Of course the gravity of our decisions vary on the importance of the situation, and none more so than when we decide to purchase a new car which, if you’re an Alfanatic (which if you’re reading this you probably are), would be one of the most intense and emotional periods of you life!

So when it comes to forking-out for something that you’ll either be stuck-with or in-love with, it’s a bloody good idea to make sure that you make to correct one – not one that seems or feels right, but one that IS right!

As I sat in the morning traffic with the winter sun just beginning to peer over the horizon, I looked around at all the “fancy” cars that people were driving. Some people were in their cars with an intense gaze, as if focused on getting through the maze of traffic ahead, others appeared to be singing along (off-key no doubt) to whatever was playing on their stereos….and others, well, they looked as if they were still half-asleep – in need of some serious caffeine! But the one thing that they all had in common, was that none were smiling like I was, which leads me to believe they hadn’t made the right decision – they weren’t in an Alfa…

As I thought about the last 5 -1/2 years that I’ve had my GT, I couldn’t recall a single moment where I was not totally happy with it, which is what got me to thinking about the decisions we make in life – especially those about buying a car! I’ve read about a phenomenon called the “base-level happiness” which in a nutshell, is ones happiness vs. your latest acquisition and can be represented on a graph (as seen below).

This is a very normal human “condition”, which we’ve all experienced and will continue to experience in one way or another, especially when buying a car – you get a new car and for a couple of weeks you keep it clean inside and out, make sure that you park it away from every other car in the lot, take photos of it, Facebook it all the time and ultimately really appreciate it!

However, this feeling soon subsides and familiarity takes hold – the need to “fill to empty gap” (be it subliminal or not) eats away at you and, soon you find yourself trolling the internet looking for your next car/fix – in an endless spiral of need vs. fulfilment that unless broken, will leave you out of pocket and unfulfilled!

There is however a way to curb the rut, to break the norm and lift yourself out of the abyss! You need to seek out and commit to the Alfa to ensure you have unending happiness! The happiness found here, as can be seen on the Alfa-base-happiness chart below, clearly shows the happiness and fulfilment that is experienced when making the right decision, when it comes to purchasing a car – because in the end, one’s happiness after meeting the Alfa is infinitum and when the time comes to purchase a new one (out of need more than trying to fill a gap), you can rest assured that the Alfa will once again leave you fulfilled for many years to come.

So go-on, make the right decision and ensure a life filled with unrivalled happiness and joy – get yourself an Alfa, and join all the other smiling Alfa drivers in the traffic! You know it’s the right thing to do!!

- Stalliano

Well if you have ever asked yourself this question, you have come to the right place. We have the answer and better than just a simple text answer, the Alfanatics have kindly provided some picture evidence on how to park at work.

We aren’t saying its perfect, yes the shading overhead isn’t a matching red to suit the Alfas, but hey, what can you do.

So take these lessons in parking to heart and we hope to see others out there exercising their right to claim the parking areas as yours.

A big shout-out and thanks to Paul Petersen and his fellow Alfanatics for submitting the stunning pics of their Alfa’s – one hardly recognises the scenery in the background…

Keep sending them in so that we can share them with our fellow Alfanatics out there…Stalliano

I guess the day has finally come when all rival manufacturers realized they can’t compete anymore.

The 4C’s name comes from the lineage of 2 famous Alfa Romeos of the 30′s and 40′s, the 8C and 6C. Under the bonnet is an engine that Alfa Romeo calls the ’1750 Turbo Petrol’ which has been crafted by an all aluminium 4 cylinder and features direct injection with a revolutionary new ‘scavenging’ control system that is supposed to eliminate turbo lag. The 4C is mid-engined, rear-wheel drive beast hand has bolted a ‘TCT‘ drivetrain giving it excellent shifting capabilities through paddle shift, or some might say “flappy paddle gear box”.

Different to the Giulietta and MiTo ranges is a slight modification to the DNA driving system which now includes the driving modes of Dynamic, Neutral, Weather, and Race.

-The thing I don’t understand is why did they give 4 options if its going to be in Race 100% of the time?

The 4  has been built in the Maserati’s Modena assembly plant as Maserati has played its part in the 4C design and now construction. Having this lineage  even before it proves itself on the roads makes you want it even more.

