Florence-born Matteo Bacci, 25, races for the family-owned Bacci Trasmissioni Meccaniche team, which has been in the motor racing business for several generations. Since 2023, he has been competing in the Italian Mountainbike Championship, in the E1 3000 cc class (displacements between 2001 and 3000cc), at the wheel of a Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR.
The Giulietta TCR: an honourable but frustrating career
This Giulietta TCR is part of the stock of Italian compacts that had been developed by Romeo tuner Ferraris in the years 2017-2018 for the TCR touring category, without any official involvement from the brand.
It's a shame that the Biscione wasn't more involved, unlike brands such as Audi, Seat and Honda, which had provided more substantial technical and financial support, enabling them to sell more cars under the principle of customer competition. As a result, few Giulietta TCRs were ever seen on the world's racetracks. Worse still, in Italy, the 2025 championship features no Italian cars whatsoever. Audi, Seat and Hyundai occupy the field.
The assault on propulsion
Two versions were developed by Romeo Ferraris: the first with the 4-cylinder 1750, then a second "Veloce", homologated with a 2-liter. Matteo Bacci's Giulietta TCR corresponds to the 1st generation of Giulietta TCRs, since it features a block derived from the 1.75L of the Alfa Romeo 4C.
In hill-climb racing, an equivalence multiplier of 1.7 is applied to turbocharged engines (compared with atmos), hence the presence of this Giulietta in the class up to 3000cc. Matteo Bacci chose the Giulietta for its front-wheel drive, which is rather rare in the E1 class, where rear-wheel drive cars, such as BMWs, have the upper hand. But front-wheel drive offers advantages when exiting tight hairpins, of which there are many on Italian hills.
The yellow arrow
Prepared by Bacci Trasmissioni Meccaniche, Matteo's yellow Giuletta doesn't go unnoticed with its flashy livery and aerodynamic kit. But the noise isn't to be outdone either! The engine delivers 380 hp at 6,800 rpm (an increase of 30 hp over 2024) and up to 500 Nm of torque at 4,500 rpm. This Giulietta is equipped with a Garrett turbo (2.3 bar max), a Sadev ST90-6 sequential gearbox, an adjustable self-locking differential, Öhlins TTX 3-way suspension and AP Racing 6-piston brakes, all for just 1,120 kg.
Visually, the Giulietta is based on the TCR Kit, but with additional openings on the front (admittedly not very pretty), an extra carbon blade, ground-level rocker panels and a modified diffuser. Further enhancements have been made this year, with a new crankshaft and forged connecting rods, a carbon hood and weight-saving polycarbonate windows, plus advanced rain mapping to improve performance in wet conditions, which was the car's Achilles' heel initially.
Two titles in three years
The results were not long in coming: in his very first season, in 2023, Matteo was Italian champion in the E1 category and class 3000. In 2024, he had to settle for 2nd place.e place in the North & South Italian championship in his class. In 2025, he returned to winning ways, being crowned absolute E1 3000 champion in the Nord championship (3e of the E1 group), with a total of 4 victories and 9 podiums from 10 starts, the only podium miss being due to a retirement on account of mechanical failure at the start of the season. For 2026, there's talk of a switch to the Giulietta TCR Evo 2.0 L, which delivers 420 hp, but this could mean leaving the E1 class for the GT class. To be continued!
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