I suggest the Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo, one of the icons of IMSA racing in the 1980s. At present, the Italian automaker has only a handful of cars in its U.S. stable: the Tonale, Giulia, and the Stelvio.

That's a mountainous 400,000-unit increase over 2009 sales, yet the route to the peak of that mountain isn't any clearer than it was in January when Alfa wasn't coming to the U.S., except that ...