The world of product development - with Maurizio Consalvo

[ProvaRacing]

I have cut and paste a translated thread from an Italian website (a week ago) regarding a topic much discussed here and other places.
Maurizio Consalvo, Head of Product Development at Alfa Romeo. Consalvo has a very important role at Alfa: he is responsible for present and future models of the entire Alfa Romeo range.
We offer you the opportunity to have a look behind the scenes of the company, to let you discover the work, the challenge and the people behind a great brand like Alfa Romeo.

Dear Alfisti,

I'm really glad that I can finally dedicate myself to you, opening this new and fundamental communication channel to share some of the most important issues about the aspects as far as the products are concerned.

I'm pleased to start this new experience with you, because since I started my professional career I have always been admiring the world of the "Alfisti" with its fans all over the world, who are not only experienced but also experts as far as the products are concerned or sometimes just fans of Italian cars.

Let's talk about passion and let me tell you something about my role in the company. Apart from the organisational part my role in our team is a dream for a car fan come true: we're working on the proposals as far as the future range and the development of the cars for the market are concerned.
It's a challenging and pleasant role, difficult but also rewarding. Although it's still pretty different from what it might seem from the outside.

When I was a young boy, reading Quattroruote (one of the most important car magazines in Italy) I dreamt of being able to decide which engines to develop, what kind of content to put in a car and foremost how far the speedometer should reach.

In reality the product is the main business lever in a company like ours, so apart from a lot of passion, you also need lots of rationality to deal with product development; you need to consider many complex aspects, especially when you think about the latest economic crisis on markets all over the world .

Here for us at Alfa Romeo the aspects of business sustainability are the most important ones, guaranteeing to invest the shareholders' money in profitable initiatives. The first task is to understand in which direction the market is moving. In the past the competition's evolution was slow and predictable; today it's much faster and changes happen on a global scale and you can't just think of Italy and Europe anymore.

Very often technological innovation is the 'weapon', which allows us to get onto the market with the right product at the right time.

For example the Multiair, which had its debut with the MiTo last September; this fundamental technology has been developed thanks to tenacity, professional capacity and far-sightedness of a team of people who believed in the importance of excellent performance and emission control, driving pleasure and consumption control.

Another important aspect is to know who the customers really are, how much they are willing to spend and what kind of content or performance they want.

Here we need to talk about the brand's value, the heritage, its unique characteristics, which are the reasons for the clients to buy the product.

The positive aspect: we know what we want to achieve!
Unmistakable style, road holding, driving pleasure, control of the car under all conditions, brilliant performance – these are the values, which have always characterised the brand.

The negative aspect: the bar is set higher and higher! It's getting more and more difficult to satisfy everybody – from the young fans to the traditional enthusiasts.

When Alfa Romeo introduced the Giulietta in the 1950s there was no other car with the same characteristics on the market. It wasn't about the price tag, but if you wanted to buy a saloon for your family with a sporty performance you had to come to Alfa Romeo! No other car was fitted with a double camshaft in aluminium or offered the Giulietta's weight distribution.

Today there are numerous cars with these characteristics and they are all really well made.

Compared to the 1950s technical architecture's rationalisation lead to different platforms, suspensions and engines. Nevertheless the brand's personality still remains a purchase reason. This will be true in the future, when there will be less than ten big industrial groups with numerous technical aspects in common. The challenge is not to "create an Alfa", but to create an Alfa according to the rules and for today's market, guaranteeing to the customer that the brand won't lose any of it's personality, offering a high-quality product with an unmistakable design.

Having said that I want to start talking to you trying to find the answers to the questions you posted in the forum workshop.

I hope many amongst you will be satisfied by my appearance today or over the coming months, when I'll be back in the forum.

Many Alfisti asked about rear traction.

I think that this is an issue which might merit it's own doctoral thesis in engineering, but I'll try to give some answers .... First of all it's not a question of "mechanical ideology", but a question of rationality. There is no doubt that compact cars, those which are driven on a daily basis, have an advantage in terms of weight, when they use front traction; they are also easier to drive for a driver with less experience and offer great space inside. On the other hand when you reach a certain performance and torque, rear traction and a straight engine have numerous advantages, especially for those who know how to develop mechatronics, setting up the electronics the best possible way, assisted by the driver without doing any harm to driving pleasure.