The Gloria is the result of a collaboration between the IED (European Design Institute of Turin) and the Alfa Romeo Style Centre.  The 4-door sports sedan carries a few trademarked Alfa Romeo styling, such as the bold bonnet creases culminating in the famous triangular grille. Leather straps on the bonnet are a nod to some of Alfa’s previous sporting models.  While Alfa is very clear that this will strictly be a concept car the newcomer in the event it reaches production would be powered by bi-turbo V6 and V8 engines, which would be shared with the latest Maserati Quattroporte

The European Design Institute of Turin, thanks to the support of and vicinity to the Fiat-Chrysler EMEA Design Center, has had the opportunity of ‘training’ its young car designers on the subject of: “conceiving an Alfa Romeo saloon to communicate to the American and Asian markets”. In effect, the saloon remains a symbol of elegance and prestige for these markets, associated with the idea of comfortable space both at the front and the rear, expressed by the length of the model. In particular, the Alfa Romeo Style Centre participated with passion in the various phases of the project: from the product brief to the brand’s historic collection, and from the first style proposals up to the development, in clay, of the model in 1:1 scale.

“We asked the students in the Master programme to give us their completely independent interpretation of a new Alfa Romeo saloon,” states Lorenzo Ramaciotti, Head of Fiat & Chrysler Design. “During development, we commented, discussed and guided the projects in order to get the most from their spontaneous expressions of creativity. The result was stimulating and marked by professional and creative excellence.”

We sincerely hope this car makes it to production and breathes some new Life into Alfa Romeo. We think it is a piece of art as all Alfa’s are and would be proud to see this vehicle in our local Alfa Dealership.

A year ago I became the proud owner of my second Alfa Romeo, the 1,4 T Distinctive. Having traded-in my GT for this latest beauty, I was curious how I would react in the long term. Would it surprise or disappoint me? Well the answer is simply that it has lived up to, and exceeded my expectations.

The decision to buy this Giulietta was half heart, half head. A rare combination for a car that invokes my deepest passion. But the allure of a new warranty and service plan while the warranty on my GT was winding up was too much to resist. Incredibly, the change from a 1,9 Diesel to a 1,4 Petrol car actually left me with an extra 15 kW! These multi-air engines are something else.

So, the facts. The DNA setting is my favourite feature. Having the option of boosting the level of performance at will has left me feeling like I own two cars. The extra boost provided by engaging the Dynamic setting was a great surprise, and continues to catch me off guard with a jolt. I must say I reserve it for special occasions to keep it, well, special.

The brakes are truly fantastic. Even this morning I had to slam my foot on the pedal to avoid a collision at an intersection (which I was certain was going to end in tears) and the car smoothly ground to a halt without the slightest twitch and meters to spare! Sharp and responsive, a real victory in safety.

The ‘Blue and Me’ is an area where improvement is possible. Having downloaded the latest firmware, voice commands are 50/50. Sometimes the car listens perfectly, and sometimes it gets it horribly wrong. Truth be told I don’t use it that much apart from Bluetooth phonecalls. That being said I wish the caller ID would show on the dashboard when a call comes in instead of just the phone number!

The tyre wear was a surprise. My tyres are still the originals from when I bought the car and are still in fantastic condition. Compared to the GT which needed replacements practically every 6 months, these are really giving me their money’s worth. I expect it has to do with the lower level of torque compared to diesel versions, but what does it matter really?!

Comfort of drive is superb. It’s quiet, it’s smooth and it’s sexy. Sophisticated and no-fuss when I need it to be, with a bit of extra grunt when needed while showing off to a girl in my passenger seat.

And last but not least, no rattles, no leaks, no problems. Fanastic reliability and build quality! Love this car!

http://youtu.be/tHYLnco1moQ

To mark the launch of the MiTo SBK, Alfa Romeo organized a special stunt involving British Superbike rider Chris “The Stalker” Walker and his Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja motorcycle.

[source: http://www.zercustoms.com/news/Alfa-MiTo-Quadrifoglio-Verde-SBK.html]

And for the video

The venue was the Gerotek training facility in Pretoria, and getting there was like blindly poking the floor with walking stick, not knowing where the hell I was going, but as they say, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while…

So I was late, missed breakfast and the introductory brief, but luckily the group of 14 participants and 5 instructors walked into me so I was set and ready to join the convoy to our first module. There where 9 individuals who did the advanced driving course in their own cars which ranged from Azusa Double Cab to Daihatsu Terrios and even an old 1986 Opel Monza. 2 participants came in their own Alfa Romeo MiTo QV sports and the rest of us had the absolute privilege of driving one of the 3 sponsored Alfas which where a Mito QV sport, a Giulietta and an awesome 159 JTS 3.2 V6.

