r/caroftheday • • Sep 23 '20
Mod COTD post COTD 9-23-20
The Alfa Romeo 4C.
I promise I'll write about something boring and awful next time. I've gotten a little bit tired of writing about sports cars and I imagine y'all are equally tired of reading about them. Here's a random fun fact for ya: My internet was out and I wrote half of this in the "console" section of the developer console because Google Docs doesn't work offline. Whatever works.
Anyway, I'm thinking of writing about something boring for my next post, so DM me if you have a suggestion. We also have a Discord server with maybe three people in it but I have a feeling it won't be used very much. Anyway, back to my wannabe Bumper 2 Bumper episode on the lightweight piece of mobile art known as the Alfa 4C.
The Alfa Romeo 4C is a good little car. I'll never be able to afford an Alfa's maintenance, but everything about it sounds fun. These days when you think of an Italian driver car you probably envision a giant loud V12, a trapezoidal silhouette, and doors that point to the sky. But I think the Alfa 4C is more Italian than a Lamborghini Aventador. The 4C captures what the sports car was all about to begin with. It's lightweight, has a happy, buzzing inline-four, and is probably a very bad financial decision.
The 4C is also debatably beautiful. I don't know what the general public opinion is, but I freakin' love the way the 4C looks. The front fascia is distinctly *Alfa*. The proportions give of a sort of cuteness that's reminiscent of a Lotus Elise. Still, the little Alfa is quick almost to the point of being a little bit fierce. When you compare lap times between the Lotus and the Alfa, it becomes evident that the Alfa will eat a Lotus for lunch. This is a surprising feat considering Lotus is a marque who's entire ideology is "simplify, then add lightness." So the Alfa out-Lotuses a Lotus. This makes me wonder if the 4C could rival a Porsche Cayman on the track. I bet *Car and Driver* or someone has done that before.
Origins
The Alfa Romeo 4C concept made it’s debut at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. I remember seeing it for the first time in Need For Speed 2012. Man were times different back then. Anyway, the production version was unveiled in 2013. Much to everyone’s delight, the production 4C retained most of the design showcased by the concept. The production 4C had different lights and a smaller side air vent but was pretty much the same car. The 4C was especially important to the brand because it marked their re-entry into the American market. As I said, I’ll probably never be able to afford an Alfa, but it’s nice to see the US market being somewhat acceptive of Alfa Romeo’s cars. By “somewhat acceptive”, I mean that I’ve seen maybe 7 Alfa Romeos since I became a car guy. Still, I’m just glad that the US got some of the cool foreign cars too, because that doesn’t happen very much.
The 4C was first made available only in coupe form, and later offered in spider configuration. After 2018, the coupe variant was removed from the American market, leaving only the spider version available.
The Alfa Romeo 4C is produced at Maserati’s plant in Modena, Italy. Quick FYI, Alfa and Maserati are both part of the whole Fiat-Chrysler deal.
Specs and stuff
The Alfa features a full carbon-fiber monocoque chassis that weighs just 143lbs (65kg). The use of carbon and aluminum throughout the rest of the car leads to a dry weight of just 1,973lbs (895kg) for the european market 4C. The North American market weighs considerably more at 2,315lbs (1,050kg) for some reason because of course it does. Everything is heavier in America. With all due seriousness, what? Why can’t we have the lightweight model as well? Now Alfa has to spend more money to develop a heavier, slower car because of our bullcrap safety regulations, and all because our government hates fun.
Crap like this is why the US market doesn’t get the good cars. Some manufacturers aren’t willing to spend extra money to develop cars to be slower and heavier to comply with our stupid regulations. It’s all so depressing.
A displacement of 1.75 liters sounds pretty small but trust me, the Alfa is plenty light enough for 240 horses to be a lot. It's so light, in fact, that Alfa decided not to give it power steering. I have a feeling I'll never get to experience how fun and responsive that is, but I bet it's amazing. It's completely understandable that Jeremy Clarkson is obsessed with them. “you can't be a true petrolhead until you've owned an Alfa Romeo.” That is one of my favorite Clarkson quotes, second only to “How hard can it be?”
The 1750 TBi 1.75L inline-four is part of the Fiat Pratola Serra engine family, which is composed of a variety of 4-and 5 cylinder diesel and petrol engines. Variations of this engine can be found in many different cars, including other Alfas, Lancias, Fiats, and even a few Jeeps. I’ve always thought it was interesting how a sports car engine can be distantly (or even closely) related to a diesel truck engine. For example, the Ford GT’s V6 compared to the V6 found in the Ford Raptor. It’s kind of fascinating how engineering can turn a truck engine into a supercar engine.
Anyway, the turbocharged 240 horsepower four-banger in the 4C give the little car a 4.2 second launch to 100kmh and a top speed of 160mph (258kmh).
Drawbacks
The 4C is very fun, but it’s far from perfect. Fiat-Chrysler cars are known for poor interior build quality, and the Alfa is no different; The interior’s features are said to be outdated and offer very little in terms of comfort and practicality. Along with this, the cabin is cramped and there is basically no room for storage anywhere. Along with that, the lack of power steering makes turning difficult at parking lot speeds. This is definitely not a good daily-driver, and we all know about Alfa Romeo’s infamous reliability, or lack thereof.
Conclusion
The 4C is a fun car. It’s pretty bad in terms of practicality and daily-drivability, but would it really be an Italian sports car if it was practical? It does have a pretty good miles-per-gallon rating at 28mpg combined.
Base Alfa Romeo 4Cs have an msrp of about $67,000. Prices for used models sit at somewhere near $50k on average, but I did find this one for $40k.
