Top in Automotive: Alfa Videos

Showing posts with label Alfa Videos. Show all posts

Watch a Kawasaki Undertake Alfa's New MiTo Quadrifoglio Verde SBK

Friday, February 1, 2013

The arrival of the new limited edition Alfa Romeo MiTo Quadrifoglio Verde SBK in the UK after its world premiere at last year's Paris Motor Show, sparked a promotional idea into the heads of the Italian brand; since the car is inspired and named after the Superbike championship, how about placing it together with a racing bike on the track?

Alfa Romeo called in precision driver Paul Swift and British Superbike rider Chris ‘The Stalker’ Walker to perform a neat stunt at the Silverstone circuit. Swift drove the Alfa over a ramp tilting it on one side so Walker could ride under it in a Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja British Superbike before speeding out to the other side.

Monday, January 14, 2013

If there's one Alfa Romeo model that may come to the U.S. after all, it's the upcoming production version of the 4C mid-engine sports coupe concept that was first seen at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show.

A reader from the online edition of Autoweek magazine captured a heavily camouflaged prototype of the 4C testing on a Michigan expressway last Friday, January 11.

Monday, December 17, 2012

It's been a year and nine months since Alfa Romeo pulled the covers off the impressive 4C Sports Coupe concept at the 2011 Geneva motor show, and even though it had been initially suggested that we could see the final production model on sale this year, obviously that never happened.

Alfa Romeo officials have said that this may happen sometime in 2013, but with the Italian brand, one can never take these statements for granted – Alfa's on and off return to the U.S. market is a prime example…

Well, while we're waiting for the Italians to give us a date on the only interesting model it has in store for us , a driver in Italy spotted a camouflaged prototype of the 4C coupe -ahem- stranded on the side of a road.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Just like carmakers in real life, independent designers drawing conceptual studies on paper or on computer screens will often revisit their work and implement styling changes to evolve their projects and/or possibly even address criticism about certain aspects of the design.

This seems to be the case with Italian designer Marco Procaccini from MP Car Design and his Alfa Romeo Orazio Satta, which we first showed you back in September.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Some of you may be too young to remember (or find it hard to believe), but there was a time when Alfa Romeo rolled out rear-wheel drive mainstream model, which even in their base variants, were a treat to the eyes and the hands of drivers.

The Giulia that was launched in the early 1960s is one of those cars. Weighing just 1,000 kg (2,205 pounds), it was powered by an alloy DOHC four-cylinder petrol engine in 1.3- and 1.6-liter displacements with power outputs ranging from 74 to 100HP, coupled to a four or five-speed manual gearboxes.

At the time, the trend of updating models nearly three years after launch and then releasing a replacement in another two to three years was non-existent.

Friday, September 14, 2012

If you think about it, one of the few marques in Europe that has the dynamics, the name and history to truly compete against the dominant premium carmakers from Germany such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, in all categories and on a global scale, is Alfa Romeo. Which is probably why the VW Group has showed such an interest in the firm.

Too bad the Fiat Group never really allocated the sources or the time to rebuild and refocus the famed Italian brand as a real premium automaker.

In fact, last we heard, Sergio Marchionne has kicked the can down the road (again…) postponing Alfa Romeo's re-entry to the U.S. market and delaying many of its planned models like the 159 replacement.

But we're dragging away from our main story that is a design study from an old acquaintance of CarScoop, Italian designer Marco Procaccini, who sent us these renderings and a video of his newest project.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Alfa Romeo, the famous Italian brand that should have been among the Fiat group's first priorities but which has been heavily neglected and steered towards the wrong direction over the years, had a strong presence at last weekend's 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Among other impressive production models on show was a yellow-colored example of the built-to-order by Zagato, Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale that is based on the running gear of the V10-powered Dodge Viper ACR.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

While not a household name yet, Ugur Sahin, a Turkish car designer based in the Netherlands, will ring a bell for many of our regular readers who will remember him from past projects such as the 2007 Ferrari Dino, 2010 Aston Martin Gauntlet and more recently, the 2011 Soleil Anadi.

