Overseas media trips usually follow a strict regimen — you eat, sleep and drive whatever’s on “The Plan” and you do not deviate from it. So while the original plan was to drive a couple of Fiats, a Wheels scribe from our little Middle Eastern group requested to drive an Alfa Romeo 4C in the free time before we flew back to Dubai. And our Italian handlers obliged. What came next was a drive that shattered expectations.
The Fiat-Chrysler Group released two new sports coupes at this year’s Dubai Motor Show, both stunning and completely unlike each other. The SRT Viper and the Alfa Romeo 4C were officially launched, at a show stand that boasted all sorts of hot metal from Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Fiat-Abarth.
The Alfa Romeo 4C recently set a new record at the Nurburgring for under-250 hp cars, with a time of 8 minutes 4 seconds. It just adds to the allure of a car that will soon debut in the GCC.
Alfa Romeo isn’t exactly a very popular brand in the GCC. But it should be, now that the Giulietta’s appeared in Fast & Furious 6 as the car that took down a cargo plane on the world’s longest runway. Incidentally, we took the car for a run just a week before the premiere of that movie in Dubai, which we attended courtesy of tickets from Chrysler-Fiat.
These are the first computer-enhanced photos of the upcoming 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C, the Italian carmaker’s first proper sports car in years, aside from the expensive short-lived 8C Competizione.
Some people think Alfa Romeo isn’t sold in the GCC. But it is, and has been for decades now. They just seem to keep a low profile, even lower than Saab or Opel. But all that is set to change, as the global game of musical-chairs means that Fiat now owns Chrysler, and since Fiat already owns Alfa Romeo, Chrysler’s Middle East office will help support Alfa Romeo in our region. Which brings us to the day-long media event for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta and the Alfa Romeo MiTo that we took for a drive across the UAE, flanked by Chrysler,
The 2013 Alfa Romeo Giulietta has officially been launched in the UAE and Middle East. The Giulietta, which has been around since 2010 in Europe, is the Alfa Romeo 147 replacement.
This is the Dodge Dart, a new compact car based on the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Chrysler’s buyout by Fiat are finally paying dividends.