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Alfa Romeo 4C Competizione: One Last Dance
ALFA ROMEO 4C
ONE LAST DANCE
Words by Christian Parodi
Photos by Andy Williams
The little Alfa Romeo coupe is a rough diamond. It must be taken with violence and in return will know how to repay with a driving involvement that knows no compromises.
Five years have passed (it was 2013), since Alfa Romeo has first released the 4C, the pure lightweight sports car paying homage to the golden age of the Italian Company. Only a handful of years later a couple of other cars of a distinctly sporty nature such as the Giulia QV and the Stelvio QV SUV joined, but neither share with the small coupe what for a driving enthusiast represents the fulcrum of a visceral experience and intimate like the one that only a mid-engined superlight can offer. No frills, no compromises, there is no room for anything other than necessary and if you think this is a defect, stop reading now. With the 4C you deal with something designed and created with the sole objective of driving, to take the wheel violently and transform every moment into something special, not just a move from one point to another. The 4C, as it should be, is a car that not only divides, but literally splits in two and accentuates the gap between its admirers and detractors. It’s not a perfect car, no doubt about this, but its flaws are probably those nuances that will make you fall in love, which will peek into your night dreams and that at least for us here at Auto Class have sanctioned that in one way or in the other case it is one of the best sports cars ever lived at our office.
We drove a good bunch of 4Cs, coupes and spiders, but this white lady who catches my eye is undoubtedly the best example we’ve ever had available. Like the Launch Edition, the Competizione comes with a plethora of carbon fiber details, it is also equipped with the optional Akrapovic sport exhaust, something that further raises the volume of the small 4-cylinder, ready to roar like a dark and obscure baritone as soon as it moves its first steps, but that clears and screams roughly as the revs increase, up to the red line, where a mighty puff of air escapes from the titanium tailpipes and shoots you again as the speed increases and the experience begins to sculpt through your whole body. The 4C is a sensory car because you can feel it through all of your five senses, and what you can not feel physically comes at you emotionally the precise moment you approach that low and wide white silhouette edged by the black of the fiber. The edges and curves of its design are here even more accentuated and the different aerodynamic appendages do not just seem wanting to make it more pressed to the ground, but almost to instill a fear that I had not felt during the previous tests.
I declare myself and I get a last ride, a last dance, before discovering how much we will have the good fortune to have this fantastic model, an expensive toy that does not hate your midweek commitments, but that certainly will not be the ideal solution to go to the grocery store or accompany grandparents at the airport. The recipe is based on the Lotus verb – less is more – so the carbon monocoque allows you to keep the center of gravity low and to limit the total weight of the 4C around 990kg. This explains why you do not need a big 8 cylinder or an equally expensive and cumbersome 6 cylinder. Immediately behind the two seats beats the 1,750cc 4-cylinder turbocharged that we saw on the Giulietta Veloce, but you already know it. It delivers 240 horses and is mated to a 6-speed dual-clutch gearbox, manageable automatically or sequentially, via the small plastic paddles behind the steering wheel. For those who had lived on another planet, I emphasize that the fact of not having any kind of comfort is also reflected by the absence of unnecessary extra weight and therefore there is no power steering to help during maneuver, the only time when you accuse the heaviness of the front axle. Once moving everything changes, but this does not make things simple.
With DNA in Dynamic mode and the g’box in manual I head for those roads that make the 4C an absolute star, it’s not time to live on catwalks or capture the looks of those who have not yet understood that Alfa Romeo has returned to the lustful ones. Today is the big day, she is dressed up and I want to take all I can from this last dance. The exhaust mumbles behind us and while Andy (Williams, the photographer) has given up most of his equipment, stowing what he could in the small luggage compartment just behind the engine, I ask the DNA to exclude traction control through the use of the Alfa Romeo Race mode. The digital display changes again and gives me information like the G force exerted through corners, but I’m too focused on keeping the small steering wheel tight, always eager to follow the imperfections of the road below us. We are sitting on a table, an expensive carbon table used for the most important task that a car can receive, amuse its crew. The turbo hisses and when you reach its torque peak, at around 2100 rpm, the little Alfa pushes like a possessed woman. This is a lady at first sight, but under the elegant dress there are witch claws and desire to hurt you at the first distraction.
Through tight corners you have to use all your energy to touch the ideal lines and make the most out of the 350Nm of torque, when there is a stretch hold down the gas and you rely on the excellent braking system, entering faster than you would with any traditional sports car. Do not fear direction changes, not even the most sudden, but if you widen the tail, it is there that the fight becomes more exciting. The absence of power steering does not facilitate the speed of movements necessary to keep the nose straight and is one of the many controversial aspects of the 4C. Some call it a defect, like the fact that they complain of a lack of communication from the steering – I call it purity and as such it is not always predictable, but it must be interpreted, understood and tamed. Inside of me I’m writing some of the best chapters of my experience as an automotive journalist, all thanks to a 65 thousand Euro toy, at least as a starting price, without the extra carbon fiber and the optional features of this model. All in all, embraced by a fantastic red leather saddlery and even if the instrumentation in front of my nose is pure plastic, I prefer to possibly recriminate the savings on the climate controls, but to praise the emotions I feel and the incredible tightness it grants me through corners of all kind.
A car that takes 4.5 seconds from 0 to 100 kph is a real sports car, but to reach 260 per hour in this and a few centimeters from the ground with a steering wheel that trembles as if it were bitten by a tarantula takes a good dose of courage. The hardest thing, once at the wheel of the 4C, is to stop. You will have to have a good reason to get off this carousel for overgrown children and if it were not for the small size of the tank, the stops at the gas station would be even less than the photographer next to me would ask for. I look nervously at the clock and I realize that the hours escape quickly, I decide that the time has come to go beyond that limit that marks a day at work from a day destined to be mine forever. She dances between the curves, with her nervous behavior and that desire to scream all her power and trust me that 240 horses on a weight like this, are a good amount of fire. Ok, a handful more would be perfect, but it is here that I realize that despite the excitement and the involvement that can give, is not exempt from some small flaw. Time to talk about it?
Let’s start with the fact that the choice of the engine is correct. The turbo makes it lively, it is simple and inexpensive to maintain and contributes to the cause in favor of the lightness of the car itself. Putting hands in there and managing the unit can lead to cut that gap that would make it even sharper, without becoming too nervous. That it is not practical we do not care, but if you have to sacrifice some baggage, at least the two people on board will be comfortable and not suffocated. After all, the only real defect of the 4C lies in its driving precision, where after some logical measurements starts to give exciting fun, but you always perceive that roughness in the driver/steering marriage. And if it were just the nervousness that makes the beautiful Italian lady who is it? Sometimes unpredictable, almost dangerous, but still able to draw a smile on your face. Beautiful, incredibly beautiful, noisy and unwilling to compromise, you already know that every time you get on board it will be an adventure, even if you just have to go from home to the office. And if that was the scenario, the 4C is the car that lets you write the story, making sure it has a proper plot.
ALFA ROMEO 4C
Layout – mid-rear engine, rear wheel drive
Engine – 4 cylinder 1.750cc – turbocharged
Transmission – 6-speed automatic gearbox
Power – 240 hp @ 6000 rpm
350 Nm @ 2100-3750 rpm
Weight – 995 kg
Acceleration – 4,5 sec.
Top Speed – 258 kph
Price – from € 65.000
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