Meet Alfa’s compact supercar

ALFA ROMEO has unveiled its lates concept that combines the best of Alfa with Maserati technology. The end product will be  the Alfa Romeo 4C ‘compact supercar’ which embodies the sportiness intrinsic to the ‘Alfa Romeo DNA’: performance and engineering excellence offering maximum driving satisfaction in total safety in addition to breathtaking style. 

The Alfa Romeo 4C developers have combined the best technical and manufacturing competencies of two brands: Alfa Romeo and Maserati. Thanks to the internal synergies of the Fiat – Chrysler Group, the two carmakers were able to collaborate from the perspective of integrating Alfa Romeo’s design roles and Maserati’s manufacturing functions. The manufacturer intends to use the car to spearhead a re-launch into the US market.

The engineering and technological contribution of other Italian world-wide leaders in the component industry for high-performance sportscars has also been instrumental in achieving the result. 

In particular, the Maserati plant brings in topmost quality and meticulously studied details reminiscent of hand-crafted work. As the birthplace of the world’s most famous ‘sportscars,’ Modena and its surroundings are definitely the place that offers everything one may need to manufacture them: tradition, technology and know-how,  but most of all, the same passion driving the team who conceived, designed and built the Alfa Romeo 4C. It has the most advanced mix of hi-tech materials with a reduced specific weight. The weight/power ratio is lower tha 4kg/HP and total dry weight of just 895 kg.

The Alfa Romeo 4C was born from a clean slate and an idea  or, rather, the clean state was the prerequisite for conceiving, developing and producing a new concept in the domain of sportscars, the “affordable supercar.” The 4C was designed not only to be an exclusive car both for contents and performance, but also to become an achievable dream for Alfa Romeo fans all over the world. 

To achieve the right ratio, Alfa Romeo designers could have focused on horsepower (i.e.: increasing power and performance), but this would have impacted the purchase and maintenance costs, thus making the car significantly less affordable. They decided to go a different way; they reduced the car weight by using materials where lightness is combined with efficiency and by perfecting, sometimes even creating, manufacturing processes where high technology is joined to craftsmanship. In this way they were able to obtain a total weight of just 895 kilos, a true record that makes the 4C one of the lightest cars in the world. The 4C is lighter than a city car and its weight/power ratio is less than 4 kg/HP.

The secret of the 4C Alfa Romeo lightness and dynamic behaviour lays in the use of 10per cent carbon fibre, which represents 25per cent of the 4C overall volume. At present, carbon fibre is the material offering the best weight/stiffness efficiency.

Designed by Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile, the 4C model immediately brings to mind some iconic classic models that have left an important mark in the brand’s history. Today they all relive in the new compact supercar: “The Alfa of Alfas.”

In short, a car worth driving, enjoyable on the road and on the racing tracks, just like any Alfa Romeo car should be, distinguishing a trait of this historial brand that continues nto be one of the most famous ambassadors of the Made in Italy worldwide. 

In Europe the first Alfa Romeo 4C are scheduled to be delivered in the second half of September 2013.