The Alfa Romeo SE 048SP was a
Group C
Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs.
It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...
racing car built by
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...
in the early 1990s. Designed to replace the
Lancia LC2
The Lancia LC2 (sometimes referred to as the Lancia-Ferrari) was a series of racing cars built by Italian automobile manufacturer Lancia and powered by engines built by their sister company Ferrari. They were part of Lancia's official factory-bac ...
after the Group C regulations had undergone a major revamp, the SE 048SP had an
Abarth
Abarth & C. S.p.A. () is an Italian racing and road car maker and Car tuning, performance division founded by Italo-Austrian Carlo Abarth in 1949. Abarth & C. S.p.A. is owned by Stellantis through its FCA Italy, Italian subsidiary. Its logo is a ...
-developed chassis mated to the 3.5-litre
V10 engine
A V10 engine is a ten-cylinder piston engine where two banks of five cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V10 engines are much less common than V8 and V12 engines. Several V10 diesel engines have been prod ...
from the stillborn
Alfa Romeo 164 Procar
The Alfa Romeo 164 (Type 164) is a four-door executive saloon manufactured and marketed by Italian automaker Alfa Romeo from 1987-1998, styled by Pininfarina, and cooperatively designed and sharing platforms and numerous elements with the Fiat ...
, but, although at least one SE 048SP was built, it never left the development phase. The V10 engine appears to have been replaced by a
Ferrari-sourced 3.5-litre
V12 engine
A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines.
The f ...
at some point during its development, although this was never officially confirmed by Alfa Romeo.
Design and development
![Alfa Romeo SE 048 SP Goodwood festival of speed 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Alfa_Romeo_SE_048_SP_Goodwood_festival_of_speed_2010.jpg)
In
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
, the
Group C
Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs.
It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...
regulations underwent a major revamp, with the primary focus being on changing the engines to 3.5-litre units sourced from
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
cars.
The
Fiat Group had previously run the
Lancia LC2
The Lancia LC2 (sometimes referred to as the Lancia-Ferrari) was a series of racing cars built by Italian automobile manufacturer Lancia and powered by engines built by their sister company Ferrari. They were part of Lancia's official factory-bac ...
in the Group C category, but had cancelled that project in 1986 after only winning one race with the LC2. In 1990,
Lancia were primarily focusing on the
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
(with the
Group A
Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived vehicles intended for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles ...
Delta Integrale), whilst
Ferrari were focusing on their Formula One programme; this meant that
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...
were the only member of the
Fiat Group that would have the capacity for a
sports car racing
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...
programme; they had last competed in top-level sports car events in the 1970s, with the
Alfa Romeo Tipo 33
The Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 was a sports racing prototype raced by the Alfa Romeo factory-backed team between 1967 and 1977. These cars took part for Sport Cars World Championship, Nordic Challenge Cup, Interserie and CanAm series. A small number o ...
.
As
Abarth
Abarth & C. S.p.A. () is an Italian racing and road car maker and Car tuning, performance division founded by Italo-Austrian Carlo Abarth in 1949. Abarth & C. S.p.A. is owned by Stellantis through its FCA Italy, Italian subsidiary. Its logo is a ...
had previously developed the Lancia LC2, it was them who Fiat turned to for the chassis development of the new Group C car,
which was assigned the project code of "SE 048SP".
Giuseppe Petrotta, formerly of
Osella
Osella is an Italian racing car manufacturer and former Formula One team. They participated in 132 Grands Prix between 1980 and 1990. They achieved two points finishes and scored five championship points.
Early days
Named after its founder V ...
, was the man selected to design the SE 048SP, and he drew up a fairly conventional car, with radiators mounted in the front of the chassis, covered rear wheels, and a nose that featured the traditional Alfa Romeo grille.
The project itself was a well-kept secret, and very little was ever revealed about the car's specifications.
One thing that Alfa Romeo did reveal was that it used the 3.5-litre
Tipo 1035 V10 engine
A V10 engine is a ten-cylinder piston engine where two banks of five cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V10 engines are much less common than V8 and V12 engines. Several V10 diesel engines have been prod ...
from the still-born
Alfa Romeo 164 Procar
The Alfa Romeo 164 (Type 164) is a four-door executive saloon manufactured and marketed by Italian automaker Alfa Romeo from 1987-1998, styled by Pininfarina, and cooperatively designed and sharing platforms and numerous elements with the Fiat ...
; this was a
naturally aspirated 72 degree V10 originally designed for the
Ligier Formula One team, and produced a claimed output of at 13,300
RPM
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
. It is believed that the car was built in 1990, as it had a much simpler rear wing than those found on cars built for the
1991 World Sportscar Championship season, but no official build date was given.
MOMO
Momo may refer to:
Geography
* Momo (department), a division of Northwest Province in Cameroon
* Momo, Gabon, a town in the Woleu-Ntem province of Gabon
* Momo, Piedmont, a town in the province of Novara, in northern Italy
* Joffrey Tower, in ...
's founder
Gianpiero Moretti
Gianpiero Moretti (20 March 1940 – 14 January 2012) was an Italian racing driver and the founder of the MOMO in the 1960s. He was born in Milan.
Moretti won the 24 Hours of Daytona, in 1998, driving a Ferrari 333SP with co-drivers Mauro ...
had apparently been in talks with Alfa Romeo about using the SE 048SP, but these did not result in any deal being made.
As a result, although at least one SE 048SP was built, the car never left the development phase, and never raced.
It ended up in
Alfa Romeo's Museo Storico, but made a public appearance at the 2010
Goodwood Festival of Speed
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hill climb and other events, held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in late June or ...
, where it appeared to be fitted with a 3.5-litre
Ferrari V12 engine,
producing a claimed output of at 12,750 RPM.
This may have been because the V10 engine had proved fragile in the "Abarth SE047", which was a re-engined Lancia LC2 used as a test-bed for the SE 048SP project.
The budget that the SE 048SP would have used, in combination with the money used in Lancia's WRC programme, were used instead on the
Alfa Romeo 155
The Alfa Romeo 155 (Type 167) is a compact executive car produced by Italian automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo between 1992 and 1998. It was unveiled in January 1992 at Barcelona, with the first public launch in March 1992, at the Geneva Motor S ...
touring car
Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof).
"Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s.
Th ...
programme,
which saw Alfa Romeo win numerous national championships, most notably the
Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) was a touring car racing series held from 1984 to 1996. Originally based in Germany, it held additional rounds elsewhere in Europe and later worldwide.
The original DTM had resumed racing with producti ...
in
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...
, and the
British Touring Car Championship
The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as ...
in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
.
References
{{Alfa Romeo Post War
Alfa Romeo racing cars
Abarth vehicles
Group C cars
Sports prototypes
Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles