{"id":42936,"date":"2025-11-07T09:43:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.italpassion.fr\/?p=42936"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:43:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:43:02","slug":"the-most-extreme-racing-lalfa-romeo-156-still-drives-and-gets-even-crazier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.italpassion.fr\/en\/alfa-romeo\/lalfa-romeo-156-de-course-la-plus-extreme-roule-toujours-et-devient-encore-plus-folle\/","title":{"rendered":"The most extreme racing Alfa Romeo 156 still runs... and gets even crazier"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ferdinando Cimarelli is an Italian racing driver from Pergola in the Marche region, who specializes in CIVM (Campionato Italiano Velocit\u00e0 Montagna) hill-climb races. He began his career in the 1980s, but took a break from racing in the mid-90s, before making a comeback in 2004 at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo 33, with which he won his first Italian title. He then switched to an Alfa Romeo 147, with which he won the Gr.A 2000 class in 2009, before setting his sights on an Alfa Romeo 156 D2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last Biscione champion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since 2010, Cimarelli has been driving an Alfa Romeo 156 D2 (or 156 SuperTurismo D2), developed by N-Technology, the company's racing department. Alfa Romeo<\/a> at the time, at the end of the 1990s, to meet the super 2000 regulations for touring cars. Indeed, the DTM (which became the ITC in 1995), in which the 155 V6 had competed, had collapsed at the end of 1996, and with it the spectacular Class 1 category to which the 155 had responded. Its heir, the 156, was therefore destined to race in the classic supertouring championships, with a 2-liter engine, which it did with brio: two Italian championship titles and four European titles, between 1998 and 2004. And like it or not, it was the last Alfa Romeo to have an official competition program! Almost 30 years...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second life in hillclimbing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like the 155 V6 Ti, which also enjoyed hill-climbing glory after the end of the DTM\/ITC, the 156s have had a \"second life\" on mountain roads. The one from Cimarelli initially retained the 2.0-liter engine derived from the D2's Twin Spark, naturally-aspirated, which developed, after a 2012 evolution, around 330 hp at 9,000 rpm for 240 Nm of torque at 7,500 rpm. It was still a front-wheel drive, which can be advantageous on winding roads coming out of hairpins. The engine is 100 atmospheric %, with no turbo or supercharger, a purist choice for the E1-2000 class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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