Module 1. ABS – what is that, how does it work and why will it save your life.

So the “Anti-lock Break System” allows you to slam on the breaks while driving on any surface, in this case a wet skid pan, and you will not slide out of control, but rather come to a controlled stop and even be able to steer the vehicle while your foot is still firmly lodged hard on the break peddle. So the instructors placed three rows of cones approximately 10m long onto the skid pan, which would simulate 2 lanes. Then they placed a fallen over cone at the middle of “lane 1″ and a gap between lanes 1 and 2 so that one would approach lane 1 at +- 60 km/h, see the obstacle, slam on the breaks and then steer into lane 2 to avoid hitting the cone in lane 1.

It seemed quite intense when one of the instructors did a demo run in his 159 JTS.

So we all got a turn and I immediately grabbed the 159 as I am besotted by the roar of a V6 engine. We then all queued up in our cars ready to approach the obstacle, and being first in line I couldn’t help but notice my heart pounding as the adrenaline was pumping through my veins. I dropped the clutch and put foot. All I could hear was the growling of the V6 engine. My back was wedged firmly into my seat. I gently eased the gear lever into second and was astounded at how smooth the clutch was. Suddenly the nervousness was gone and a malignant smile grew on my face. When I reached the the first lane I slammed on the breaks, gently steered the car into lane 2 avoiding the obstacle by a good 2m and then came to a controlled and successful stop. I rolled down the window and the instructor said : “Perfect, now do it faster”.

Module 2. Under- and Over-steer correction

Very simple as explained by our instructors, under steer is when approaching a corner with too much speed, commonly occurring on gravel or wet roads. One would turn the steering wheel but the car keeps going straight. How to correct it is to take foot off the accelerator, the weight should shift to the front of the car, then slightly turn the steering-wheel back towards straight and once traction has taken the front wheels, continue safely through the corner.

Over steer is when entering a corner too quickly and the rare of car starts sliding out into the turn and effectively spinning the car 180 degrees and rolling off the road and into a ditch. How to correct this with front-wheel drive cars, as are all the Alfas, is to counter turn the steering wheel and hit the accelerator until the car straightens out towards the desired direction. On the skid pan, this was by far the most exhilarating and fun exercise we did. Once again I grabbed the 159 as I had grown fond of its handling and power. I approached the skid pan and drove in circles faster and faster and an instructor sat next to me as he would at any given time pull up the hand-break to manually initiate the over steer phenomenon. It was then expected of us to obtain control and direction. This exercise again seemed surprisingly easy in the Alfa and I felt like a natural racing driver drifting around the skid pan. I felt however for the sake variety, it was time to test one of the other Alfas and so I found myself getting lost in the magnificent interior of the Mito QV sport with an amazing carbon fibre dashboard and profoundly comfortable seats. This time the cars power was to be experienced in a completely different way, which could be described as a neck jerker once the turbo of the 125kw tiny 1.4l engine kicked in. Amazing how so much torque can be churned out of such a little engine and all funneled towards a massive smile on my face. This time the instructor made me go a little faster on the skid-pan. He must have anticipated I was there not only to learn but to have some fun as well. The result of him pulling the hand-break while I was cornering at about 80km/h sent the car into a 180 degree flat spin. We laughed and I was told that sometimes the speed just cannot be overcome by counter steering and then the idea is to try spinning the car 360 degrees back to the original direction. But that would be left for another day. As I continued driving in a circle and the instructor pulling up the hand-break, I immediately got the hang of the exercise in the little turbo Alfa. It was however clear that the 159 had more power at lower revs.

Module 3. Aquaplaning

When aquaplaning the most important rule is not to hit the breaks and immediately straighten your steering wheel towards the direction of movement and once the wheels have traction again apply breaks if needed. So this time i went in the Giulietta. Also amazing interior and extremely pleasant handling. The aquaplane course is set out in an oval form where you have a run up track of about 1km and it is designed so that one hits the water, which is about 80mm deep, at roughly 90km/h. One then experiences an aqua plane of about 10m, after which you need to then immediately straighten out your steering and hit the breaks. The instructor showed us a nice example of how NOT to react once you hit the aqua plane. The result of hitting the breaks and turning, sent the  MiTo into a 360 degree flat spin. Scary stuff I tell you.

