Alfa Romeo 4C assault

In a strange coincidence, at almost the same time the covers were coming off the new Alfa Romeo 4C Spider at the Detroit Motor Show, the first Australianspec Coupes were rolling off a boat in Melbourne. With strong international demand and limited supply built at Maserati’s plant in Modena, 4C production is limited to around 3500 a year Australian customers have been forced to wait over a year for the first local examples to arrive.

Pricing is set at $89,000 for the base 4C and $109,000 for the higher-spec ‘Launch Edition’. Limited to 1300 units worldwide, with 75 for Australia, the Launch Edition is essentially a fully loaded 4C, with sports suspension, a race exhaust, plenty of carbon-fibre trinketry inside and out, sports seats and staggered wheels measuring 18 inches front and 19 inches rear.

Both versions use a highlytuned mid-mounted version of the Alfa’s 1.75-litre turbo four pushing 177kW/350Nm to the rear wheels through a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Drivers can choose from four modes: All-weather, Natural, Dynamic and Race, the latter of which disables the ESC and allows the activation of launch control.

Thus engaged, Alfa claims a 0-100km/h time of just 4.5sec, despite Australian-spec cars weighing a hefty 130kg more than their European counterparts. The difference is partly due to Australian cars requiring extra aluminium inserts to satisfy local crash regulations and partly due to the fact European cars are stripped to the absolute bare essentials in the name of achieving that headline 895kg (dry) weight figure.

In contrast, Australian cars come with leather seats, air-conditioning, a radio and bluetooth all fitted standard, ‘luxuries’ the European cars go without.

As mentioned, the 4C range is soon to be bolstered by the arrival of a targa-top Spider version. Thanks to the ultra-stiff carbon-fibre structure, performance is claimed to be identical to the fixed-top 4C, with the biggest difference between the two being the headlights, the Spider replacing the Coupe’s arachnid-like eyes with proper units.

The Spider will carry a price premium when it arrives in 2016, but in the meantime we’ll be driving the Coupe shortly, with a full review in a future issue.