Bespoke Alfa Romeo supercar to lead new model onslaught

Alfa Romeo has a recent history of announcing a new five-year product strategy every couple of years, but we’ve not heard any concrete model plans from the Italian brand since 2019.

That’s when the large SUV, the 8C Coupe and the smaller Giulia-based rear-drive GTV coupe promised by the late Sergio Marchionne in 2018 were apparently axed as part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ merger with Peugeot-Citroen in 2019, before new owner Stellantis vowed to make Alfa all-electric by 2027.

But Alfa Romeo reportedly now has a whole heap of new models in the pipeline, including everything from small and large SUVs to a shooting brake and even a bespoke supercar, the latter of which could be greenlit as soon as March next year.

The prospect of a clover-leafed speed machine has been on the cards for months now, but new intel out of Europe suggests the limited-run brand halo is being developed independently of the wider Stellantis group and will not have anything in common with the established Maserati MC20 – or indeed the previously proposed 8C.

“When you visit the museum of Arese, you see so many ideas from our past,” Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato recently told British publication Autocar.

“Yes, we are working on something ‘few of’ for Alfa Romeo. It could be iconic, super-sexy and recognisable as an Alfa Romeo at first sight.

“It’s not done yet, but it’s ongoing. The positioning is ongoing. We have so many fans asking for something special.”

Imparato reportedly referenced the 53-year drought since Alfa Romeo developed and produced its own bespoke platform and said he should have an answer for the interested parties as to the special something in March next year.

Previous comments by the Alfa boss have alluded to a possible connection between this mysterious and all but confirmed halo and the brand’s Formula 1 exploits, suggesting electrification will feature somewhere along the line, thereby yielding a genuine new-generation threat to hybridised McLaren and Ferrari supercars.

The Alfa Romeo Giulia’s force-fed 2.9-litre V6 is earmarked to serve as the heart of the powertrain, but the addition of an electric motor (or two) will inevitably spike outputs up from the GTA’s familiar 397kW/600Nm to well north of 450kW/700Nm, if not 500kW-plus.

If the model is announced in the first quarter of next year it’s more than likely we’ll see it in the metal by mid-2024 at the latest, given Alfa’s pending battery-electric transition due to start the following year.

Imparato said the limited-run supercar is being developed outside of Alfa’s core future model range, which has been signed off until 2027 and will comprise the upcoming Alfa Romeo Tonale, a light SUV sister model to the Jeep Avenger, a larger SUV successor for the Stelvio and an indirect Giulia replacement rumoured to launch with a shooting brake body style.

According to Autocar, the Giulia replacement is understood to be the first Group product underpinned by Stellantis’ next-generation battery-electric architecture.

“It has 5G and new era technology that will bring to market something special,” Imparato said of the new platform.

“With the EV switch, it opens so many opportunities for me for top hats from a design point of view… It opens sedans, it opens a C-segment hatchback, so many interesting things we know.

“The best way for EV is for a Duetto, the sound of silence.”

For anyone currently scratching their heads, the classic series one Alfa Romeo Spider was also known as the Alfa Romeo Duetto, meaning one of the brand’s most iconic models is in pole position for a battery-electric rebirth, but not before the reveal and launch of Alfa’s McLaren-baiting supercar.

What this undoubtedly stunning and expensive model will be called or look like is anyone’s guess for the time being, but design executives have previously hinted the finished product will be as striking as one would expect from an Alfa Romeo supercar, leading some to speculate it will pay homage to the painfully beautiful Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale.

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