There are many cars with front traction extremely fun to drive and there are many boring rear traction cars (although out of respect I can't name any of them here). For us it's fundamental to understand what we want to get from the car and only then we have to understand how we want to get there, choosing the adequate technology.
I think that it doesn't make any sense to opt for a certain technology just for the sake of it, but you have to be extremely severe as far as the overall performance is concerned.

Another topic is the V6 engine.
I want to outline our reasoning, keeping the confidential nature of my role in the company. At Alfa Romeo, and in general all over the company, we are aware of the impact the V6 "Busso" had on the brand's image. Replacing such a glorious engine wasn't and won't be easy. What I can say is that to create such an engine you need enormous investments, bigger than once a high level of reliability, low consumption and environmental standards were considered.

This is one of those cases when the rational aspect has to guarantee that you're taking the right steps. For example when you first try to understand which cars should be fitted with such an engine and how this engine would be appreciated on the future markets. To calm you I can say that Fiat Powetrain Technologies technological patrimony, the company with exceptional competence in our group, is on an extremely high level, not to create a "V6" but "THE V6" – an avant-garde engine with character and temperament, which made Italian engine construction famous all over the world.

Talking about engines, I also want to reply to Marik '71's question as far as the 1750TBi is concerned.
At the moment it is not planned to apply the Multiair technology in the 1750's engine, because we decided to raise the engine's performance using the direct fuel injection potential and the double continuous phase distributor in combination with the supercharger.

Over the coming months we'll see the debut of this engine in a version with higher performance, which - also thanks to 'scavenging', eliminating the turbo lag - will lead to a further step forward in carrying out Ala Romeo's philosophy for the future: high-performing and enjoyable engines, which, thanks to downsizing, reduce consumption and emission.

And here are a few responses to some questions;

Good morning,
it seems our questions are all more or less similar, indicating that there is a strong curiosity towards the same points ...
As for me:
I'd like to know if there is any plan to return to the alfa romeo to the races, I think that would influence the study of some factors on the production cars ...
2) The future heir of 166 flagship, or if the heir of the 159 will be rear traction, and will be a sharing of platforms and engines with chrysler or have specially solutions designed for it?
3) Is there a real project on a facelift, or heirs of alfa gt? And why is the only car of the range that has not undergone major changes?
4) Do not believe that the elimination of double wishbone suspension at, Q2 mechanical, Torsen on the legacy of 147 could be a step back and then the savings can then affect the sale?

Answer
You are worried about the fact that going from the double wishbone and the mechanic Q2 of the 147 to the new architecture of the Giulietta can represent a challenge to the performance of the car.
Without giving you too much information in advance, with the same methodology used for the electronic Q2, we first defined the target of dynamic performance of our new car, and than we made the choice about the technical solution that allowed us to achieve the different targets of the project.
By the way...obviously, our goal was to create a SUPERIOR car than the 147 in all the different driving conditions...
I really care about technology and I want to exploit this conversation to explain something that can be useful to understand how things are going in the real world.
The double wishbone is a very complicated technical schema but often we need to face a lot of limitations due to the car world evolution.
To get maximum benefits off a double wishbone set up you should have plenty of room to define the right mechanical parameters.

Today, with the transverse engine, with the required performance for passive safety, due to the constraints related to packaging issues, you risk not to achieve the level of performance that you want.
It's the same for the longitudinal engine, considering that the room left available by the engine itself is utilised to install the exhaust and intake systems, that are becoming bigger to comply with the anti-pollution regulations and the acoustic limits.

[turboalfa]

Prova .. thank you for the post i must admit it was very interesting as well as enjoyable but it still wont state whether they would go back to a RWD system in there performance area . nor make any high performance vechiles. but i suppose alfa has never really been in the game.

its always been about the way the car handles, the weight, the look... honestly in there new generation they havent achieved much. .. handling ok yes very good... althought the weight of a 159 is not quite there.. the style is quite nice although blank in somewhat ways.


Now dont get me wrong . I love alfas but honestly they need a new desgin which will attract attentions .. yes fuel is a big issue and i understand that people worry about the green emission and yes i understand there may be rules and regulations . But if Bmw could change there face and performance completely ... why cant we . ..


id love in the next 2 years for alfa to lift there game

[ProvaRacing]

Hey Lorenzo I know you are keen, that's cool so maybe you missed the bit above "To calm you I can say that Fiat Powetrain Technologies technological patrimony, the company with exceptional competence in our group, is on an extremely high level, not to create a "V6" but "THE V6" – an avant-garde engine with character and temperament, which made Italian engine construction famous all over the world."

