Alfa Romeo at the “Winter Marathon 2015”

The 27th edition of the “Winter Marathon” will be held from 22nd to 25th January in Madonna di Campiglio. This gripping regularity event for classic cars is one of the major events in Italy due to the number of competitors and the quality of the vehicles taking part.

Set against the stunning backdrop of the mountains of the Trentino Alto Adige region, the challenge will be between 120 cars built before 1968, plus a few additional models produced up until 1976, which made history in the rallies of the seventies. Among the stars of the event will be the 1963 Giulia TI Super from the collection in the Alfa Romeo Historic Museum, specially prepared to tackle this rally, which is as fascinating as it is demanding due to the weather conditions.  

The rally course winds for approximately 420 kilometres, climbing 11 Dolomite passes, four of them over 2,000 metres (Pordoi, Falzarego, Valparola and Gardena), and with no less than 45 precision time trials. In addition, the frozen lake of Madonna di Campiglio will be the scene for the two side events at the “Winter Marathon 2015”: the “APT Trophy”, a challenge where the first 32 teams enrolled will face direct elimination, and the “TAG Heuer Barozzi Trophy”.  

The 1963 Giulia TI Super is the rarest, most prestigious of the “Giulia” models. This “ready-to-race” version was produced in only 501 examples, almost all in Hawthorn white with a Quadrifoglio, the four-leaf clover logo, on the side panels and boot. With its “slimmed down” body to enhance its already excellent performance still further, the “TI Super” was one of the race cars which nurtured an entire generation of drivers, who then moved up to higher formulas, allowing them to draw attention to themselves thanks to their victories and rankings behind the wheel of the Alfa Romeo saloon. Not by chance, the Giulia TI Super is particularly suited to road races, as it proved when it achieved its highest acclaim as first of its class in the 1963 “Tour de France Auto” with drivers Masoero and Maurin.

Technically speaking, the Giulia represented a benchmark in its class and raised the standards: the twin-cam, four cylinders and excellent dynamics of Alfa Romeo cars were matched by their bodywork which, according to advertisements of the time, “was designed by the wind”.

To highlight the thread between the cars of the past and those currently in production, the precious historic example will be accompanied by the New Giulietta Sprint, the version which pays homage to the forerunner of an entire class of automobiles, the modern Gran Tourism, and one of the most emblematic products of Made in Italy: the iconic Giulietta Sprint of 1954.

In the fifties, it was actually the Giulietta which made the dream of owning an Alfa Romeo possible for the first time. Today, it’s the turn of the new Giulietta Sprint to take over the baton, offering more dramatic aesthetic qualities, exhilarating performance and superior technological features.

The example taking part in the “Winter Marathon 2015” will be using the powerful 175 hp 2.0 JTDM2 engine combined with the innovative “Alfa TCT” automatic gearbox with twin clutch.

Alfa Romeo