Karl-Heinz Kalbfell

He enjoyed a celebrated career at BMW before moving to Italy in January to head Alfa Romeo. Two months later, a Fiat shakeup--that had former CEO Martin Leach leave after barely nine months on the job--delivered Maserati to him, too. At BMW, he ran the Motorsport M performance division, and he was instrumental in the BMW-engined McLaren F1 supercar, the Formula One program, and the Mini. His last job for the Munich car company was running Rolls-Royce.

"I've had job offers before, but Alfa Romeo was irresistible," says Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, 54, a German with a passion for performance cars and motor racing. "It has such emotion, tremendous potential, and is underachieving at present."

New 159

His goals are to take Alfa back into the U.S. market; to double sales of Alfa and Maserati worldwide; and to expand the product range of the two companies.

"Alfa Romeo and Maserati stay separate," he continues. "Separate engineering, separate design, separate companies. They'll just have the same chief: me. But we will work together to ensure the ranges dovetail, to share components when appropriate, and to share dealers and distributors when it's desirable."

Brera coupe. Both are Giugiaro designs.

He won't confirm the date of Alfa Romeo's reentry into America (2007?), but he's clear about sales objectives. "I was amazed when I joined Alfa Romeo to discover that world sales last year were only 175,000. That's a small figure for such a well-respected brand making such good cars. The medium-term objective is 300,000."

Kalbfell wants the Alfa and Maserati ranges jointly to fight BMW and other premium volume players. The new Alfa 159, unveiled in Geneva, will be targeted at the 3 Series. Its coupe spinoff, the Giugiaro-styled Brera, which also made its debut in Geneva, underscores Alfa's sporty credentials. On display this fall at Frankfurt will be the new Brera-based two-seat Spider convertible, aimed at the Z4 and lovers of the old Dustin Hoffman-in-"The Graduate" Spider. These three cars will spearhead Alfa's drive back into the U.S. All use the new Premium platform, developed with GM during its short-lived romance with Fiat--so it's U.S. street-legal--but to be exclusively used by the Italians. The three Alfas use a new V-6 engine, also codeveloped with GM, but uniquely Italian in tune and configuration. It's 3.2 liters and good for 256 horsepower.