While a trio of the dramatic new Grande Punto Abarth S2000 rally cars were fighting for position at the front of the Croatia Rally over the weekend, another exciting Italian machine was also busily impressing the crowds - a Alfa GT 1.9 Q2 Multijet running as the '00' course car.

This year the prestigious INA Croatia Delta Rally - now in its 34th edition - was promoted to full FIA European Rally Championship status and in doing so it attracted a whole crop of top foreign drivers all chasing series points. The Croatia Rally is one of the nation's most popular motorsport events with huge crowds lining the stages, and the three Abarth-mounted rally stars: Pole Michal Solowow, Turk Volkan Isik and Italian Corrado Fontana, were each right in the thick of the action from the start. In fact they all posted fastest stage times as the four-wheel-drive, 2.0-litre Super2000 machine claimed 10 quickest times on the 18 stages that made up this years two-leg race.

However, these weren't the only potent Italian cars to grab the attention of the thousand's who were crammed in along the fast, twisting asphalt stages, as running at '00' was an Alfa GT Q2 'safety car'. With its flowing Bertone-penned lines the gorgeous coupé oozed Italian style and panache just as evocatively as any of the highly-aggressive, pumped-up rally machines in the thick of the action on the 34th INA Croatia Delta Rally.

The Alfa GT Q2 was driven over the two days by Sebastijan Bertol, who is the official dealer for Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo in Croatia. Alongside was co-driver Goran Jasenko. Sebastijan has gained plenty of experience on the rally tracks, having driven a GpN Alfa 156 2.0 16v in Croatia for nearly a decade, but this would be a new experience. The '00' Alfa GT Q2 is a road car though, albeit with some modifications: larger turbo, additional intercooler, carbon dynamic airbox, new exhaust system, remapped ECU, uprated suspension, OZ wheels and GTA brakes (4-pot with 305mm discs) and of course with the aid of the GT Q2's innovative new self-locking differential.

Running as course car was an ideal opportunity for Sebastijan to fully try the 'hot' GT out in very demanding conditions. "The GT Q2 is my day-to-day car but I can't really make full use of the modifications on the public roads," says Sebastijan," so the rally was an ideal opportunity. However, running on standard road tyres we suffered from quite a lot of tyre heat issues so couldn't drive that fast, plus this is my road car - I didn't want to damage it."

Running a road car in front of the full 100-strong field on the Croatia Rally is always going to be a tough task; the car must be able to firstly negotiate the dirty tracks on the first run over the fast stages and then cope with the rocks thrown up by the competitors and strewn across the fast tarmac as most of the tests are run three times.
 

"The third stage, Budinjak was tough on us," recalls Sebastijan, "its 33 km long and the road was very bad and very hard, we were driving carefully and had big problems with the tyres as they were overheating. It was almost like driving in the rain - very slippery. It was fun though. Okic, which was run three times, in particular is a stage were you drive through villages, with lots of people cheering us on through the tiny streets. Plesivica is a stage in the forests and we were able to drive with lower tyre pressures because it wasn't so hot and the tyres worked very well." The final stage of the first leg, and the ninth of the rally was Bundan; run just once it was held in the city's extensive parking areas and presented no particular challenge for the GT Q2 crew.

After a very demanding first day, the second leg was quite the opposite. "The day was perfect," says Sebastijan. "Very good roads with very fast curves, day two was sunny, hot and we learned a lot about the pressures required by our 'normal' road tyres after we discussed them with some of the professional drivers in rally overnight, who I have to say were impressed by the looks of the GT Q2. We put lower pressures in tyres and that was much better."

Three fast stages, each run three times, comprised the second leg. "Laz is the stage where the road is so slippery that sometimes we thought that the road was wet so we drove carefully," recalls Sebastijan. "Samci is very fast at one time we showed 200 km/h on the speedometer in car. Actually on that stage [SS11] we would have been placed 28th overall if we had been competing." A highly impressive performance by the sleek front-wheel-drive 'turbodiesel Alfa GT Q2. A road car on standard tyres, this was a performance turned in on Croatia's premier rally, an event that holds full FIA-sanctioned international status and counts towards the ERC. "The clock was impressive, the GT was able to set great times all day," he added, saying the car ran faultlessly stage-after-stage.

"Sljeme is held on a mountain," Sebastijan says. "A very long stage where we must drive carefully because in the mountains when you go up you can drive fast but you can use to much the tyres and when we have to go down you must brake very hard and the brakes were good, but on one run we didn't have much grip in the tyres and that test was a little hard to drive." Safely, and having impressed onlookers with its ability as well as its looks, the Alfa GT Q2 concluded its task.