Several decades have passed in lurch and now the Alfa Romeo 4C gets the famous Italian auto firm back to North America. While this mid-engine sports car displays a price to challenge the Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche Boxster, and Jaguar F-Types; in actuality, this superbly curvaceous Alfa is robust and more outrageous than exotic cars costing double the price.
The new Alfa Romeo 4C perhaps took its time in returning back, but after getting behind the wheels of 4C sports car, we’re in a totally forgiving state.
With an overwhelmingly curvaceous body that appears like a shrunken Ferrari, the mid-engine 4C is glaring with drama and bravado. Having a glance, you’d opine it cost two or three times its original price of $55,195 (including destination). Even with a perfect selection of options – like the reached 18 front/19 rear alloy wheels fixed to our test car – you can perhaps retain the 4C below $70K.
Remember that’s not sea change, for sure. But it’s on-par with expectedly the best high performance sports car bargain in the middle, the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
You never get baffled with this Alfa with the Vette, or any other on the road – excluding a Ferrari 458 Italia. Perfect make and exclusive design are subjective but, in the matter of the Alfa 4C.
The front is adorned with Alfa’s shield-shaped grille, decorated by large air intakes laced in black wire mesh. On either side, beginning well into the doors, and just down the side mirrors, are strange character lines that garner their way into rear fender-mounted air prospects. These schedule the turbocharged and direct-injected 1.7-liter 4-cylinder nestled in the hind side the passenger cabin.
Alfa Romeo 4c Engine
This amazing little 4-cylinder of new Alfa Romeo car packs a perfect sound and enormous power, with 237-horsepower available at 6,600 rpm and a stout 258 lb.-ft. of torque holding steady from 2,200-4,250 rpm. There is a full-bore punch of turbo lag, in fact. Once you have the engine reaching 3,000 rpm, the 4C beats you in the backside and gets itself down the road. It’s totally a whole lot of fun, since the turbo is managed and the car doesn’t start reaching down or tug the steering wheel out of your hands.
You’re over the moon to hit this engine all day long, with the tach needle pinging off redline at every instance. But the Alfa’s plateau of torque reflects the fact that 4C doesn’t have the grunt to muscle its way down a curling road, even if you maintain the 6-speed sequential paddle-shift gearbox to its personal devices.
In practice, using the paddles is more fun, especially to get the full acoustic onslaught of the engine. A chrome-colored switch on the center console controls the 4C’s aptly-named DNA system. Composed of three driving modes (Dynamic, Natural, All-Weather), the system monitors and adjusts everything from the steering’s level of power assistance, throttle response, gear shift speed, torque curve, along with the intervention of the traction and stability control systems.
During several sunny days with the new Alfa Romeo 4C to a maximum extent, the ‘all-weather’ mode was not needed and ‘natural’ mode was only engaged when stuck in New York traffic.
If it had another 200 or so HP, it might make an interesting drive. As it is, the body makes promises the engine can’t deliver. As soon as an enterprising tuner does something about the power pitfall, this cold be a fast, fun man toy.
I do hope Alfa has improved their understanding of the importance of an electrical that is reliable and follows the factory wiring diagram. My previous Alfa didn’t have that. For that matter, neither did my Ducatti 350 motorcycle. Maybe it wasn’t just Alfa, but the Italian psyche?