Italian manufacturers Alfa Romeo and Maserati have had a busy week, announcing a variety of planned new products, including sporty coupes amid the usual “Us too!” EV exclamations.
First, Maserati has shown off a silhouette teaser image of its forthcoming Alfieri sports coupe. Not-at-all confusingly named, the Alfieri will potentially offer buyers the choice of three Ferrari-engineered powertrains, including the inevitable electric one.
That’ll be important though, as Maserati used the same future product presentation to announce it is ditching diesel engines and replacing them with an entire sub-brand of electro-themed conveyances, called Maserati Blue.
No, us neither.
The more exciting news comes courtesy of Alfa Romeo, which is promising not one, but two new performance models.
The first will be nothing less than the 8C mid-engined supercar, boasting 520kW-plus power and hybrid-assisted four-wheel drive. It will level both barrels at the likes of the McLaren 720S and the Lamborghini Aventador SV.
As if that’s not good enough, Alfa has also announced something else we’re excited about — the return of the GTV badge.
Alfa Romeo will produce what is essentially a two-door coupe version of the lovely Giulia Quadrifoglio sedan, with a heap of power, seating for four (well, four lithe Italian supermodels) and 50:50 weight distribution.
It’ll put the BMW M4 and Mercedes-AMG C63 S Coupe on notice.
Lunga vita all ‘Italia!
Lamborghini says ‘no grazie’ to Paris motor show
Lamborghini is one of a number of brands that will not attend the biennial motor show in Paris this year. Photo / Supplied
Lamborghini will sit out the biennial Paris Motor Show for the second time in four years, rather huffily following parent company Volkswagen’s decision not to pack its bags for Paris this year.
The Paris show alternates with Frankfurt to host what is considered the “big” European industry shows each year, but the move serves to feed the elephant in the room an enormous bundle of hay.
The elephant in the room is that, all-of-a-sudden in an increasingly digital world, gargantuan circus-like motor shows are no longer seen by an increasing number of manufacturers as the only way to shop their new wares.
Volkswagen’s other sub-brands — Audi, Porsche, Skoda and SEAT — are all still expected to unfurl their respective blankets at the Paris show in October. But elsewhere Ford, and Nissan together with its luxury sub-brand Infiniti has already said it won’t be there.
Attending the shows can be a financially crippling exercise, even for the biggest brands.
More-and-more it seems, companies such as Volkswagen are banking their croissant and coffee budgets (not to mention the airfreight involved in shipping vast temporary brand palaces around the place) in favour of localised customer-focused events.
That keeps those pesky motoring journos at arm’s length, too, of course.
The shady companies behind international motor shows are feeling the resistance, too.
The Detroit show — long-endangered due to a flagging American car industry and rival events in Los Angeles and New York attracting more of the limelight — has had so many brands pull out over the years, it’s looking at shifting the show to another part of the calendar in a bid to get them all back onboard.
Held every January, attracting European, Japanese and
Chinese automotive visitors to beleaguered Detroit appears
hard enough in theory, let alone during the winter blizzards that inevitably greet attendees.
Trees tremble as Kimi threatens return to WRC
Finnish newspaper Llta-Sanomat has claimed that monosyllabic icecream enthusiast and F1 ace, Kimi Raikkonen (pictured), could return to his crashing ways in the World Rally Championship soon.
Raikkonen’s tarmac tenure with Scuderia Ferrari is up for renewal after the 2018 season ends and should either party decide they’ve had enough of one other (one gets the feeling it would be a mutual “Meh” in the boardroom at this point), the 39-year old might seek a drive with a rally team instead.
And it seems like that rally team could potentially be Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Raikkonen has allegedly been in talks with the Japanese team’s boss, fellow countryman Tommi Makinen. Makinen was seen on the Ice Man’s yacht parked in Monaco Harbour during the Grand Prix there. Which could have been nothing more business-like than a barbecue and vodka-tasting session, but Makinen did have his race team deputy with him onboard so talks seem likely.
Raikkonen had mixed fortunes during his 2010/11 campaigns on gravel with the Citroen Junior Team, spending a reasonable amount of time upside down in ditches with bits of tree in his wheel wells. With Citroen having ousted Irish driver Kris Meeke for simply crashing too much, Toyota Gazoo Racing will be thinking rather carefully about returning Raikkonen to rallying as part of their front line.