Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Alfa Romeo Motorcycle With A 4-Cylinder Boxer Engine!

From time to time we like crossing over to the wonderful world of two-wheels. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to stumble upon really weird creations like the 3wheeler Mercedes SLK or the Alfa bike you’re seeing here that attempt to mix characteristics from both worlds -cars and motorcycles. Not always with the same success apparently. While there’s no info on the heavily modified bike, it seems to be wearing a 4cylinder Alfa Romeo boxer motor combined with some parts that look to have come from a BMW motorcycle boxer engine. -More pictures after the jump

Via: Autoblog.it

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Autoblog gets schooled by Alfa Romeo in Italy



Click above for a high-res gallery of our time in the Alfa Romeo driving school.

Let's take a quick vote here. We won't be tabulating the totals, so we'll keep this unofficial, but we want you to be honest. How many of you, deep inside, wonder if you couldn't have made it as a professional racing driver? Maybe not the next Michael Schumacher, but at least a promising prospect. If only you had started out in karting at a young enough age, kept yourself in shape and found the sponsorship to fund what could have been a budding career. You look at the racing line around the corners of city streets on your commute, view a twisting mountain road as a challenge instead of an inconvenience, and offer friends unsolicited (and seldom appreciated) advice on their driving habits.

Starting to sound familiar? It did to us, but that was before Alfa Romeo invited us to take part in its Guida Sicura advanced driving program at the Varano circuit in northern Italy. While we may have gone in with delusions of tire-smoking grandeur before we arrived, they were all completely deflated after our first couple of laps around the track with a former rally champion or Ferrari factory driver riding shotgun helpfully putting us in our place. But by the end of the day those baseless fantasies were replaced by a marked improvement in our driving competence. Read on to see how the day unfolded.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Alfa Romeo to get crossovers, hybrids and stop/start



Car-obsessed Americans will get another chance at the historic Alfa Romeo brand soon enough, as the company is planning on a resurgence for the U.S. market. As is the current trend among automakers, along with the beautiful range of automobiles that the Italian marque will be bringing to our shores, it plans on offering a crossover as well. Expect something in line with BMW's current utility vehicle offerings. What's more interesting to us at AutoblogGreen, though, is a possible hybrid system snagged from Fiat, which owns Alfa. Even if the full hybrid drivetrain is left off the docket, at the very least, a mild hybrid system in the form of stop/start will almost assuredly be available.

As an aside, take a good look at the Kamal concept from 2003. Looks a bit like the Subaru Tribeca before its last redesign, wouldn't you say?

Friday, May 23, 2008

Alfa Romeo confirms SUV for 2010



If Alfa Romeo is to make a successful return to the North American market, it will need to rely on more than its sexy Italian image. On these shores, that means two contradictory elements are needed in its line-up: sport-utes and green tech. Towards that end, Alfa's newly-appointed CEO, Fiat Group wunderkind Luca de Meo, has confirmed two new developments for the company. The first is the production of a sport-utility or crossover vehicle. The second is a start-stop engine system, possibly to be bolstered by hybrid technology borrowed from parent company Fiat.

The crossover, previewed by the Kamal concept at the 2003 Geneva show, is scheduled to debut in 2010. It is anticipated to be based on the 159 platform, which already supports Alfa's Q4 all-wheel-drive system and offers a range of gasoline and turbodiesel engines. Upon its arrival to market, the new Italian SUV will face tough competition from Germany's best compact SUVs, including the Mercedes GLK, BMW X3, Volkswagen Tiguan and Audi Q5.