series of films on their Facebook page throughout the domestic season and invite athletics fans to guess the winner:

Viewers of the films who successfully guess the winner, Man or MiTo, will be in with a chance of winning an exclusive Alfa Romeo bike worth over £550. The Alfa Romeo Stradale Touring mountain bike is exclusively designed by Alfa Romeo Centro Stile in Italy, and manufactured by luxury Italian bike maker Compagnia Ducale. Featuring Alfa Romeo branding, including the iconic Cloverleaf badge – which adorns all high performance Alfa Romeos – the Alfa bike has everything you would expect from the famous marque; style, design and technology.

Alfa Romeo has come up with an upgrade package for the MiTo. And they claim it turns the car into a full Italian thoroughbred.

To make its UK public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week, the Alfa MiTo Quadrifoglio Verde comes with added visual presence and driver focused interior, and a price tag of £18,755.

The car features black surrounds for fog lamps and lower air intakes, new high-quality Quadrifoglio Verde badges in micro-brushed aluminium, with the four-leaved clover design in relief, exclusive Quadrifoglio Verde 18” alloy rims (upgraded from the previous model year’s 17” wheels) and low profile 215/40 tyres. There are other, less noticeable updates like the wing mirrors, headlight (and rear light) surrounds, and door handles, that are now finished in a pearlescent, satin effect material.

Inside the really sporty cabin you get the MiTo sport seats with a central column in Alcantara, two-tone (green and white) artisanal seams on the seats, steering wheel, hand brake lever and gear knob, carbon fibre backed Sabelt, caron fibre-look dashboard trimming, and exclusive Cloverleaf badging.

The power comes from the 1.4 TB MultiAir 170 bhp engine which offers increased performance with lower fuel consumption (combined cycle 47.1 mpg) and emissions (139 g/km CO₂). The car is fitted as standard with seven airbags and Vehicle Dynamic Control (ABS, ASR, EBD and Brake Assist) with Hill Holder.

Scroll down for full specs of the car…

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

After Geneva, the magnificent Alfa Romeo 4C Concept stops in UK, at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed, on its way to become a production model.

The 4C has been designed with specs of a full-blooded sportscar in mind. The 4C is a two-seater, mid-engined, rear-wheel drive coupé with drop-dead gorgeous looks, lightweight body, and a powerful 200bhp1750 TBi 4 cylinder petrol engine coupled with the new automatic Alfa TCT twin dry clutch transmission. The car has a top speed 155mph, kerb weight under 850kgs, 0-62 mph in under 5 seconds, and a power-to-weight ratio lower than 4kg per bhp.

The reason it’s so great is that it’s built just for driving fun! And above all, it’s Alfa Romeo, which in car terms is the equivalent of Angelina Jolie.

Other Alfa Romeo debuts at the Speed festival include the updated Alfa MiTo Quadrifoglio Verde, together with the Alfa Giulietta Cloverleaf and the Alfa 159 Sportwagon. There will also be some legendary classics, including Fangio’s Alfa 6C 3000CM, which alongside the Alfetta 159, will celebrate the 60^th anniversary of Fangio’s historic 1951 Formula One World Championship title, as well as the Alfa 6C 1750GS, Alfa 750 Competizione and the Alfa 33 TT 12. What’ more, spectators also get to see the Alfa’s 8C Spider as it works its way up the Goodwood hill.

Alfa Romeo UK announced a new version of the Alfa Magazine, formerly known as Feel magazine, as a free iPad app.

If you want to search it in iTunes App Store, the full title is Alfa Romeo: The Official UK Magazine. It is like the traditional paper format version, plenty interactive and with more features. including high-definition videos of test drives, sound effects – including in the current edition the soundtrack of an Alfa 8C Competizione supercar – interactive animations and extended picture galleries, giving users even more detail about Alfa cars, heritage, design and technology.

It also includes 360-degree spinning images of each model, both landscape and portrait formats, as well as a unique and comprehensive database section, providing full technical specification, standard equipment lists, interior picture galleries, paint colours and wheel options for every model in the Alfa Romeo range – with a mechanism to direct prospects to their nearest dealer.

The Alfa magazine iPad app can be downloaded from the following link – http://itunes.apple.com/uk/app/alfa-romeo-the-official-uk/id435136757?mt=8&ls=1

Alfa Romeo announced that their gorgeous concept car 4C, which will soon turn into a production model, will be featured at the Mille Miglia 2011 rally as a special guest.

So even if you don’t like to see a couple of classic cars going up and down a rally course, the presence of this Alfa could be enough reason to go and check it out. The 4C is like the baby of the 8C Competizione with a length of approximately 4 metres and a wheelbase of less than 2.4 metres. It is a full blooded compact sportscar featuring the 1750 turbo petrol engine with direct injection, the “Alfa TCT” twin dry clutch transmission and the Alfa DNA dynamic control selector.

Alfa Romeo Historic Motoring team will turn up three official Museum vehicles at the Mille Miglia 2011, each of which a former participant in the Mille Miglia race, held from 1927 to 1957:

The Alfa Romeo Historic Motoring team will line up the 6C 1500 Super Sport, the “oldest” model, entrusted to the Moceri-Labate crew and identical to the model which Campari and Ramponi won the great Brescia race in 1928. The second vehicle to be entered in the race is a 6C 1750 Gran Sport from 1930, driven by Salvinelli-De Marco, a model which became legendary through the Mille Miglia: it was in a similar 1750 that Nuvolari and Guidotti won in 1930, the edition in which the driver from Mantua achieved a record of 100 km/h average speed over the whole race and the contrast with Varzi, also driving an Alfa Romeo 1750, became the leitmotif for the race. Finally, a 1900 Super Sprint from 1956 completes the official vehicles group: two journalists will drive this coup? with a body of a Touring car, typical of the 1900s, the “sports saloon which wins the races”, prestigious gran turismo in the 1950s, and top of the Alfa Romeo range at the time.

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