Cars : 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C
Cars : 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C
Approaching in the oncoming lane, the mid-engined Alfa Romeo 4C looks every bit as exotic as a Ferrari. It has, after all, about the same width-to-height proportions as a 458 Italia. It is impossibly wide, incredulously low, and breathtakingly beautiful.
And then it flies past with triple-digit decibels of anger exploding from its tailpipes, punctuated by the whip-crack misfire induced as its computers orchestrate a 130-millisecond gearchange. The noise is pure Ferrari, in loudness, fury, intensity, and timbre.
No surprise, since the Alfa Romeo 4C has no muffler.
No muffler at all. No resonator, nothing: a turbo, a catalytic converter, and that’s it. In its basic form—which, according to the company, tips the scales at a filled-with-helium 2028-lb curb weight—it also has no radio, no air conditioning, no power steering, no side or knee airbags, no carpeting to speak of, a miniscule 10.6-gallon fuel tank, and no ability to adjust the passenger seat in any way whatsoever.
On the other hand, it has the world’s most violent-sounding four-cylinder: a 1742-cc all-aluminum, direct-injected, turbocharged angry little creature that makes six liters of V-12 worth of noise. It trades power-sapping balance shafts for a short stroke and eight crankshaft counterweights and is force-fed 21.75 psi of boost to bark out 237 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque.
In the lightweight 4C, that translates to a ton of thrust: 62 mph in less than 4.5 seconds, according to Alfa Romeo. The only transmission available, in modern Ferrari style, is a dual-clutch automatic. It’s the same basic gearbox that’s optional in a Dodge Dart, it turns out, but with new first-gear and final-drive ratios and, chiefly, completely revised programming that transforms it from a miserable slur-o-matic into a Formula 1-fast sequential ‘box.
Once you’re moving, that is. Since its clutches aren’t bathed in oil (like almost every other DCT on the market), the Fiat-group “DDCT” is forced to be tepid off the line. Launch control, for example, drops the clutch gently at 3500 rpm. There is no wheelspin, and just as you’re thinking “that’s it?” the turbo spools and all hell breaks loose. First gear tops out almost instantly, the digital speedometer having climbed to just 24 mph. Then, there’s a dual-barrel shotgun blast out the twin exhaust pipes as the transmission slams into second. That gear, too, lasts only barely longer than a tick of your Rolex—the shift into third comes at only 41 mph, and it only lasts until 76 mph. Fourth is done by 114—and the Alfa just keeps accelerating to a claimed top speed of 160 mph.
We ran out of track at just over 140. The 4C was still pulling, and hard. The 4.5-second claim feels entirely plausible (at least for the base, ultra-lightweight car), but the drama imparted by the refreshingly short, closely-spaced gearing makes the 4C feel even quicker than it is.
Of course, the lack of sound deadening in the carbon-fiber passenger cell adds to that impression. Impressively, the cabin is isolated from the sounds of pebbles smacking the underbody, but the engine’s noises pass through the carbon-fiber firewall so completely that you can clearly hear the tick-tick-tick of the fuel injectors. And the constant whooshing of the turbo—which is an especially delicious treat when it dumps boost, rally-car-style, out of its chattering wastegate.
The light weight means Alfa was able to forego power steering, and that’s a huge bonus for those of us distraught over the torture inflicted by today’s de rigueur numb, artificial electric power steering. To experience a modern car with unassisted steering is a revelation—and though it’s not quite as communicative or light as a Lotus Exige’s helm, the 4C’s small, thick, flat-bottomed steering paints a palpable picture about the forces its chassis is coping with.
The rack itself is fairly quick—2.7 turns lock-to-lock—and steering effort ramps up dramatically as cornering loads increase. Combined with the shape of the wheel, the high effort all but guarantees that you’ll have blisters on your hands after a day of canyon carving.
The blisters will match your sore cheek muscles, because you’ll have also suffered from perma-grin. The Alfa 4C is a brilliant car to drive, with a commendably supple ride and yet zero wasted body motions. Alfa’s mini-Ferrari uses a supercar-style control-arm suspension up front and plain ol’ struts at the rear. Porsche has long proven that struts are just fine (the Cayman uses them all around), and Alfa’s decision to use them in the rear is, according to engineers, because of width constraints in packaging the transverse engine and gearbox. More likely, however, is that the company started by moving the Giulietta/Dart front driveline to the rear wheels and developed the 4C from there.
