With the introduction of the new Alfa Romeo Giulia, the heart of thousands of tiffosis has returned to flutter. Will the brand return to competition? Perhaps. History points in this direction.
Alfa Romeo is motorsport, it always has been. In addition to the commercial and industrial component, where the brand truly fulfills itself is in the automotive competition. Coure Sportivo remember? Some say that the old maxim “win on sunday, sell on monday” has its days numbered. Yes it's true. But perhaps Alfa Romeo is the ultimate exception to that rule.
Anyone who buys an Alfa Romeo buys one because they are passionate about cars. If not, I would buy any other car – apart, of course, from all the qualities and a few more that the brand's new model family might have. How nice it would be to see the new Alfa Romeo Giulia dressed in the Martini colors (highlighted image rendered by X-Tomi).
The Volkswagen Group knows this. You know that Alfa is a brand unlike any other – just visit its 105 years of history. And that's why for years on end the German giant has been throwing money at Sergio Marchionne's table in an attempt to acquire the Italian brand. He failed, as we well know.
Marchionne even said at the time (and very well…) that “there are things that are priceless”. The historic 105-year-old Italian brand is certainly one of those things. Now we need to feed this story with new chapters. And I only know one way to do it: through competition.
How good it would be to see Alfa Romeo back in the German Touring Championship (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters), the DTM…
At a time when the Germans are the reference (Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz), there would be no better way to affirm the return of Alfa Romeo than putting Giulia to beat its rivals at home: in the DTM.
I therefore hope that Alfa Romeo management will turn a deaf ear to the echoes of those who say that car competition is no longer correlated with sales (win on sunday, sell on monday) and open the purse strings by making a car that makes us fall back on times of the Alessandro Nannini and the Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI.
For those of you who, like me, were too young in 1992 to remember the 155 V6 TI clearly, stay with this friendly reminder:
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