Club Alfa Sport

A very typical situation for any more or less large company – hierarchy expressed in vehicles that employees drive. As you look over the parking lot, one could see all the various cars parked outside – while vice president would be driving a souped up Mercedes or Jaguar, a manager could be seen parking his Jeep Grand Cherokee or Ford Mustang, while a regular employee would be getting around in a Civic or Camry or something equally modest.

Of course there are no written rules and no one would be able to formally forbid a junior agent to roll in on a Lincoln Navigator or a Dodge Viper, but as the history shows over and over, one would not stay with that company for too long. And yet the smart Europeans, not wanting to settle for driving a “yawn-mobile” and yet very conscientious of  all the dangers of backstabbing in climbing the career ladder found a way around it. This was as simple, as buying an initially small (thus not creating a wrong impression) car, but with a hot engine and plenty of attitude.

Good examples of such cars could be hot hatches,  that don’t mess with the company hierarchy and yet are a pure pleasure to drive, whether it’s VW Golf GTI or Ford Focus RS or Subaru Impreza. And Alfa is more than iconic in supplying the small cars that could easily take to the places, where the boss’s thumb doesn’t reach. We are referring to the new Alfa Romeo Giulietta and to show how well it performs we chose to compare it to the BMW 1st series, with the help of our Western and Eastern European colleagues. The comparative test took place on Germany’s impeccable Autobahns and in our opinion well proved the point.

The new Giulietta is the car that made to turn heads – with a decreased trunk, and prominent hood, and typical Italian styling. Inside, the cockpit is very stylish, though not very typical for Alfas. This time Alfa has a new chassis, a new engine and comes with the new long-lasting assembly quality. It’s opponent this time is the Bavarian 1st series – ultra compact, with refined maneuverability and the styling of the bigger BMWs. Both hot hatches boast 170 hp, though are of two different mentalities: Alfa utilizes 1.4 TB 16V MultiAir turbo engine, while BMW gets the same amount of power from its 2L 4 cylinder engine, though Alfa has a bit more torque 250 against 210. Both cars use 6-speed manual gear boxes, while Alfa is front wheel drive, when BMW  traditionally comes with a rear-wheel drive.

Giulietta has gained some more interior space, it is 13 cm longer than its opponent, it’s wider and has a massive front, helping it better realize its torque on its FWD concept. Despite the greater size, Alfa engineers were able to keep the weight down to 1365 kg, which is actually 10 kg lighter than the BMW.

Interior inside of Alfa is of a very good quality, though it doesn’t resemble much the traditional Alfa cockpits, may be except for the steering wheel. It also comes with a DNA switch allowing to switch between the various settings. BMW place of the driver looks respectable and in line with the bigger models, and yet as they, it is definitely not as elegant as it once was, before BMW started its strange experiments with styling under the leadership of the new head designer. I guess it could be compared to Android smart phones, where the form and shape is sacrificed for the sake of the gadgets. The rear seats in both cars don’t offer a lot of space, there is less space than even in VW Golf, though Alfa is a little roomier.

And here is the main part, since we are talking about hot hatches, how do they perform on the road? Will Alfa live to its bold styling and claims? The first impression doesn’t let one down – the small turbo fueled power train eagerly starts its work, pleasantly inhaling and exhaling the fed in air and rewarding its owner with a “basso profundo” tone. And in deed the new, technically advanced engine fits well under the hood of Giulietta. The intake camshafts are replaced with the hydraulic actuating drive, the combination that is both more powerful and (together with start-stop system) more fuel-efficient than the previous one – the fuel efficiency is roughly 5,6 litres per 100 km.

In the same time BMW is not able to reach the same index, settling at 6,6 l/100 km, despite direct injection and a similar start/stop system. More so, one has to rev it pretty high to be able to adequately accelerate. Obviously a 6-line in would give a different result. Meanwhile Alfa shines not only in the engine department – Guiletta provides uniquely precise handling and makes negotiating curves a simple task. It makes it so simple that even BMW, renowned for its advanced steering and with a better mass distribution due to RWD, can’t measure up. And switching the DNA selector to the Dynamic position enables helping the steering with the use of the accelerator pedal. This Alfa has a harmonized and well-balanced handling, while BMW strangely fights strong vertical oscillations while negotiating the curves.