The latter is of particular interest as it's the production version of Sahin's 2007 Chevrolet Corvette Z03 design study.

The coach built Corvette was presented in the flesh at last year's 2011 Top Marques car show in Monaco, with Soleil planning to produce a total of 300 cars priced at US$299,995 a piece.

Now, Sahin has provided Carscoop with details about his newest project for a two-door, front-engined Alfa Romeo sports car named the C12 GTS Concept.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Felice Bianchi Anderloni, the man who founded the Milan-based Carozzeria Touring, had once said that “Weight is the enemy, air is the obstacle”. With a brief to design a car that would be “insensitive to the wind”, Touring’s designers created the now famous, Alfa Romeo 1900-based C52 Disco Volante racing concept back in 1952.

Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the impressive concept, Touring Superleggera unveiled the Disco Volante 2012 at the 82nd Geneva Motor Show which will be produced in a limited number.

It’s a two-seater coupe with a front-central (i.e. placed behind the front axle) engine and a transaxle drivetrain.

The new Disco Volante features an integrated front bonnet and wings and a distinctive rear end, while at the same time borrowing some details from the 1952 original like the partly covered front wheels and the pronounced waistline.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Bet you weren't expecting Arabian style drifting (called hagwalah) to find its way into a mainstream music video clip from a British female rapper. Yet all this took place in M.I.A.'s brand new song called "Bad Girls" which fuses the sounds of Middle Eastern music with rap lyrics.

The 36-year old singer of Sri Lankan descent, whose real name is Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, filmed the entire music video in the Middle East showing local drivers with a selection of European cars like the Alfa Romeo 156 and the BMW 3-Series hagwalah-ing.

Drift over the break to watch the music clip.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Alfa Romeo's British arm set out to find whether a car could play ice hockey for its latest promo video on the Giulietta compact hatch.

The answer to the question is yes if you're an automaker and don't have a problem renting out an ice skating ring for hours on end and more importantly, if you don't mind the occasional mishap, because as one YouTube commentator pointed out, we find it hard to believe that the Giulietta didn't crash into the wall at around 1 minute and 17 seconds into the video…

Jump past the break to watch the clip.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

If the Porsche 911 is the model that even its creators couldn't kill, then Alfa Romeo is surely its brand equivalent in the automotive world. It’s not that Fiat's management didn’t try (willingly or not), but in a peculiar way, Alfa (unlike Saab, for instance) always made a comeback.

Maybe it's the Italian flair that makes you forget sins of the past or the niggles of its current portfolio (Brera seating position, anyone?), but the Alfisti remain faithful to their beloved brand.

One such Alfa Romeo enthusiasts is independent French designer Vincent Montreuil. He may not be Italian, but then again, no one ever said that Alfas were adored only in their home country.

While the Americans are still waiting for the company to stay true to its promise and eventually return to the U.S., Vincent created some pretty convincing renderings of a 21st century Alfa Romeo coupe.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Bradley Price is 31-year-old product designer from Brooklyn, New York, with a special passion for cars and a pretty creative mind. Combine those two and you get an interesting mix.

A couple of years ago, while driving his red 1983 Alfa Romeo GTV6 2.5 (yes, he's our kind of guy), Price had an inspiration: design a line of watches loosely inspired by sports car instrument panel gauges. Upon returning home, Price went to the drawing board and began rendering watch faces based on car gauges he admired.

The Brooklyn native continued to work on the designs of both the watch faces and casings and ended up creating a new company named Autodromo for his products.

“There are so many wonderful gauge designs from the 1960s and ’70s that I love,” Price told the New York Times in a recent interview. “I did some research and saw that no one was doing that for watches.”

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Over the past few months, Zagato's limited production run Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale has made several public appearances including a pass from the Concours d'Elegance Uniques Special Ones event in Florence, Italy, this past September, just before the Frankfurt Motor Show.

If you follow the break, you can get a closer look at Zagato's unique creation from the motor show events as well as on the road.