Module 4. High speed oval track with 45 degree embankments.

This 3km long oval track is designed to test cars handling at high speeds and also to train people to get familiar with driving at a 45 angle and overcome the centre line crossover issue that some individuals have. It was also interesting to test out a phenomenon called neutral steer which basically means that when going around the big oval  bends at 45 degrees to the horizontal, when traveling at roughly 120km/h, one can let go of the steering wheel and the car would continue on its path around the bend. You could then move up or down the track by accelerating or decelerating respectively. I did this run in the MiTo QV sport and it was quite an interesting feeling going around a bend at an angle. After the exercise the instructor asked if there was anyone who had a fear of going around the bends at 140km/h and for the sake of knowing what was too come I stuck up my hand along with 2 other girls. Was was to follow was an experience of a lifetime. We where instructed to get into the 159 JTS and one of the advanced driving instructors took us around the track at a whopping 230km/h, which in a straight line doesn’t feel fast but once you hit the bends some very interesting G-forces act on your body and mind. We where then also shown the stopping distances of a car traveling at 60,120 and 140km/h and the importance of an adequate following distance as well as the effects of reaction where explained. It was very informative but also an eye opener as not one of us could correctly guess where the car would stop even with ABS.

Module 5. Dynamic handling and correct cornering when driving

This was also one of the more enjoyable activities because we could speed around the racetrack, with a guide/safety car in front of course. We each got into one of the Alfas and I just had to get back into the 159 as this was the final event and i needed to het my last V6 fix for the day. Unfortunately we had to go in 5 car convoy and I was right at the back, and the Giulietta in front of me had never driven around a track before but also didn’t grasp the concept of cornering ie. point of entry, apex and point of exit. So we just fell behind the rest of the group. I then felt i needed to slow down completely to give the guy in front a nice big gap, and then try catch up with him in round two. So I did this and when he was well ahead of me I put down my foot and could finally embrace the power and handling of the Alfa. I caught up to him in a matter of seconds.

I was contempt, as I had not only experienced a vast variety of activities but more so had an amazing day out doing what I love and that is driving awesome cars and learning something new about how to correctly react when confronted with hazardous circumstances.

In conclusion I would like to thank the Adrenaline specialized driving team. They where extremely professional, very knowledgable and just good fun to have as instructors. And lastly thank you very much to CMH Alfa Romeo/Fiat Pretoria Hatfield for hosting the event. It was an absolutely magnificent experience and I glad to have gotten such an in depth drive experience while also test driving the wonderful Alfas.

Best

Hannes Mostert

As I think of all that we as a civilization have created and achieved, it would be very sad to have it all end in an instant. The entire history of man wiped-out in the blink of an eye, without the slightest hope of at least a fighting chance for our survival (as is the norm in any typical Hollywood-style armageddon movie)…surely we should be able to fight for our survival? If not, all I want is enough time to get to my GT, so that I can drive into the penultimate sunset in style! I guess we’ll find out soon enough, one way or the other…

So if it all ends today, I will at least know that I’ve had the pleasure of driving (and owning) two amazing Alfa’s. My first was a dark-blue, 2.0L twin-spark, 2003 156; she was amazing! She had all the refinements one would expect in an Alfa; the angled dials of the driver and central consoles, full leather interior, power-steering, AC, cruise-control, you name it, it was the full-house! And going from the ‘city’ to her, was pure bliss, if you know what I mean!

We weren’t even 18 months into our relationship, when another younger, sexier model caught my eye. As Dean Martin put it, she hit me in the eye like a big pizza-pie! It indeed was amore! The enchanting curves, sleek-sexy lines, and a grill that to this day makes me grin like a primary school boy who’s just found his older-brothers FHM collection! This was all the car-porn you could ever want from a Bertoni designed masterpiece. The Stromboli Grey, 1.9JTD GT stirred up something inside of me, something impossible to capture on paper.

And so, as I sit admiring the sunset (yup, that’s it in the photo below), I cannot help but appreciate these two creations and the countless others, that not only Alfa Romeo have created, but that we as a civilization have thought up and ultimately created. The creative expression by individuals throughout time in various mediums, defines man’s yearning for new creations and his expressive characteristic. His ability to continually produce new masterpieces is, in my opinion, inspiring. And while I might not be blessed with creative talent, I’m glad to know that many others have been, and that they’ve found their way to Alfa Romeo’s design studio, to bring us these and other amazing creations.