Whatever the reason, the result is huge amounts of grip and unfailing composure over bumps. We tested only the Racing-Pack cars, which come with revised springs, shocks, and anti-roll bars; and aggressive Pirelli P Zero “AR Racing” tires on 18-inch wheels in front, 19s in back.) On track, the 4C falls into easily managed steady-state understeer, but it can be coaxed sideways by a big dollop of power (after waiting a not-insignificant time for boost to build) and then lifting suddenly, or by trail-braking into the corners. On track, it lacks the all-neutral, all-the-time perfect balance of modern Porsches, but on the road, it’s infinitely more involving and far more fun. And it’s supercar quick.
The seats are far more comfortable than their skinny padding suggests, but the passenger side of the 4C isn’t much fun. The HVAC control pod squishes your left knee, and the dashboard swells out toward your torso, making you continually want to move the seat backward. Or recline it. Neither of which you can do.
On the driver’s side, however, there’s a ton of legroom, and though there’s barely any view to the rear, you’ll never hear a complaint from the driver of a 4C. Not about the driving position—though the bottom-hinged brake pedal does take some getting used to.
And if you look at the pedal, you start noticing some telling things about the 4C: the pedal is attached directly to the vacuum booster, which is right there in the cabin with you, sticking through the uncarpeted carbon floor. The underside of the dashboard is completely exposed, allowing a view of the tubes and cables that form the inner workings of the manual heater controls.
The three round controls feel like they were plucked from the cheapest parts bin in the Fiat Group, as does the hard, scratchy plastic that forms the dashboard. I was expecting to find a Fisher-Price “My First Ferrari” sticker somewhere on the interior, because while the whole thing looks quite nice, it’s constructed of the same quality materials as a Barbie Corvette.
The biggest offender is the base headlight surround, which is a charcoal-colored hard plastic that was, unsurprisingly, completely absent from the vehicles that Alfa made available to drive or photograph. Our test cars all had the optional carbon-fiber headlight surrounds, which turn the unfortunate-looking headlamps from corporate embarrassments to discussion-piece design elements. Rumor has it that the 4C project ran out of money, and Fiat corporate dictator Marchionne refused to expand the budget by a few million euro to develop bespoke headlights. So the 4C makes do with off-the-shelf Hella halogen projectors embedded in those multi-faceted surrounds. If dysfunction is part of Alfa’s legendary charm, it’s alive and well in the headlights and interior.
So for an estimated base price of around $54,000 when the 4C becomes available next spring through North American Maserati dealerships, you’re certainly not paying for intricate headlights or the luxurious, leather-swathed interior that you’d get in, say, a similarly priced Porsche Cayman. But the Cayman doesn’t have the 4C’s carbon-fiber construction, and it’s a lot heavier. In fact, a U.S.-spec dual-clutch-equipped Cayman weighs some 900 lb more than the Alfa 4C.
Except of course the 4C doesn’t really weigh 2028 lb. That rather outrageous claim is perhaps where the Alfa Romeo most resembles its big brother Ferrari. Clearly, the urge to publish “optimistic” specifications is a family thing.
When pushed about the U.S.-spec 4C, Alfa Romeo engineers started quoted all kinds of different changes. Some are due to regulations (side and knee airbags), some to customer tastes (air conditioning, a moveable passenger seat, a radio—things that American car buyers expect for 50 grand. Or 15, for that matter.) Alfa Romeo brand boss Harald Wester smiled and said the weight penalty could perhaps be 100 pounds. But the engineers admitted the U.S. cars could weigh more than 2500 lb.
Before you panic, remember that a 2500-lb 4C would still be nearly 500 lb lighter than a Porsche Cayman. Oh, and with its proportions—2.5 inches wider and 4.3 inches lower—and gorgeous looks, it makes twice the visual statement. (Even if it has one fourth the trunk space—the 4C has no openable front hood, so there’s no storage there. Its rear trunk will fit a rollaboard suitcase. In the interest of weight savings, there are no struts to hold it open, just an old-fashioned prop rod.) In defense of the Alfa, it is 15.4 inches shorter than a Cayman. (The 4C is much closer in size to a Lotus Elise. The Lotus is 6.4 inches shorter—but it’s a massive 5.7 inches narrower, too. Cute car, but it’s got nothing on the Alfa, proportions-wise.)
The Cayman is really the 4C’s only natural competitor, then. And it’s got an ace up its sleeve: a manual transmission, something Alfa Romeo says it never seriously considered. This is surprising considering the focus on light weight elsewhere (the DCT is heavier than a manual), and it’s certainly a shame, because the Alfa would be more fun with a clutch pedal.
But at least this DCT is a great one. (For now. We won’t be surprised to hear that the dry clutches don’t last long in hilly topography or city traffic.) And the shift paddles are in keeping with the Ferrari-esque driving experience, though they’d do far better to be located on the steering column instead of the steering wheel. Especially when you’re wrenching the heavy wheel in tight turns.
