Alfa Romeo is one of those brands that really resonates with petrolheads all over the world. Its extensive legacy on road and race track conjures memories of legendary machines fuelled by pure Italian passion. Each an automotive artwork, these characterful machines come so very close to having a human quality to them. However, if you’re under the age of 30, that’s all Alfa Romeo is – a legacy. You’ve had to take it on faith that Alfa Romeo deserves the reputation it enjoys. Only recently has Alfa reignited its fire thanks to the Giulia Quadrifoglio, with decades of rebadged Fiats filling the void between past and present. There was one particular false start that still makes me a little bit angry. The Alfa Romeo 4C.
Neglected is probably the best way to describe Alfa at the start of the 2010s. The once fabled brand had been reduced to selling rather unexciting hatchbacks and overweight coupes. Many still looks as handsome as an Alfa should, but none a pure example of how great the brand could be. When it was announced that Alfa Romeo would be making something of a comeback with a lightweight mid-engine sports car, the automotive world erupted with cheer. At last modern-day Alfa would get the halo car its heritage deserved and introduce the Italian marque to a new generation who grew up on stories of Alfa, but little else.
The 4C was to be a mouthwatering proposition that would represent a pure driving sensation for those behind the wheel. A carbon tub, curvaceous bodywork, compact proportions and a mid mounted 1.75-litre engine with a sizeable turbo bolted to it. It was to be Italy’s Lotus Elise, and a car to put Alfa Romeo back on the map.
It certainly looked the part, be it in coupe or spider form. The 4C both harked back to iconic cars of the past and pointed this marque towards the future. Big characterful headlights, deep intakes and a pronounced rear signified this as something exotic. Its mid-mounted engine produced 237bhp and 350Nm of torque, something that could get it from 0-62mph in just 4.5 seconds.
I wasn’t amongst the first to drive an Alfa Romeo 4C, but early chatter was suggesting that the carmaybe didn’t live up to expectations. How on Earth could that be? With components this good, there’s no way Alfa could have scored an own goal, or so I thought. I wanted to make my own mind up.
I was handed the keys to a bright yellow Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, and parked on a south costal road in England, it looked the park. The sun beat down on its vivid paint that wonderfully contrasted the carbon fibre elements of the sports car. My first thought was to remove the roof – a simple manual fabric affair. Sorry, did I say simple? I meant hellish. Toggles and buttons, scaffolding and an ungainly pile of material later, it was off. I quickly forgot about this faff, it was an Alfa Romeo after all and such foibles can be put down to being character building.
I climbed over the high carbon sill and took my seat low in the car. The cabin was spartan, but I could forgive it that considering its mission was purity. Attempting to get myself comfortable, I noticed that the yellow-stitched sports seats had a degree of movement that ranged from bolt upright to hunch forward. The steering wheel also successfully blocked my view of key parts of a digital instrument cluster. Oh, and then there’s that cheap and nasty Alpine stereo unit that was wedged in the dashboard with all the decorum of someone falling down a set of stairs. Ok, so it had some ergonomic flaws… I just told myself that it must be a true Italian-built Alfa Romeo.
It’s a fast car, you have to give it that. The lack of weight combined with launch control sets it off at a somewhat alarming rate. I was positively salivating at the thought of hitting some twisting country roads, but I started to notice that its automatic gearbox was a bit lazy, and the levels of turbo lag were unbefitting of a car of this calibre. That’s disappointing, but maybe some keen handling from the lightweight chassis would bring redemption? Nope.
The 4C’s suspension setup, camber and lightweight nature actually leads it to wonder all over the road. It follows tramlines in surfaces and is quietly influence by any sort of camber. I like to keep on top of cars, it makes them involving to drive, but you actually have to be proactive with this Alfa just to stop it going where it wants to go. Increasing the pace and turning in for a corner often resulted in understeer. UNDERSTEER! How can a car so light had the default position of wanting to push through a corner? Some testing later soon revealed that a lack of weight over the nose means there’s not enough mass pushing those front tyres into the ground. Trailing the brakes into corners helped shift some weight forward, but you really have to provoke the car to simply get it to behave how you’d expect. I was almost in tears.
I still don’t know how the makers of some of the world’s finest handling cars managed to create a dog’s dinner out of such perfect ingredients. I actually lost my faith in a brand I adored after driving the 4C. I was so disappointed in the this sports car, that maybe it’s now understandable why I shed tears of joy when I first drove a Giulia Quadrifoglio.
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Keyword: How the Alfa Romeo 4C broke my heart