At this
year's Techno Classica, which opens tomorrow
and runs until Sunday (April 14), Alfa Romeo
will present seven historic cars from its
collection, including the 155 V6 Ti which
achieved much racing
success in Germany
in the 1990s; it
will also hand a
German debut to the
production 4C.
This year
celebrating its 25th anniversary and having
become one of the most important in the
world, the German show is dedicated to
collector's cars, a constantly growing
sector that is thoroughly pervading
contemporary society, adding value to the
modern car sector.
To welcome
enthusiasts and experts, Alfa Romeo is on
hand with an eye-catching exhibition area
that enhances the most authentic passion for
motoring of today and yesteryear. Visitors
will have the chance to get a close-up look
at the brand-new Alfa Romeo 4C surrounded by
seven legendary racing cars: Alfa Romeo RL
Targa Florio (1923), Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ
"stub tail" (1960), Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ
(1963), Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2 (1965), Alfa
Romeo 33 Stradale prototype (1967), Alfa
Romeo 33/2 "Daytona" (1968) and Alfa Romeo
155 V6 Ti DTM (1993).
The public
will also have the opportunity to discover
one of the most innovative technological
contents of the new 'compact supercar': its
carbon fibre chassis. To emphasise its
lightness, the distinctive structure is
suspended on the stand and is surrounded by
a transparent profile of the Alfa Romeo 4C
to help visitors contextualise the position
of the body in relation to the body of the
car.
Alfa Romeo 4C
The Alfa
Romeo 4C is inspired by the century-old
tradition of Alfa Romeo. The name '4C'
refers to Alfa Romeo's great sporting
tradition: the acronyms 8C and 6C in the
1930s and 1940s distinguished cars - both
racing and non - fitted with the powerful
'eight cylinders' and the innovative 'six
cylinders', confirming in its design layout
and construction the goal of achieving the
weight/power ratio of an authentic supercar,
less than 4 kg/HP, yet focusing not merely
on the maximum power delivered, but on
limiting the weight to guarantee maximum
agility and top performance.
Designed
by Alfa Romeo engineers and made at the
Maserati plant in Modena, the coupé with two
bucket seats uses technologies and materials
derived from the 8C Competizione - carbon,
aluminium, rear-wheel drive - and
technologies from standard models from Alfa
Romeo currently on the market, but developed
to enhance the sports appeal of the new car
to the full. This is demonstrated by the new
1750 Turbo Petrol engine with direct
injection and aluminium block, the
"Alfa TCT" twin dry clutch
transmission and the Alfa DNA selector with
the brand-new Race mode.
The new
Alfa Romeo 4C will be available for purchase
in 2013, marking the return of the Italian
brand to the United States.
Seven
outstanding historic Alfa Romeo cars
The seven
historic cars from the Alfa Romeo Historic
Museum that are on display in Essen create
the ideal setting for the Alfa Romeo 4C.
They assert the unique position of the brand
in the international automotive scene, a
heritage made up of cars and designers,
races and engines, style and innovation that
have marked the technological progress and
sports events of the 20th century.
Spotlights
are trained on the Alfa Romeo RL Targa
Florio (1923) that on the one hand calls to
mind Alfa Romeo's first victory at the
legendary Targa Florio in Sicily, and on the
other marks the birth of the Quadrifoglio
Verde as the symbol inextricably linked to
the sporting success of Alfa Romeo. As a
good luck charm, a cloverleaf was painted to
counter the racing number 13 assigned to Ugo
Sivocci on the bonnet of the car he drove to
victory. This year the Quadrifoglio Verde is
celebrating its 90th anniversary, a record
that since then still continues to mark
several particularly sporty versions of
standard production Alfa Romeo models.
In 2013
Alfa Romeo is also celebrating the 50th
anniversary of Autodelta. Autodelta is its
official racing division established in
March 1963 with the goal of managing Alfa
Romeo's official return to competitive
sports after withdrawing from the F1 World
Championship in 1951, in which it won its
second title with the 'Alfetta'. That is why
Alfa Romeo decided to create a special
racing organisation physically detached from
the production plant and having enough
discretionary power to quickly take
technical and sporting decisions.
The most
prominent figure of Autodelta's fascinating
history is without a doubt the charismatic
engineer Carlo Chiti. His first work was the
Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ, the sporty GT with an
all-aluminium body made by Zagato that took
one victory after another in its
displacement class. Proudly standing beside
the 1963 version at the Alfa Romeo stand in
Essen is its 1965 evolution, called TZ2,
which amazed the world with its body made of
synthetic material and at which visitors can
take a close-up look.
In 1968
Alfa Romeo laid the foundation to win two
Constructors' World Championships in a row
with the Tipo 33/2. The 2-litre V8 engine of
the sports prototype is again one of Carlo
Chiti's creations. The Tipo 33/2 shown at
the 'Techno Classica'
corresponds to the configuration for the
'Daytona 24 Hour'. In 1968 the Italian Nino
Vaccarella and his German teammate Udo
Schütz took a highly acclaimed victory in
their class on the high-speed Florida track.
Space has
also been set aside for the powerful Alfa
Romeo 155 V6 TI that in 1993 won the
hard-fought German touring championship (DTM),
the most important automotive competition of
its kind in Europe. The only four-wheel
drive racing car of the DTM, the car driven
by former Formula 1 driver Nicola Larini
thrashed the German competition in 10 out of
the 20 races contended.
Lastly,
visitors of the German motor show will have
the chance to appreciate two particularly
rare vintage cars that are the early
ancestors of the Alfa Romeo 4C: the 1960
Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ and the Alfa Romeo
Tipo 33. The first - by designer Franco
Scaglione and built by Zagato - immediately
proved it was on the cutting edge owing to
its extremely streamlined all-aluminium body
that reduced the car's weight considerably.
The so-called 'snub tail' line of the body
was not only a masterpiece of aerodynamics,
but it proved to be an advantage for the
Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ on both the road and
the track. The Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 was
another of Scaglione's designs. The
two-seater coupé carried competition
technological solutions underneath the
streamlined body, and today it is one of the
world's most coveted vintage cars. The first
specimen built for the 'Techno Classica', a
prototype of 1967, is on display in Essen.