We truly have done and created some amazing things; we’ve been to the moon, transplanted hearts and lungs, broken the sound barrier and of course created Alfa Romeo! Having spoken to many people over the last 18-months or so, there is a common trend when it come to Alfa Romeo – the cars that they create are spectacular!

They’ve been at the forefront of car design for over 100-years and have created some of the world’s most spectacular cars for all to enjoy, and without it we would be less! So here’s to hoping that tomorrow greets us with a renewed spirit and purpose, knowing that we survived “the end of the world”. And with that, I wish you good luck and hope to see you all on the other side!!

Stalliano

What I do want to say is that even though the new breed of Alfas have been infiltrating the world roads, putting smiles on faces, here in SA there is still this negative perception about the reliability. Ask anyone you see and the common knee-jerk reaction is “but how many times has it broken down or leaked oil haha”. When I hear this all I want to do is unleash a Pete Sampras backhand.

These new breed of Alfas service at 30 000km which is almost double that of other cars on the SA roads. True, in the past Alfas were notorious for breaking down, leaking oil or having a temper of their own but, this is a thing of the past and my MiTo has proven this to me first hand.

Not one mechanical hiccup, oil leak, engine problem yet there is still this perception.

All I can say is that the more these new Giuliettas, MiTos, 159s and soon the 4C are on the road; they will turn heads and also start to put in question this perception about reliability.

The positive side of this is that if you buy a Giulietta, MiTo, 159 or any other old/new Alfa, you will be driving something unique on SA’s roads. You won’t be part of the crowd of Mini, Fiesta or GTi drivers out there but rather a head turning, road eating machine that quite honestly looks better the more you look at it.

So this December I’ll be buying an extra Paneytone and saying ‘Salute’ to my MiTo, good times just keep coming.

Well I’m pretty sure that you guessed it that your Alfa Romeo comes equipped with what is termed “Blue & Me” which is in essence based on ‘Windows Embedded Automotive’ software and is installed into the Alfas with functinality including Hands Free Kit, Media Player as well as options like “Message Reader” (not in SA unfortunately) and various Phone options. Have a look at a previous article which lists the details: Blue&Me™ System

The thing with Software in general is that as time passes, advancements are made and updates or patches are issued. Blue & Me is no different. Since its inclusion with these new generation of Alfa Romeo, there has been a few updates to the Blue & Me system that enable new phone support, additional language support (Big Mac actually received his car with Italian as the only language selectable). For this reason a Blue & Me software update is required periodically.

Below are the Alfas that qualify for the Blue and Me system

•  147/GT
• 159
• Brera/Spider
• Giulietta
• MiTo

This is the website that you can dowload the updates for your Blue & Me software: Blue & Me Update

NB!!!!!!Things to take not of:

1. For this update you need to have a blank memory stick that is FAT32 formatted

2. The installation takes a few minutes. When in progress you will see the radio turns on and off. Make sure not to touch anything or remove the memory stick until you hear the verbal confirmation that the ‘Update is Complete”. You might think the update has frozen, but just keep waiting. I’m speaking from experience as I am an impatient guy when it comes to PCs. I tend to think that everything should be quicker than what it really happens.

3. You cannot jump versions of the update. What I mean by this is if you car has version 5.5 installed, you cant just jump to version 6.0. You need to first install version 5.6 then version 6.0.

-I was not sure which version was currently installed on my MiTo (2010 – 2011 Model) but I knew that it had not been updated since purchase, so I reinstalled 5.5 then 5.6

4. Not all MiTos can take version 6.0. Generally if your MiTo is the older version, pre-facelift, it can only take up to Version 5.6. Check to see if you can find the heading IMAGE ID under SETTINGS > ADVANCED FEATURES  heading in the control panel. If you do then you can choose the Second Generation MiTo on the drop down list and install up to Version 6.0. Version 6.0 allows you to charge your iPhone and stream your music tethered (connected via wire to your USB) – Hate you for this Alfa, need this in my life. For the guys like me in the same boat (older version of the MiTo) I am still doing some digging and if there is a hack, believe me I will find it and post it on Alfanatics

5. You cannot rollback to a previous version of the Blue & Me system, but then again why would you want to?

Hope this helps, let us know if you dont come right because we have done it a few times with our cars so have some lessons learnt.

