Monday 16 March 2009

MITO GTA CONCEPT PROVES ALFA'S DYNAMITE AMBITIONS




Alfa Romeo unveiled a new concept car at the recent 2009 Geneva Motor Show. Calling it the MiTo GTA Concept, Alfa effectively confirmed earlier rumours that the company was going after the MINI Cooper S JCW. The MiTo GTA Concept is based on the MiTo small premium hatch but it wears Alfa’s performance badge GTA. We last saw the GTA moniker on previous generation Alfa 156 and 147 models.


Although shown as a concept I seriously doubt Alfa will deviate too much when it comes to producing this little atomic device on rubber. Using a new 1.8-litre turbocharged engine the car produces a hectic 179kW (240bhp) which eclipses the MINI JCW by over 20kW and probably matches the next-generation MINI GP (if they make one – previous GP made 165kW).


The MiTo small hatch is on its way to South Africa. However there is doubt over whether the GTA version will make it to our shores given the current state of the local motor industry which is down about 35% on its 2008 sales.

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