The 4C brings Alfa Romeo back to the U.S. market at the perfect time: just as the four-cylinder Lotus has disappeared and the mid-engine Porsches have lost their charm. The big question is how well the car will withstand its big U.S. weight gain. Will it still accelerate, brake, and handle bumpy back roads like a Ferrari? Will we get the no-muffler, all-awesome exhaust? Will it still ride well with all the extra mass? If so, you’d be perfectly justified in replacing the Alfa badges with prancing horses and telling your neighbors you just bought a Ferrari 4C Bambino. After all, even if the driving experience is diluted by ten percent, it still looks the part.
Contact Alfa Romeo
Website | Facebook | Twitter
Contact Road & Track Magazine
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | YouTube | Pinterest
Sources : 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Photo | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Information | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Interior | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Trunk Photo | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Photo 2 | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Wheel Photo | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Photo 3
Approaching in the oncoming lane, the mid-engined Alfa Romeo 4C looks every bit as exotic as a Ferrari. It has, after all, about the same width-to-height proportions as a 458 Italia. It is impossibly wide, incredulously low, and breathtakingly beautiful.
And then it flies past with triple-digit decibels of anger exploding from its tailpipes, punctuated by the whip-crack misfire induced as its computers orchestrate a 130-millisecond gearchange. The noise is pure Ferrari, in loudness, fury, intensity, and timbre.
No surprise, since the Alfa Romeo 4C has no muffler.
No muffler at all. No resonator, nothing: a turbo, a catalytic converter, and that’s it. In its basic form—which, according to the company, tips the scales at a filled-with-helium 2028-lb curb weight—it also has no radio, no air conditioning, no power steering, no side or knee airbags, no carpeting to speak of, a miniscule 10.6-gallon fuel tank, and no ability to adjust the passenger seat in any way whatsoever.
On the other hand, it has the world’s most violent-sounding four-cylinder: a 1742-cc all-aluminum, direct-injected, turbocharged angry little creature that makes six liters of V-12 worth of noise. It trades power-sapping balance shafts for a short stroke and eight crankshaft counterweights and is force-fed 21.75 psi of boost to bark out 237 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque.
Once you’re moving, that is. Since its clutches aren’t bathed in oil (like almost every other DCT on the market), the Fiat-group “DDCT” is forced to be tepid off the line. Launch control, for example, drops the clutch gently at 3500 rpm. There is no wheelspin, and just as you’re thinking “that’s it?” the turbo spools and all hell breaks loose. First gear tops out almost instantly, the digital speedometer having climbed to just 24 mph. Then, there’s a dual-barrel shotgun blast out the twin exhaust pipes as the transmission slams into second. That gear, too, lasts only barely longer than a tick of your Rolex—the shift into third comes at only 41 mph, and it only lasts until 76 mph. Fourth is done by 114—and the Alfa just keeps accelerating to a claimed top speed of 160 mph.
We ran out of track at just over 140. The 4C was still pulling, and hard. The 4.5-second claim feels entirely plausible (at least for the base, ultra-lightweight car), but the drama imparted by the refreshingly short, closely-spaced gearing makes the 4C feel even quicker than it is.
Of course, the lack of sound deadening in the carbon-fiber passenger cell adds to that impression. Impressively, the cabin is isolated from the sounds of pebbles smacking the underbody, but the engine’s noises pass through the carbon-fiber firewall so completely that you can clearly hear the tick-tick-tick of the fuel injectors. And the constant whooshing of the turbo—which is an especially delicious treat when it dumps boost, rally-car-style, out of its chattering wastegate.
The rack itself is fairly quick—2.7 turns lock-to-lock—and steering effort ramps up dramatically as cornering loads increase. Combined with the shape of the wheel, the high effort all but guarantees that you’ll have blisters on your hands after a day of canyon carving.
The blisters will match your sore cheek muscles, because you’ll have also suffered from perma-grin. The Alfa 4C is a brilliant car to drive, with a commendably supple ride and yet zero wasted body motions. Alfa’s mini-Ferrari uses a supercar-style control-arm suspension up front and plain ol’ struts at the rear. Porsche has long proven that struts are just fine (the Cayman uses them all around), and Alfa’s decision to use them in the rear is, according to engineers, because of width constraints in packaging the transverse engine and gearbox. More likely, however, is that the company started by moving the Giulietta/Dart front driveline to the rear wheels and developed the 4C from there.
