Carbon fiber bodywork on the new Alfa Romeo Giulia ETCR
Varano de’ Melegari (Parma), November 16th 2020 – Avant-garde, aesthetics, precision aerodynamics: Bercella signs the carbon fiber bodywork of the first Alfa Romeo Giulia ETCR by Romeo Ferraris presented last Saturday in Spain, at the Aragón MotorLand. The car will compete in the Pure ETCR (Electric Touring Car Racing), the first world touring championship dedicated to electric cars scheduled for 2021.
Romeo Ferraris, the Milan-based manufacturer historically close to the Alfa Romeo brand, has chosen Bercella for the design and production of the carbon fiber bodywork of the Alfa Romeo Giulia ETCR: the new all-electric car brings the Giulia brand back to racing after more than fifty years. In addition to the bodywork, Bercella also realized complementary structures of the electric powertrain.
The collaboration between Romeo Ferraris and Bercella, following previous successful special Motorsport projects, resulted this time in the complete transformation of a road car into an electric-powered prototype with 500kW power, featuring high quality composite materials, making it ready to compete in a very short time.
“Romeo Ferraris has renewed its trust in Bercella, relying on the capacity of our teams to provide high-level performance, to process high quality materials, to accept the challenge of an even more important and more complex project, given its unprecedented nature.” declares Bercella’s CEO Massimo Bercella.
Two absolute novelties mark the project: first, the Pure ETCR category, i.e. the new category for electric touring cars, which aims at becoming the reference category for the research and development on electric technologies for road cars, opening up the field also to the electric mobility market, beyond motorsport enthusiasts.
Secondly, racing is a premiere for an Alfa Romeo Giulia and even more so in a special all-electric version.
“The electric Giulia represents a huge step forward compared to the latest racing cars we built, in terms of the staff involved in the project, their skills and the technologies used. – says Michela Cerruti, Manager of Operations of Romeo Ferraris. – An all-electric project required to bring in added value all along the construction chain. We therefore needed suppliers who could give us maximum support. Bercella was able to respond, with a beautiful aesthetic result and all the aerodynamic precision peculiar of Bercella’s work”.
Thanks to its 25 years long consolidated experience in bodywork construction, Bercella designed all components in details, starting from the 3D models of the chassis and the aerodynamic surfaces, balancing aerodynamic needs with safety in structural performance, for instance through Kevlar anti-intrusion bars inside the bumpers.
Bercella’s first-time-right approach was key in achieving very rapid construction times, as proved during the bodywork integration phase, which was successful at the very first attempt: an “exceptional result”, as Michela Cerruti comments it.
In the second step of the project Bercella and Romeo Ferraris are engaged in the development of the support structures for the electric powertrain, in order to boost the Giulia’s performance and give it a competitive advantage for the beginning of the championship, scheduled for 2021.
As an Italian company in a territory of excellence with this project Bercella confirms its origins and DNA, embodying once more all the best features of the Italian Motor Valley: high flexibility, fast response time, advanced skills and solid know-how for maximum performance. All the ingredients to take up a new challenge with the determination to win it, just in line with Romeo Ferrari ambition for the new Giulia.