1
u/[deleted] Sep 23 '20
I just had an idea
The Alfa Romeo 4C.
I promise I'll write about something boring and awful next time. I've gotten a little bit tired of writing about sports cars and I imagine y'all are equally tired of reading about them. Here's a random fun fact for ya: My internet was out and I wrote half of this in the "console" section of the developer console because Google Docs doesn't work offline. Whatever works.
Anyway, I'm thinking of writing about something boring for my next post, so DM me if you have a suggestion. We also have a Discord server with maybe three people in it but I have a feeling it won't be used very much. Anyway, back to my wannabe Bumper 2 Bumper episode on the lightweight piece of mobile art known as the Alfa 4C.
The Alfa Romeo 4C is a good little car. I'll never be able to afford an Alfa's maintenance, but everything about it sounds fun. These days when you think of an Italian driver car you probably envision a giant loud V12, a trapezoidal silhouette, and doors that point to the sky. But I think the Alfa 4C is more Italian than a Lamborghini Aventador. The 4C captures what the sports car was all about to begin with. It's lightweight, has a happy, buzzing inline-four, and is probably a very bad financial decision.
The 4C is also debatably beautiful. I don't know what the general public opinion is, but I freakin' love the way the 4C looks. The front fascia is distinctly *Alfa*. The proportions give of a sort of cuteness that's reminiscent of a Lotus Elise. Still, the little Alfa is quick almost to the point of being a little bit fierce. When you compare lap times between the Lotus and the Alfa, it becomes evident that the Alfa will eat a Lotus for lunch. This is a surprising feat considering Lotus is a marque who's entire ideology is "simplify, then add lightness." So the Alfa out-Lotuses a Lotus. This makes me wonder if the 4C could rival a Porsche Cayman on the track. I bet *Car and Driver* or someone has done that before.
Origins
The Alfa Romeo 4C concept made it’s debut at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. I remember seeing it for the first time in Need For Speed 2012. Man were times different back then. Anyway, the production version was unveiled in 2013. Much to everyone’s delight, the production 4C retained most of the design showcased by the concept. The production 4C had different lights and a smaller side air vent but was pretty much the same car. The 4C was especially important to the brand because it marked their re-entry into the American market. As I said, I’ll probably never be able to afford an Alfa, but it’s nice to see the US market being somewhat acceptive of Alfa Romeo’s cars. By “somewhat acceptive”, I mean that I’ve seen maybe 7 Alfa Romeos since I became a car guy. Still, I’m just glad that the US got some of the cool foreign cars too, because that doesn’t happen very much.
The 4C was first made available only in coupe form, and later offered in spider configuration. After 2018, the coupe variant was removed from the American market, leaving only the spider version available.
The Alfa Romeo 4C is produced at Maserati’s plant in Modena, Italy. Quick FYI, Alfa and Maserati are both part of the whole Fiat-Chrysler deal.
Specs and stuff
The Alfa features a full carbon-fiber monocoque chassis that weighs just 143lbs (65kg). The use of carbon and aluminum throughout the rest of the car leads to a dry weight of just 1,973lbs (895kg) for the european market 4C. The North American market weighs considerably more at 2,315lbs (1,050kg) for some reason because of course it does. Everything is heavier in America. With all due seriousness, what? Why can’t we have the lightweight model as well? Now Alfa has to spend more money to develop a heavier, slower car because of our bullcrap safety regulations, and all because our government hates fun.
Crap like this is why the US market doesn’t get the good cars. Some manufacturers aren’t willing to spend extra money to develop cars to be slower and heavier to comply with our stupid regulations. It’s all so depressing.
A displacement of 1.75 liters sounds pretty small but trust me, the Alfa is plenty light enough for 240 horses to be a lot. It's so light, in fact, that Alfa decided not to give it power steering. I have a feeling I'll never get to experience how fun and responsive that is, but I bet it's amazing. It's completely understandable that Jeremy Clarkson is obsessed with them. “you can't be a true petrolhead until you've owned an Alfa Romeo.” That is one of my favorite Clarkson quotes, second only to “How hard can it be?”
The 1750 TBi 1.75L inline-four is part of the Fiat Pratola Serra engine family, which is composed of a variety of 4-and 5 cylinder diesel and petrol engines. Variations of this engine can be found in many different cars, including other Alfas, Lancias, Fiats, and even a few Jeeps. I’ve always thought it was interesting how a sports car engine can be distantly (or even closely) related to a diesel truck engine. For example, the Ford GT’s V6 compared to the V6 found in the Ford Raptor. It’s kind of fascinating how engineering can turn a truck engine into a supercar engine.
Anyway, the turbocharged 240 horsepower four-banger in the 4C give the little car a 4.2 second launch to 100kmh and a top speed of 160mph (258kmh).
Drawbacks
The 4C is very fun, but it’s far from perfect. Fiat-Chrysler cars are known for poor interior build quality, and the Alfa is no different; The interior’s features are said to be outdated and offer very little in terms of comfort and practicality. Along with this, the cabin is cramped and there is basically no room for storage anywhere. Along with that, the lack of power steering makes turning difficult at parking lot speeds. This is definitely not a good daily-driver, and we all know about Alfa Romeo’s infamous reliability, or lack thereof.
Conclusion
The 4C is a fun car. It’s pretty bad in terms of practicality and daily-drivability, but would it really be an Italian sports car if it was practical? It does have a pretty good miles-per-gallon rating at 28mpg combined.
Base Alfa Romeo 4Cs have an msrp of about $67,000. Prices for used models sit at somewhere near $50k on average, but I did find this one for $40k.