FACTfile - Alfa Romeo 156 – Page4

The Perfect Design enhanced by a legend

The New Alfa 156, created by the legendary hand of Giorgetto Giugiaro, represents an ideal marriage between sportiness and elegance, performance and formal balance. All the hallmarks of the brand, in other words. The famous designer explains: "It is not easy to revise the architecture of a hugely successful car. It was a real challenge but in the end we succeeded in giving this model even greater appeal. We achieved this by making the front end more desirable through significant changes to the grille".

The Italdesign team blended the grille even more into the shape of the car's front end to emphasize its importance and its sporty nature. Changes to the headlights give the new model an additional sporty flavour. Not to mention the fact that the homogeneity, fusion and integration now so evident at the front add undeniable sporting grit and breeding. Giorgetto Giugiaro continued: "The grille is bigger and reshaped and the headlights feature round chrome-plated parts on a black ground and are joined by a single glass lip. The lower part of the bumper has also been reduced in width compared to the previous version to increase the sporty, aggressive feel. These were the key aims of Alfa Romeo's restyling brief, apart from full respect for distinctive brand features. All the horizontal lines at the front converge on the grille at an angle to increase the sense of potency".

At the rear, Giugiaro's team has gone all out for class and elegance. The tail-lights have thus been slightly reworked so that their lower part is emphasized by two slight side-whiskers and the upper part by a motif that frames the Alfa logo and emphasizes the rear bonnet volume. The Italian designer concludes: "The reinterpretation of a winning model such as the Alfa 156 had to convey maximum determination and aggression to add even greater appeal. Hence the decision to model the exterior shape to bring it up to date and also to adjust the volumes and sizes, and the work that had already gone into the development of today's car helped us to enhance the appeal of this great product".

And so yet another challenge has been taken up and won. This new success confirms a profitable collaboration that has continued for more than thirty years and saw Alfa Romeo and the master craftsman voted 'Designer of the Century' by more than 120 international journalists at Las Vegas in 1999. His production models for Alfa Romeo include the 2000 and 2600 Sprint (1960), the Giulia GT (1963), AlfaSud (1971), Alfetta GT/GTV (1974) and AlfaSud Sprint (1976). These were joined by prototypes and special versions: 2000 Spring (1962), 2600 HS (1963), Giulia Sport Special Canguro (1964), 33 Iguana (1969), Caimano (1971), New York Taxi (1976), Scighera/Gt (1997) and the gorgeous, multi award-winning Alfa Brera (2002).

At the launch of the New Alfa 156, Alfa Romeo is adopting new colour naming references that respect historical brand values. The body shades that interpret the exclusive style of an Alfa Romeo in sporty, dynamic fashion are named after the many circuits where Alfa cars have triumphed, from the early road races to recent wins with the 156 GTA. Colours that are reminiscent of a more classic style are named after Italian places and names that best express the thrill of being Italian and its positive values of elegance, beauty and taste.

This is the philosophy underlying the 16 model colours. Three are non-metallic: Alfa Red, Carrara White and Kyalami Black. Eleven shades are metallic: Siena Red, Stresa Green, Light of Amalfi Green, Taormina Blue, Capri Blue, Daytona Blue, Le Castellet Blue, Gonzaga Grey, Vesuvius Grey, Lipari Grey and Jarama Black. Lastly, two are metallescent: Nuvola Blue and Nuvola White. Four of these colours are also brand new: Light of Amalfi Grey, Lipari Grey, Capri Blue and Siena Red. The first two, one light and other dark, are warm shades that ideally reflect the Brand's exclusive feel of sporty elegance. Capri Blue is a more sophisticated colour, ideal for versions of the new model that need to make an impression. Last but not least, Siena Red adds a touch of elegance to the colour that is traditionally most dear to the Brand.

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JTS

Setting a new performance standard

Alfa Romeo cars have always been distinguished by their up-to-date power units and scintillating performance, a motoring tradition that fills many pages of the international motoring history books and remains alive in the New Alfa 156. The heart under the bonnet of the new 156 is the revolutionary 2.0 JTS, forerunner of a new direct injection petrol power unit family that will equip brand models from now on. In addition the legendary Alfa Romeo V6 engine has been upgraded with more performance and lower emissions to translate heritage into a 21st century power unit.

Performance engines, therefore, that also offer moderate fuel consumption and respect for the environment. These engines come with efficient, precise gearboxes, such as the innovative Selespeed system that offers a revised operating strategy for greater driving satisfaction in complete safety.

JTS: Alfa Romeo's interpretation of the direct injection petrol engine
At its first outing in autumn 1997, the Alfa 156 immediately won the hearts of public and experts alike for its good-looking styling, thrilling performance and on-road behaviour and also for its sophisticated engineering, so perfectly consistent with the brand's great motorsport tradition. This was the first car in the world to be fitted with common rail direct injection turbodiesel power units. The engineering principle that was subsequently to win such success with other manufacturers.

The Alfa 156, aiming for more engineering excellence, now offers another world first: the first direct injection petrol engine with a specific power greater than 60 kW/l (82 bhp/l) and a specific torque of more than 100 Nm/l. An ultra-high performance power unit that takes the name of JTS (Jet Thrust Stoichiometric) from its specific combustion system, an acronym that is destined to identify an entire family of future Alfa Romeo engines.

As far as the customer is concerned, this means a two litre car that:

1. Already meets stringent Euro 4 emission limits;
2. Does not need low sulphur petrol but is able to use the normal petrol already on sale in Australia, Europe and the United States.

The New 156 is the first petrol engine from Alfa Romeo (and indeed Fiat Auto) with injectors that work directly in the combustion chamber. It achieves its end by interpreting the principles of stratified charge and the creation of motion in the mixture inside the cylinder in an entirely original way.

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