1. Introduction and design
Earlier this month Alfa Romeo invited us to Milan to drive the new 4C Spider, the most exciting and important car the company have produced in years. Well, we could hardly turn down that opportunity, could we?
Alfa Romeo has a long and proud race heritage, dating back to 1910 when Alexandre Darracq andUgo Stella founded the company.
Before the 4C, Alfa only offered the MiTo and Giulietta, twoB and C-Class cars which, although were good, don't exactly set hearts pounding like an Alfa should.
The 4C, and the 4C Spider are the beginning of a revival for the company, starting with the 4C last year, and going on to introduce the Giulia and a sporty cross-over in the future.
Has Alfa Romeo managed to design a truly desirable car? Of course it has, just look at it!
The image above was taken on a banked turn at Monza, that's the stuff bedroom posters are made of. The aggressive curves and short, squat body make it look like a shrunken down super car (that's not the parallels that can be drawn with more expensive cars, but more on that later).
The shape isn't just beautiful, it's also functional, born out of the company's Turin-based Centro Stile, and refined after many hours in the wind tunnel. It has both negative lift at speed and an impressive Cd of 0.35.
We think it's safe to say, the design of the 4C is absolutely on point.