Alfa 4C - "Without The Heart We Would Be Mere Machines"

I think youa re right about the CF tub swallowing budget, but then sell the car for more. The launch versions are 75K so the market is there. hey just crapped out and thought the suckers wont notice or care, and maybe they are right given the limited prod planned.

My guess is intial sales will be great, then when people see what it is to live with a 4c many low mileage ones will be for sale, but the hard core wont take to it becase its not up to the task.

i say fiat send the car to Lotus for sorting and lets get the +300hp 7k redline vesion soon.

 

You have no idea what the Alfa 4C will do on the track compared to the Miata. I will bet the Miata will be alot slower around corners and overall. Also the new Miata is rumored to be in the $50,000.00 US range now.

Base your posts more on facts please.

 

Your right Pete, the 8C and 4C are more like the Montreal and 33 Stadale. Alfa needs to build some real production cars. The new Giulia was needed 5 years ago.

I hope Alfa tries to keep up with technology better than they did back under Alfa ownership. Solid rear axles and straps up to 1977 on a sports coupe and 1994 on a spider is a
bit ridiculous!!

 

Miata is under 30K car from what I have seen. I have also driven previous mata on track and you woudl be amazed what they can do, what thye lack is some power. Maybe at 35K you will have a turbo Miata.

I think we all have apretty good idea what the current 4c will do on track, plenty of reports and laptimes its not spectacular and not just because its a low power small car. Apart from raw numbers, the thing about cars its not just about how fast you go, but also how you go fast, the 4c looks groovy and has a CF tub, but beyond that where does it really shine.

Still not sure why you would make a really stiff CF tub, and then diminish the benefit of that stiffness with a strut suspension. In fact if fiat were really serious about making a handling car why does it not have wishbones. Dont tell me cost, a 50K elsie has wishbones and they make only hundreds of cars per year. Fiat just didnt bother, they made it good enough to sell on looks and didnt care firther.

the 4c is affilcetd with GM style problems, half the car is really great, and then they cheaped out and compromised, because the comitee said so or the customer wouldnt know ort care, because you are selling illusion or italian flair over substance. You know if you strive for excellence then over the long term you suceed. the 4c is not striving for excellence.

None of which is to say the 4c cant be developed into a great car, because it can. Sent it to Lotus for finishing school on the dynamics, offer a high lift cam and high boost tune and it will really shine. But as it its, the car overpormises and seriosuly undedleivers, at elast from what I see. Doesent mean its not great to look at or even fun to drive.

As to the 4c being like the 8c, montreall and the T33. Like the 8c yes, the 8c was a rebodied masser coupe, that really handled wose than the donor car. No one ever accused the 8c of great handling or being sublime, but it was rare and stupendous to look at, for the buyers of that car that was enpough. The Montreall was based on the bertone coupe, the underpinnings were never designed for that power or weight, it handles like crap, was really heavy in the front end and could never be made to race, buit the motor was cool, i am sure a bigger bore version would have had far more appeal, but alfa did not deign to do that. teh Montreall motor is also not a T33 mtor enlarged, its really two 4cly alfa heads on a v block, so think what two 1750s might have been.

What the 8c and montreall have in common is that they were rebodied existing cars, and not better off for it. The 4c by contrast is a fresh sheet in terms of chassis and body, it shoudl be the best. true they had to use a derivation of a production motor, but lots of companies do that these days with spectacular results, only not so here.


The T33 was a different kettle of fish, probably the single best performace car of the late 60's by far. Certainly way better than any ferrari or lambo, plus it looked great and sounded great, it was slo reputedly the mosty expensive percormance car you could buy.

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There is no way the Miata will be a $50k. Not a chance. It is said to be a £20k in the UK and historically Miatas have been priced between £14k to £19k in the UK. So i doubt it would double here.

The 4C should be faster than the new Miata. It is slower than a Megane RS 265 though which costs much less..

 

Maybe. But that's because i love Alfas. This car could have been great. When you get something this pretty, it deserves to be perfect. But i guess Alfa is pretty good at delivering style over substance..(Check the Brera, the last 2 gens of Spiders..).

 

Just imagine if the 4c had something like the megane motor and eveloped suspension in it, then we might get really excited.