Whatever the reason, the result is huge amounts of grip and unfailing composure over bumps. We tested only the Racing-Pack cars, which come with revised springs, shocks, and anti-roll bars; and aggressive Pirelli P Zero “AR Racing” tires on 18-inch wheels in front, 19s in back.) On track, the 4C falls into easily managed steady-state understeer, but it can be coaxed sideways by a big dollop of power (after waiting a not-insignificant time for boost to build) and then lifting suddenly, or by trail-braking into the corners. On track, it lacks the all-neutral, all-the-time perfect balance of modern Porsches, but on the road, it’s infinitely more involving and far more fun. And it’s supercar quick.
On the driver’s side, however, there’s a ton of legroom, and though there’s barely any view to the rear, you’ll never hear a complaint from the driver of a 4C. Not about the driving position—though the bottom-hinged brake pedal does take some getting used to.
And if you look at the pedal, you start noticing some telling things about the 4C: the pedal is attached directly to the vacuum booster, which is right there in the cabin with you, sticking through the uncarpeted carbon floor. The underside of the dashboard is completely exposed, allowing a view of the tubes and cables that form the inner workings of the manual heater controls.
The three round controls feel like they were plucked from the cheapest parts bin in the Fiat Group, as does the hard, scratchy plastic that forms the dashboard. I was expecting to find a Fisher-Price “My First Ferrari” sticker somewhere on the interior, because while the whole thing looks quite nice, it’s constructed of the same quality materials as a Barbie Corvette.
The biggest offender is the base headlight surround, which is a charcoal-colored hard plastic that was, unsurprisingly, completely absent from the vehicles that Alfa made available to drive or photograph. Our test cars all had the optional carbon-fiber headlight surrounds, which turn the unfortunate-looking headlamps from corporate embarrassments to discussion-piece design elements. Rumor has it that the 4C project ran out of money, and Fiat corporate dictator Marchionne refused to expand the budget by a few million euro to develop bespoke headlights. So the 4C makes do with off-the-shelf Hella halogen projectors embedded in those multi-faceted surrounds. If dysfunction is part of Alfa’s legendary charm, it’s alive and well in the headlights and interior.
Except of course the 4C doesn’t really weigh 2028 lb. That rather outrageous claim is perhaps where the Alfa Romeo most resembles its big brother Ferrari. Clearly, the urge to publish “optimistic” specifications is a family thing.
When pushed about the U.S.-spec 4C, Alfa Romeo engineers started quoted all kinds of different changes. Some are due to regulations (side and knee airbags), some to customer tastes (air conditioning, a moveable passenger seat, a radio—things that American car buyers expect for 50 grand. Or 15, for that matter.) Alfa Romeo brand boss Harald Wester smiled and said the weight penalty could perhaps be 100 pounds. But the engineers admitted the U.S. cars could weigh more than 2500 lb.
Before you panic, remember that a 2500-lb 4C would still be nearly 500 lb lighter than a Porsche Cayman. Oh, and with its proportions—2.5 inches wider and 4.3 inches lower—and gorgeous looks, it makes twice the visual statement. (Even if it has one fourth the trunk space—the 4C has no openable front hood, so there’s no storage there. Its rear trunk will fit a rollaboard suitcase. In the interest of weight savings, there are no struts to hold it open, just an old-fashioned prop rod.) In defense of the Alfa, it is 15.4 inches shorter than a Cayman. (The 4C is much closer in size to a Lotus Elise. The Lotus is 6.4 inches shorter—but it’s a massive 5.7 inches narrower, too. Cute car, but it’s got nothing on the Alfa, proportions-wise.)
But at least this DCT is a great one. (For now. We won’t be surprised to hear that the dry clutches don’t last long in hilly topography or city traffic.) And the shift paddles are in keeping with the Ferrari-esque driving experience, though they’d do far better to be located on the steering column instead of the steering wheel. Especially when you’re wrenching the heavy wheel in tight turns.
The 4C brings Alfa Romeo back to the U.S. market at the perfect time: just as the four-cylinder Lotus has disappeared and the mid-engine Porsches have lost their charm. The big question is how well the car will withstand its big U.S. weight gain. Will it still accelerate, brake, and handle bumpy back roads like a Ferrari? Will we get the no-muffler, all-awesome exhaust? Will it still ride well with all the extra mass? If so, you’d be perfectly justified in replacing the Alfa badges with prancing horses and telling your neighbors you just bought a Ferrari 4C Bambino. After all, even if the driving experience is diluted by ten percent, it still looks the part.
Contact Alfa Romeo
Website | Facebook | Twitter
Contact Road & Track Magazine
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | YouTube | Pinterest
Sources : 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Photo | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Information | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Interior | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Trunk Photo | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Photo 2 | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Wheel Photo | 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C Photo 3
0 comments: