Alfa’s return to the US has the
makings of a cult lust object
Alfa Romeo sold 523 cars in the United
States in 1994. The next year, the storied Italian brand pulled up stakes and
left. Since the early aughts, Fiat has been threatening an Alfa return. Yet
except for the hyper-limited 8C – essentially a short-wheel-base Maserati Gran
Turismo – We’ve seen no new Alfas here.
Alfa
Romeo 4C Front
That will change early next year when the
4C arrives. Unveiled as a concept at the Geneva motor show in 2011, the
mid-engined Italian was confirmed for production later that year. In meaningful
ways, it’s as high-tech as anything to roll out of Maranello or Modena. In
fact, it’s set to be built at Maserati’s facility in the latter.
We traveled to Turin to see the car, fiddle
with the interior, and take in the 1.75-liter turbo-charged four’s unique
timbre – akin to a two-man tenor/baritone chorus: more sophisticated than the
rude-boy blat of the Fiat 500 Abarth, but not quite the lung-sucking aria
effortlessly wrung out by Maranello.
Alfa
Romeo 4C inside
The car’s centerpiece is a carbon-fiber tub
developed with Dalara, and Alfa makes sure you don’t forget it. There’s no
carpet, save for a couple floor mats. The sills are so high, the stiff-of-joint
have little hope of elegant ingress and egress.
Once inside, however, you’re comfortable
and constantly reminded of what makes the car special. The interior’s not
fancy, but it’s honest and a bit futuristic.
Alfa
Romeo 4C interior
When one hears that the car will start
somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000, depending on options (final U.S. pricing
has yet to be set), Porsche’s Boxster and Cayman leap to mind. The little Alfa
weighs 2,100 pounds – the same as an old Porsche 914, though the 914’s
1.7-liter made 79 hp to the Alfa’s 236. Today’s 315-hp Boxster S – our Best of
the Best Car for 2013 – weighs 794 pounds more when equipped with the PDK
dual-clutch transmission. Power-to-weight advantage? Italy, by half a pound per
horsepower. Speaking of transmission, the 4C will only be available with Alfa’s
twin-clutch automatic, the lack of a manual option perhaps the only black mark.
If you want a manual-sporting Alfa, you’ll have to wait for the upcoming Spider
revival – a front-engined roadster being developed beside the next-generation
Mazda MX-5 Miata.
The first 4Cs arriving here will all be
built to Launch Edition spec, featuring vents in the front fenders,
carbon-fiber headlight surrounds and mirrors, fancier exhaust tips and a
carbon-fiber spoiler. Five hundred Launch Editions are earmarked for the U.S.
If you want one, we’d recommend you go ahead and queue up yesterday.
Alfa
Romeo 4C back
To make a business case for the 4C, the
design team, headed by Alessandro Maccolini, had to make liberal use of the
Fiat corporate parts bin. Here is a look at what they did, along with a few
other highlights.