Miata will ahve 200 Na hp vis the 4c 237 and paddles, so in some ways the 4c will be quicker, but aturbo miata, its going to take a really fast car and a hp track to beat one.
That is assumign that mazada has not messed up the handlign dynamics. Bit I read they went to sammler wheels and tires, so its a step int he right direction and shows substance over form. Lets see.

 

Sucintly put exactly where I am comming from.

 

Indeed.

 

lol

 

I would forgive all negatives, if 2 things were changed

1. Engine, needs to be 6 cylinder.
2. Lights, need to be less bug eyed

Than, at least it would be pretty and one could enjoy it more when driving slower.

 

At least #2 has been addressed.
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Indeed, but the boring engine is here to stay...
And due to the complete lack of manual option, I doubt that any kind of engine swap is viable.

 

Im not looking or thinking of the light design when I drive fast or slow here in Germany. Missed that lesson I suppose. Not at all sure how that affects a car no matter the speed.
Any forum can render any car worthless. This place excels lol! Sad.

 

I would be bothered by the lights because I hate the bug-eye blunt looking front ends that Alfa is currently using on MiTo, Guilietta and 4C. Absoloutely ruins the cars, I have no clue as to why they made the switch from the nicely looking sharper front ends on the 159/Brera/147...

BTW, enjoying the car more while going slower was meant for the 6 cylinder engine.

 

Euro front end height restrictions. It's designed for city driving so people can see the cars coming better. And since the fronts are bigger they will be able to make sure they kill the pedestrians sort of like a small truck or SUV(oh wait...that was not the plan).

 

This thread has me smiling. At the start you had all these posters, stating the car was the next great thing, full of soul, what a car should be and on and on. The you have the blowback stage of the thread where many are showing their disappointment, I am partly in this group. And then you have some flat out bashing it, damn you Boxster and your fixation on the CF tub!!!

Not that there's anything that wrong with it all, its just in good fun anyway. But almost all of us but a few share one thing in common, we have NEVER even driven let alone sat in the car, yet we all have such strong opinions lol! I'm as much to blame as anyone.

At the end of the day, the car is beautiful, for the few that own it in this thread, they seem very happy and that's what matters most.

I think we all made way too much out this car and raised it to an impossible standard, which of course leeds to disappointment. So on that note, I look forward to reading posts from people that have actually driven the car and look forward to testing out one of these babies when their availability improves.

 

I own one (launch edition - white #207). The car is simply fantastic. It's properly raw, with all sorts of sounds, the right amount of power for mid-range pickup, great handling, and mostly feels like a direct descendant of the guilietta and guilia alfa (750/101/103), sporting with the right amount of trade-off to remind you what choice you made.

I think those who complain miss the point of this car.... It's a make you smile car, not a daily driver.

Rgds

 

Those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive. Based on everything I've read, the 4C sounds like the perfect DD for me (outside of the snowy months).


Mark

 

I think the only way for the new Miata to be $50,000 is to have a suitcase with $25,000 in the trunk.

 

Agree. If you are looking for a mid engine dd then the cayman is your car. If you are looking to drive "an event" then the 4c is your ride.

 

What is the base MSRP on the 4C? I'm kind of refusing on going through 45 pages of post to see if someone posted it... however I will do a search real quick after I submit my post.

 

Something liek 55k when they become avaialable after the launch editions are produced.

Persoinaly i woudl rather they just have developed the car to be 75k with agreat mtoor and suspemsion, instead of the compromises built into making it avaialable for 55k.

But then like the sort of new viper Sergio never saw a cost he didnt want to cut, especialy if its hidden under groovy bodywork.

 

The Launch Edition cars are $69,695
This includes the leather package and track package and some CF bits like the rear spoiler and side mirror casings.

The base car is $56k, but with necessary options, its really a $65k car.

Dealers are not yet taking orders for base cars, so we won't see these until next year.

The LEs are supposed to arrive in the US at the end of this month.

 

4c vs C7

The cars are apples and oranges but the numbers aren't that much different. Imagine if others adapted "lightness" instead of HP in the future following the 4c's path.

2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray vs. 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C: Performance Test - 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Long-Term Road Test
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