Alfa Romeo Mito RX: a 250-hp war machine to challenge the best in rallycross!

Alfa Romeo and rallying have a long and rich history, often overlooked or ignored by those who swear by F1, Le Mans or touring. Bertone 1900s, Giuliettas, Giulia TZs and other GTs, not to mention Alfetta GTVs, 75s and 33s, regularly represented the Biscione in rallying between the 50s and 80s. In the 90s, Alfa gave priority to supertouring with the 155 and 156.

Dashed hopes

At the beginning of the 2000s, the WRC was booming with the influx of numerous manufacturers. Alfa enthusiasts dreamed of a 147 for the track. An Alfa Romeo 147 Group A, with a 210 HP 2.0-liter TS engine, was presented by N-Technology in 2005, but with little success and no real in-depth program... the Mito followed suit. By the time the Mito came out in 2008, rallying had gradually moved away from coupes and sedans and towards compacts and city cars. But here again, the Mito had no real sporting career, nor even a GTA version, which remained a concept...

Once again, we had to rely on the passion of enthusiasts to make Alfistas' unfulfilled dreams come true. It was in rallycross that the Mito found its ideal playground. The name: Alfa Romeo Mito RX. Its creator: Tedak Racing, an Italian team with a temperament as hot as the Maggiora clay in midsummer.

An atmospheric face!

Tedak decided to transform the little Alfa city car into a war machine, to fight in the Super1600 category, identical in rallycross to rally specifications. So, while the most powerful versions of the production Mito were equipped with a modern turbocharged engine, notably the 1.4 TB Multiair (the 0.9 Twinair is easy to forget), the Mito RX had to follow the strict rules of the Super1600. 

The result: a 1750 cc turbo was transformed into a naturally-aspirated engine, prepared by Autotecnica Motori. Autotecnica Motori are well known in the industry: part of the Tatuus group, they are responsible for the 1.4 Abarth engines prepared for the F4 and F1 Academy. Reinforced pistons, recalculated connecting rods, sharpened crankshaft, specific intake... Everything is designed to ensure that it turns with the anger typical of the category. Power flirts with 250 hp and a maximum rpm of 9,000, delivered solely to the front wheels as required by Super1600 regulations. The transmission is a 6-speed Sadev gearbox.

Potential, but intermittent

Unfortunately, the Mito RX has never been a car that has been lined up on a full program all the time, either in the Italian or European championships. 

Luciano Visintin, the man of beginnings, debuted the Alfa Romeo Mito in public and took on the first European rounds in 2017, including the French event at Lohéac. In 2018, Andrea Carretti took victory at Maggiora in the Italian championship, proving that the car could hold its own against the category's benchmarks. A few years later, Norwegian Marius Bermingrud pilots the Mito in the European S1600 rallycross championship. Finally, in 2021, the Mito RX was driven by Paolo Diana, who claimed a 2ᵉ place in the Super1600 final in the opening round of the Italian championship. Since then, appearances have been few and far between. At last count, Tedak racing has switched to a Peugeot 208.