Alfa Romeo plotting an internal combustion supercar send off
New report suggests Alfa is tooling up to go McLaren hunting before it goes all-electric mid-decadeAlfa Romeo could be about to re-enter the mid-engined supercar market with a reborn Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale as soon as next year if recent comments made by senior brand executives are anything to go by.
, Alfa Romeo top brass are planning to launch an all-new mid-ship supercar to act a send-off to the brand’s rich history of soulful internal combustion engines.The mystery model is tipped to be powered by an uprated and possibly hybridised version of the Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm’s 397kW/600Nm twin-turbo 2.9-litre V6.
The hybrid tech would more than likely be derived from Alfa’s Formula 1 involvement and could result in outputs well north of 450kW/700Nm, making the Alfa supercar a legitimate rival for the latest electrified sports cars from McLaren and Ferrari.
“Formula 1 is a kind of parallel with where Alfa Romeo wants to be today and new product,” CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato told Car.
“It’s consistent with my history, because Alfa has been living since 1910, in a world of performance and in the world of Formula 1.
“It’s totally consistent with my DNA and the only motorsport discipline that stretches worldwide is F1.”
In terms of a platform, Alfa announced plans for a new halo supercar back in 2018 before the formation of Stellantis but the project was ultimately moth-balled when Alfa’s sales failed to live up to expectations at the time.
The platform itself was reportedly intended to be an all-carbon-fibre monocoque similar to the one used for the Alfa Romeo 4C but obviously enhanced for the drastically higher performance requirements and application.
Whether or not Stellantis has given the greenlight to resume development on that project we don’t know, however, it’s more likely the tub will come courtesy of Alfa’s sister brand, Maserati, which has just launched a new mid-ship supercar of its own, in the form of the Maserati MC20.
But while the brand undoubtedly has the hardware and knowhow to undertake such a project, the best indication of a new supercar has so far actually come from Alfa’s design boss Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, who said: “We will surprise you. Maybe. At some point. Soon.”
Asked directly if an internal combustion flagship was on the cards for Alfa or not, the designer reportedly grinned and shrugged.
“I think you know what that means but I’m not saying anything,” Mesonero-Romanos told Car.
We won’t have to wait too long to find out because Alfa Romeo is going all-electric as of 2025, meaning any new petrol-powered speed machine would have to appear within the next three years or so.
Rumour has it a concept vehicle will debut sometime next year ahead of a 2024 launch, however, as you might expect, production isn’t anticipated to be high-volume.
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