And yes as part of FIAT they share technology but thats a reality of business, I know I was shocked having just arrived in Italy in 86 to hear they were broke and FIAT was to take them over so clearly the old formula wasn't working that well. I can be nostalgic too but reality eventually comes calling.

Anyway it seems Maurizio had you in mind (underline) in this reply to someones question;

"Many of you continuously ask about the future of Alfa Romeo range.
If I were a "simple" Alfa Romeo fan, I would reply with pages of descriptions and ambitious projects.
But the professional is a key to my job and so I can say that:
1) If I were you, I will keep on asking this kind of questions!
2) We are currently working, and not only in Alfa Romeo, to make the right choices for the future, considering that the recent economical crisis radically changed our competitive arena and that the constant and rapid actions on products is a fundamental lever to keep on the market."

Here some more answers to questions giving insight into reasoning;

"Going back to the technical questions, you are asking why we have the 5 speed gearbox on some engine versions of the MiTo.
This is due to the quick response allowed by the engines. In particular, the 1.4 Multiair Turbo allows to exploit at the best the torque performance at low revs, thanks to the direct management of the throttles and the small size of the turbine.
By the way, a 6 speed gearbox, if not needed, in some cases can have a negative impact. For instance, in the 0-100 km/h you could need an additional gearshift, making a worst result in terms of performance.
About quality and feeling of the gearshift, we know about this and we are working to restore the standard levels, in terms of quality and feeling."

"You are asking about the Giulietta.
The anticipation is just the beginning; during the next weeks we are going to reveal something more about its amazing technologic DNA, about its wide product offer...
The car has been conceived to achieve a real internation role and not only to be leader within the internal market.
Content and engines will reflect this choice.

Regarding Dodge and Alfa Romeo, what I can say is that the two brands are sharing a strong personality, and "iconic" vision of design, coherent with their heritage and personality.
The important partnership we achieved in the USA will be able to give more chances to develop the re-enforcement of any single brand. This is really important to keep the correct relationship with the customers."

"Your question on electric cars development (or alternative propulsion systems) is really interesting.
Here in Alfa Romeo (but I can say in FGA, generally) we assign ourselves the target to reduce the CO2 emissions and care for the environment in a straightforward and immediate way.
We think that presenting a "spaceship" model during a motorshow or a tiny fleet of eco-friendly cars cannot solve the problems of our earth, due to very low sales and penetration of these vehicles.
We invested a lot in the LPG and CNG development, and we conquered the overall leadership as FGA, giving to customers the chance to buy a real eco-friendly car.
Without renounce to Alfa Romeo's heritage, and to keep Alfa Romeo traditional performance, we presented the 1.4 Mito LPG Turbo on the Italian market, the first turbocharged engine coupled with the LPG technology.
But we want to go further and our researches will proceed without stopping because, even not considering commercial purposes, the future of our earth is a real responsibility for everyone of us."
       
"We tested a lot the mechanic Q2 on the 147 and on the GT, with excellent performance.
We wanted to reach, together with the technicians that worked for a long time on this project, the following target: to replicate exactly the same feeling on the road achieved by the mechanic Q2 but with the electronic one, adding 3 further benefits:
1. is able to interact with Alfa DNA system
2. allows to reduce weight on the front axle (because there are not additional components)
3. is less expensive, so it allows to extend the benefits on the whole range of engines (and not only the top range engines)

You, Conni, also asked if and how the Alfisti can help on future developments of our products.
This first meeting with you is the real answer to your question. This is not a "marketing/promotional idea" but a real, honest, open discussion on the matters that we all care, even if for different reasons.
I am really interested in understanding what to develop and you are a precious asset and you are part of the customers that tomorrow will have to believe in our products." 

And as I meantioned elsewhere and posted a vid of the ceo they are not going racing in the forseeable future. Even bmw realise that all that "perception" advertising has to be turned into reality on the track...maybe why they ran away from F1? Rubbish they said about not results driven decision is just that...joy...I mean rubbish.

[turboalfa]

I must admit . you have brightened my day alot with outlining that but is it just me but by performance they mean the whole range . im more interested in one or two performance vechile as well as the whole range still being nice beautiful cars to own and drive . but its always a bonus to have these top notch vechiles:) avaliable:) .


but prova. thank you alot:) .. glad someone listens haha:)


and thanks for the information. was good to know.