Alfa Romeo 4C

Geneva was where the concept car’s first appearance took place, and now, two years later, Geneva will be where the production version’s arrival will take place. The current times are asking for new strategies, so Alfa Romeo will use this car as its first solid attempt to expand the sales around the whole world, just like almost every car fan has dreamed to see for decades. If there isn’t only one correct direction to achieve success, it’s undeniable that Alfa’s is the most commendable one: 4C comes as Italian as it could possibly be.

Like most of the European brands, Alfa had to reorganize its plans in order to become more profitable. Fiat, like every other car group, won’t ever give too much information about what it’s trying to do with each brand, but it’s possible to think the intention is to make both Alfa Romeo and Lancia have a full-size showroom, working from mid-size to entry-luxury price ranges but always maintaining their very heavy conceptual difference: the Alfas would be always sporty, while Lancia would take care of the classy side, leaving Maserati to the high luxury zone – it would be the only way of keeping all of them and living in peace with each other, but so far this is nothing more than speculation.

The great fact for now, though, is that 4C comes with really small changes from the concept version, such as the different headlights. The customers which were waiting for new GTV and Spider unfortunately will have to keep praying, because this one brings a totally different style, which is actually closer to some English cars like Lotus Elise. In other words, the Italian coupé focuses much more at the best handling it could have than to break speed records. The design, for example, has only 13.1-feet length but 6.6-feet width, combined to a 3.9-feet height. Like Chanel and Dior (or Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, to keep it Italian), Alfa wanted its new sports car to be concentrated in a small, but very, very beautiful flask.

Smaller sports cars aren’t used to be very attractive because there isn’t much space to use those opulent creases and volumes such as Enzo Ferrari or Mercedes-Benz SLS’s, but 4C turned out very well-designed. The MiTo-inspired front fascia still uses big and round headlights, but the black painting made them very elegant. Besides that, it’s nice to observe that Alfa used cleaner lines, which suit smaller cars much better than too many shapes: the lower grille seems to create only one big element, getting divided only by the cuore sportivo, which also defines two big lines that make the hood seem smaller – simply excellent. Those two lines fade after the doors, whose windows became visually connected to the windshield by black-painted A-columns, and give space to the imponent real air intakes.

And going a little further we see the beautiful tiny rear, which takes the attentions to the round lights and the rear windshield, this one because of the rear-mid engine: this car uses the turbocharged 1.8L with four cylinders (that’s why it’s called 4C) debuted with Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde. It’ll generate 232-hp power and 251-lb-ft torque, leading to expect that the carbon fiber chassis’ reduced weight will help to achieve very interesting performance. 4C will use only a six-speed dual-clutch TCT automatic gearbox, but it also features the DNA selector: there will be Dynamic, Natural and All Weather modes as usual, but here along with Race, each one with different driving parameters.

Alfa Romeo 4C Spider (04/03/2014)

This time the Italians didn’t want to wait until the next Geneva Auto Show. Detroit was chosen to host the release of 4C’s brand new version, which Alfa Romeo expects to take around 40% of the yearly production of 3,000 vehicles. In order to preserve the coupé’s silhouette, the only part of the (fabric) roof you can remove lies directly above the occupants’ heads, which would make this Spider actually a Targa. However, what really catches people’s eyes are the carbon fiber-related facts: the original structure was so strong that it didn’t demand significant reinforcements to achieve satisfactory levels of rigidity. Besides, the part which holds the windshield was left without painting, so as to expose the famous black color associated with this material.

Other news include the engine cover, which is no longer made of glass, and the full-leather cabin sold as standard. The fabric roof is manually mounted with an aluminum rollbar, and steals around a third of the 3.7 cubic-feet trunk, but there will be an optional carbon-fiber top. Spider also adds a new Alpine audio system, which will also appear at the coupé soon, and the option of a new dual exhaust system with central exit and made of titanium. Since there weren’t expressive changes to weight or aerodynamics, Alfa Romeo claims the performance remained the same: the four-cylinder engine still takes the car from 0 to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds and to the top speed of 160 mph. Such ride can be made even better by playing with the DNA mode selector and/or asking for the Track specification.