Its an easy process, follow the step by step guide contained in the download link (here it is again :Blue&Me) and you should be fine.

Unfortunately some work had to be done on my car in 2011, for reasons still too painful to recount. To make matters worse, this meant handing her over to the notorious Panel Beater Underworld. At the time a particular panel beater managed to convince me that the damage done had been of a superficial nature and that a simple repair was possible. When I collected my car from him I noticed that the bumper was not sitting flush. It was a very minor offset, to the extent that anyone but an Alfanatic would probably not have noticed at all, but I did and it drove me insane from the moment I saw it. This particular “Upstanding” panel beater managed to convince me that someone else was to blame for the offset, I should have known better.

I won’t go into detail of what followed over the following months in trying to get this sorted out. Frankly the story involves a lot of fighting and many profanities in about 4 or 5 different languages. At the end of a long saga I finally managed to get the real story. The damage that had been classified as “superficial” had in fact been anything but that. One of my front chassis beams had been bent and this was what was causing the offset.  This meant handing my keys over for the 2^nd time, this time to a panel beater that I know a lot better and whose work I trust a lot more than the previous one (tough lesson learnt).

Through a series of unforeseen circumstances and suppliers repeatedly delivering the incorrect parts the process to repair my beloved car took 2 months. In that time I had to make do with driving cars that were merely forms of transport, nothing more. For the 1^st month I was behind the wheel of an American branded car, named after a particularly greasy former Portuguese footballer. While I was grateful to have a car to drive, I couldn’t help but feel that every day I spent behind the wheel of this car drained part of my soul away. As it was this rental car (provided to me by my insurance) was only available to me for the 1^st month. The 2^nd month saw me driving a Japanese car, ironically named after what all Italian men are. As with the footballer’s car before, this car inspired absolutely none of my lust for motoring. The time could not come soon enough for me to fetch my car.

The day finally came to go fetch my car and I was giddy with excitement. I walked into the workshop and there she was, parked nearest to the exit, just waiting to come back home.

Waiting to come Home

Seeing her again, after what had felt like an eternity, sent shivers down my spine. I couldn’t help but think that I had experienced this before, some 6 years previously when I saw her on the showroom floor waiting to be driven home for the 1^st time. I felt a massive smile work its way across my face as I sat in the body hugging sports seats again. For a moment I could have sworn she was welcoming me back with an embrace. Turning the key and hearing her come alive for the 1^st time in 2 months was like music to my ears. Before I drove off, I sat there adjusting my seat and mirrors back to where I needed them, and then took a minute to just sit there and take it all in again. I noticed all of the fine details, the feel of the leather of my sports steering wheel under my hand, the feel of the pedals on my feet. Once again I felt a shiver of excitement and was again reminded of that day 6 years previously. As I drove off I felt we were having somewhat of a ceremonial renewing of our vows. Yes, I had definitely just fallen in love again.

For the entirety of that 1^st drive back home there was nothing that could wipe the smile off my face. When I got home I felt some pampering was in order and duly gave her a thorough wash and polish.

Pamper Time!

This took me all morning, but I loved every moment of it. It was totally worth the effort, she looked as beautiful as the day I picked her up. I met up with BigMac and Goat later that day, their jaws just about dropped off their faces, emphasizing what I already knew.

I agree with Goat 100% in his view that we can fall in love more than once, luckily for those of us not in the position to take delivery of a shiny new Giulietta QV, there is still a silver lining: We can fall in love over and over again, with our same old Alfa’s!

This new MiTo is seen to be among the new breed of Alfa Romeo’s designed by Alfa Romeo’s new in-house styling team at the company’s historic headquarters in Milan. Other model Alfa’s that were created by this team include the 8C Competizione supercar and three-door MiTo

This new MiTo is aimed at prices in the range of £12,000 which in ZAR terms is calculated by the following equasion:

ZAR Price for the Cabriolet MiTO = (UK Price * Import Tax) + Road Tax + Petrol Tax + Carbon Taxes + Pity for the other Cabriolets on the Road Tax + Other Cars crashing because they are looking at this MiTo Tax

Looking forwards to seeing this model hit our shores.