So has the time to change the icons finally come?! We will not say that BMW 1^st series will not find its fans and buyers – it already has its following and sells well, while Alfa once again rolls out a hot-tempered car with a better attitude, which sells in Europe for only €22,400 against €27,150 for BMW 120i.

Rejoice, Alfa Romeo fans! The time has come to look into the past and see for yourself all the key stones that have made Alfa Romeo become the legend it is.  The following set of articles will cover all the major turning points in the development of the celebrated brand.

In the very beginning

As of now, the legendary brand of Alfa Romeo has passed over the verge of a century. That first 100 years of its history was marked by a great many of obstacles, racing victories, as well as several times when the company was on the brink of going bankrupt. Nonetheless, all this time, the Italian designers, madly in love with the cars they created, managed to produce some of the most unforgettable, and heart-throbbing legends, be it an Alfa Romeo Juliette or Alfa Montreal.

However, a careful look requires a serious examination of the history, chapter by chapter. In the beginning there was only Alfa, (no Romeo), when in 1906, a Frenchman and a true pioneer of automobile construction Alexandre Darracq decided to build a car factory in the South of Italy to produce low cost version of the French affordable car Darracq.  However he was soon to find out that the hot-tempered Italian drivers would not buy his cheap carts equipped with 1600cc engines. On top of that, the affairs in the head office in France were totally getting out of hand.  In the beginning of the 20th century the car market was already slowing down.  As the result, towards the end of the year 1909 the branch of the Darracq factory, erected in the industrial suburb of Portello, in close vicinity to Milan, was sold to a group of local investors, who chose to call it ‘Anonima Lomarda Fabbrica Automobili’. The further abbreviation to ALFA, on the 24^th of June 1910 is regarded as the benchmark, whom which the history of the brand starts its count.

It was now the time to produce something of their own and the first non-Darracq car manufactured by the company in 1910 happened to be the 24HP, designed by Guiseppe Merosi and his team. The name of 24 was derived from a rather strange designation of tax schedules, where the engine displacement was combined with horse powers. The thing which will later be called the “Alfa Romeo Spirit” was already present in that first car build from the ground up by Alfa engineers. This mid-size model 24HP had ground breaking single overhead camshaft, aluminum oil pan of the crankshaft, and the rpm could go as high as 2400rotation per minute- this was truly innovative. As the result the 1910 model was able to produce an impressive for the time 42 horse powers and top the speed of 100 km an hour. And not stopping on the achieved  A.L.F.A. entered the world of motor racing, with two of their drivers Franchini and Ronzoni who competed in the 1911 on two 24 HP models.

To be continued…

This may actually turn out to be crushing news for the Alfa fans who expected it to return to the North American soil, as soon as possible. There were many rumours, and it seemed, at least, for several months now, that everything has been pointing to Alfa Romeo returning to North American soil around the end of 2012, after being absent for several years. Car enthusiasts have all been excitingly rubbing their hands in anticipation, mulling over the thought of acquiring something like 4C in the near future. However, it appears that the president and CEO of the concern, Sergio Marchionne isn’t fully satisfied with the design of the currently produced cars that will have to pave the way for a successful return of Alfa to Canada and USA.

Sergio Marchionne is particularly concerned with the Giulia, as this will be the first model to be offered on the continent. He also wants to put more effort into the replacements of the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Avenger (which will be sharing the same platform, engines and most major components). As it was reported, he repeatedly rejected the proposals of the team entrusted with the development of the models, which all has led to postponing of the introduction of the great Italian brand to the middle of 2013.

Meanwhile, Fiat, who is the parent company of Alfa Romeo and the concern that has in its possession a 25% stake in Chrysler, has not commented in anyway on this information, which leaked to Club Alfa Sport via an anonymous source.