As a reminder, the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale is a road-going follow-up to the 2010 TZ3 Corsa racing car study. But while the one-off TZ3 Corsa was built on the Alfa Romeo 8C, Zagato chose to use the Dodge Viper ACR as a base for the TZ3 Stradale.

Monday, July 25, 2011

If Alfa Romeo follows its most recent timetable, the 4C mid-engine sports coupe should arrive in European showrooms sometime in the first half of 2012 with a few examples making their way into the U.S. by the end of the year.

But let's not forget, it's the Fiat Group we're talking about here; the same company that has turned Alfa Romeo's U.S. introduction into something a joke by constantly pushing back the launch for the past decade.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Thanks to the interwebs, we now have the first video clip of Zagato’s spanking new Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale that was introduced to the world just last week. Hiding underneath the Italian suit are the platform and the mechanical hardware of the now-obsolete Dodge Viper ACR including the 8.4-liter V10 engine. Zagato has not yet given information regarding output and performance numbers.

The Italian coachbuilder plans to build only 9 examples of the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale with the American heart, with the first three cars having already been spoken for. To get a look of the new coachbuilt Alfa in the flesh and on the road, just hit the jump below.

Monday, March 7, 2011

“What do you do when the power of an engine is no longer sufficient?” asks Stephan Lenior, the man behind Squadra Tuning, on his company’s website. While the solution for the majority would have been a heavily modified or perhaps a completely different engine altogether, for the owner of the Alfa Romeo tuning company based in Holland, the answer to that question was far more radical and complex.

To make a very long story short, Stephan’s solution to u the performance of his Alfa Romeo GTV V6 involved the fitment of a second six-cylinder engine at the back. Easier said than done of course, with the project turning out to be a rather complicated and time-consuming process.

Stephan documented the entire build on his company’s website and if our Google’s translation is correct (any help from our Dutch speaking readers would be appreciated, especially on the matter of the transmission), Stephan took a 3.2-liter V6 along with the sub frame and suspension bits from an Alfa Romeo 166 and placed them in the rear section of the Italian coupe. Together with the GTV’s front-mounted 3.0-liter V6, the two engines produce a combined output of 487-horsepower.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

I know some of our readers will disagree, hell, even some of the folks here at Carscoop will beg to differ, nevertheless, I'm going to say it: I'm utterly disappointed with the styling of Alfa Romeo's 4C Concept, which is slated to enter production in 2012. Alfa had a unique chance to redefine its design language with its first mainstream rear-wheel drive model in decades but instead chose to add the Mickey Mouse - bug face treatment to a body that looks awfully similar to the Lotus Elise.

The specific styling cues may work for the 8C Competizione but if you ask me, the 4C looks just as silly as the MiTo does. Granted; the true essence of the 4C Concept lays under the skin and in particular the mid-engine / rear-wheel drive architecture, but would it be much to ask for some of that styling magic Alfa Romeo has served us over the years?

As always, feel free to agree or disagree in our comments section below.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

A "spy" video showing an Alfa Romeo 4C GTA and Spider has been circulating around the internet lately, with some screen shots even making their way on British car magazine Autoexpress which posted a story on its website the other day.

We had our doubts about its authenticity ever since we first saw the film last week, and today these suspicions were confirmed after we came in contact with Marco Procaccini from MPCARDESIGN who told us that he made the video as part of a new (independent) Alfa Romeo project he is working on. Apparently, someone got hold of Mario's video, and tried to pass it on as a scoop, duping many people in the process.

Friday, February 11, 2011

When the Nissan Versa was launched in Australia as the Tiida, many automotive watchers were excited by the prospect of blending Renault’s European flair with Nissan’s Japanese reliability. “Here,” they said, “Is a car that’ll please everyone.”

What they got was a narrow-bodied subcompact with so-so styling, a plasticy dashboard, a shocking lack of equipment and an overinflated price tag. Not to mention Kim Cattrall in the TV spots. If this sounds strangely familiar to our older readers, you’re right on the money. Twenty-three years before the crossbred Tiida hit Australian shores, another mongrel was being birthed in Europe.