Leave your opinion of this model in the comments below

The PC is an extension of ourselves in a sense; its an electronic copy if you will. We all have loads of data stored on laptops, external hard-drives, USB’s, iCloud’s etc. No matter who you are, you have an electronic extension of yourself somewhere…and if you don’t have a copy, the government does!  - cue conspiracy music!

Now you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this, having titled it the article: MiTo GTA – Will it be!? You see, it was the modern day PC where my need to write this article originated!! The thing is, I like the other Alfanatics, am a tech-junkie. Yes I’ve got an iPhone’s with hundreds of app’s, a PS3′s, HDTV etc. that I cocoon myself in everyday – what kind of a tech-junkie would I be if I didn’t?

So naturally, by marrying an Alfanatic with a tech-junkie, you get an Alfa-driving, iPhone loving, desktop alternating background nut. I show-off my alternating desktop of Alfa’s at every chance that I get. With the pictures varying from the Pandion through to the 156, I have a wide array of Alfa’s on rotation, which I’ve set to 5-min intervals. So every 5-min, a new stunning photo of an Alfa pops up on my desktop back-ground, and one of these is the MiTo GTA looking sexier than ever!

With it’s huge twin-exhausts encased in the black rear diffuser, flanked by two-pairs of fins and black side-skirts to match; it looks more like a piece of car-porn than a sport version of the MiTo! The accompanying 17″ Giulietta anthracite rim’s suggests that even though stationary, it would still dish out a hiding to any other vehicle in it’s class!

So I ask the question…WILL WE SEE THIS BEAST ON THE ROAD IN 2013!!? The prototype (pictured below) has been put on hold due to global economic conditions, which even though we respect from a company economic perspective, we cannot quite figure-out why they would not push this through and produce it regardless – even if  made to order!!

Alfa Romeo’s racing heritage suggests that even with the 8C and 4C being produced, a GTA version of both the MiTo and Giulietta is a obvious move! It tugs at my heart-strings, longing for a GTA version of these amazing machines – SO I PLEAD AND ASK…PLEASE ALFA, PLEEEESSSSEEE!!! produce the GTA version of the MiTo and Giulietta! I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE…WE NEED THIS IN OUR LIVES!!

We want to feel the uncontrolled raw power of the GTA pushing us back into the seat – we need it…we need it!!! So with that, I conclude my plea, hopefully the guys from Alfa will answer it!!

So here’s hoping for the GTA version’s of the amazing machines that are currently being produced…we wait in hope!

Stalliano!

]]> http://www.alfanatics.co.za/2012/10/mito-gta-will-it-be/feed/ 2 http://www.alfanatics.co.za/2012/09/alfa-147-gta-top-gear/ http://www.alfanatics.co.za/2012/09/alfa-147-gta-top-gear/#comments Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:56:47 +0000 D-Mac http://www.alfanatics.co.za/?p=4311 I have probably watched this video more than I have combed my hair in my life and every time I watch it, it just keeps getting better!

If there was any doubt that the 4c is one of the most beautiful cars ever created, let it be forgotten. Alfa has once again proven that this brand of car is as much renowned for artistry as it is for engineering excellence. They did it again at one of the most prestigious automotive events on the calendar, the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este, hosted at the picturesque Lake Como, Italy.

This annual event showcases the latest and greatest examples of design from the manufacturers of cars that have graced the bedroom walls of boys and men around the world for years. Aston Martin was in it to win for a record third time. That was until the 4c parked its pretty face on the lush green lawns of the lakeside Villa. Alfa Romeo won hands down, prompting the powers that be at Alfa to conclusively decide that this car had an obligation to go into production. And be produced it shall, with manufacturing on a large scale set to commence in 2013! Other cars it beat into submission include the Stile Bertone Jaguar B99, Ford’s EVOS concept and the Lexus LF-LC.

For those of you who can stop staring at the pictures long enough to bother about performance specifications, you’ll find your curiosity rewarded. The 4c happens to boast an a carbon chassis designed by Dallara (the racecar manufacturer), skinned in SMC to keep things light and nimble with a target weight of about 900kg. Now if that seems exciting to you already, you might want to make sure that you’re sitting down when I tell you that this weight is going to be coupled to a 230 bhp turbo-charged petrol engine. My hands actually quivered a little when I wrote that…

Once again congratulations to Alfa, and many thanks for rewarding our passion with yet another masterpiece.