Talk that the Fiat Bravo could make an entrance into the FIA World Touring Car Championship next year has gathered strength this week with fresh comments to that effect being attributed to brand CEO Luca De Meo. Autosport magazine quote him as staying that "it is something we are seriously considering".

During the very glitzy launch of the new C-segment hatchback model in Rome at the end of last month Luca De Meo was widely reported as saying that he would like to see the Bravo taking part in the proposed new "Alternative Fuels" class of the 2008 FIA World Touring Car Championship. Now Autosport magazine has this week quoted further comments made by De Meo, this time to Italian motorsport publication Autosprint. "We have a lot of belief in the rally programme (with the Grande Punto Super2000), but we are also evaluating other avenues," de Meo told Autosprint. "For example we'd see the Bravo well for circuit racing. We'd like to take part in the WTCC and this is something we are seriously considering. Besides, I don't see other important showcases, and since Alfa is edging towards GT racing.

"I repeat," De Meo added, "we believe in Fiat's sporting soul, but it's important to make the right moves, as it's been the case with the Bravo project, and that is without improvising. That's why we are closely analysing the regulations, the organisation and the TV deals," he concluded.

Currently Fiat Auto is represented in the FIA World Touring Car Championship by the Alfa Romeo brand, with the racing operation being run through Malagnino-based N.technology team.
 

The programme, which involves the Alfa 156, is now in the third and final year of a commitment made to the FIA when the European Touring Car Championship was granted world status in 2005. However with Alfa Romeo widely expected to withdraw from touring car racing at the end of this year in favour of concentrating on a global sportscar programme with the new Alfa 8C Competizione, the structure would be in place to introduce the Bravo, most probably with a Multijet-powered version in an expected new class for "alternative fuel" vehicles.

Any involvement in the FIA World Touring Car Championship would build on a rich Fiat racing tradition; in the 1960s the Turinese carmaker was pre-eminent in the Division 1 category of the WTCC's predecessor, the FIA European Touring Car Championship, through Carlo Abarth's legendary tuning concern. The hotly contested Division 1 category ran from 1965 to 1969; and the tiny Fiat 600-based racing models, the famous Fiat Abarth 1000TC pumped out 85 bhp, won the title in four out of the five years before the cubic capacity of the class was raised. Ed Swart won in 1965, followed by Giancarlo Baghetti (1966), Willi Kauhsen (1967) and finally Marsilio Pasotti (1969). Tragedy helped the 1000TC's close rival, the Morris Mini to claim the 1968 championship.