Alfa Romeo 4C 2014 Review

Funnily enough, the shotgun seat of a car isn’t a place I enjoy spending time. Call me a control freak, or just a bad passenger, but I’d prefer to do the steering myself.

Unless of course the only way I’m going to score a ride in something as tantalising as Alfa Romeo’s new 4C is with someone else at the helm; then, I’ll make an exception.

Turns out it was a good exception to make. Even if one lap of Phillip Island, a little less than two minutes, was as long as it lasted.

Jumping in to the wrong side of the 4C (literally... I was on the right-hand side of the car and without a steering wheel in my mits) on Gardner Straight I had barely a moment to secure my seatbelt before I was whisked from standstill under the bridge and into the ‘horizon’ at Doohan Corner.

My driver dropped the 4C back a cog and rolled off the throttle just slightly to get some weight on the nose, before loading it up for the run into the Southern Loop.

Now zinging in fourth gear the car's nose ducked and weaved a little as the driver dabbed the throttle lightly open and closed, accompanied by cracking and popping from the exhaust. That kept the front-end from running wide and running right, as the tyres began to howl.

The force-fed 1.75-litre four – sourced from the Giulietta – sounds dirty, with a sustained staccato as it whipped back up to sixth, and pushed me bodily against the door as the car hurtled through Stoner Corner at 175km/h.

In no time at all we were on the picks for Honda Corner – the 80-odd-click about-face in the centre of the circuit. The 4C seemed to squirm a little here, protesting slightly as the Pirelli P Zero bags compressed under the might of four-pot Brembos measuring 305mm across the face.

Suffice to say, the braking was ample, and in a car weighing only 895kg before fluids, the cross-drilled anchors seemed like overkill... in a good way, of course.

Exiting Honda ‘Jeeves’ stoked the little Alfa’s over-square screamer with what felt like all 21.75psi of boost and we were howling through Siberia for the run up to Lukey Heights.

“We got here pretty quick,” I said to Jeeves. I’d missed his real name in my haste to secure myself to the seat at the start line. He just grinned as he twitched the wheel in response to a little oversteer as the 4C attempted to step out, getting ever so light across the top of Lukey and into the tight Turn 10.

The 4C seemed to spin its way up to speed effortlessly, but at the same time without any sense of a shove in the back. The only true sense of inertia came from the lateral forces as we continue to accelerate through the protracted 11-12 corner, which seemed to pinch back on itself just a whisker as we bolted for Gardner Straight.

That ‘pinch’ sent the mildest of shimmy through the front axle, but a stomp on the throttle sorted it all out. At this point we were racing towards a well-dressed Italian man propped at the start-finish line with his right-hand raised as if to indicate we should halt.

He’s a braver man than I, and with a menacing little red, white and green number hurtling towards him there was no flinching, and no sense of urgency to avoid becoming road kill.

Jeeves employed those ferocious stoppers with suitable force, stopping inches from well-dressed Italian man’s command, and there was a cheeky grin exchanged between the pair before I made my escape. I managed a quick “grazie mille” before jumping back over the pit-wall to safety, the 4C farting and crackling back to its official duties as WSBK pace-car.

The Alfa Romeo 4C is slated for local showrooms sometime before the middle of the year and is expected to sell for around $80,000 (plus on-road costs).

Excusing those God-awful headlights and the Lotus-made-me-do-it interior, the 4C is a gorgeous little number with a personality set to send loyalists salivating.

As for me? I think I’ll wait until I have the wheel in my hot little hands before making my final verdict. But if my one-lap shot around the Island has proved anything, it’s that the 4C certainly has a lot of potential.

2014 Alfa Romeo 4C pricing and specifications:
Price: $TBA (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 1.7-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 177kW/350Nm
Transmission: Six-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 6.8L/100km (NEDC Combined)
CO2: 157g/km (NEDC Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP

What we liked:
>> Looks great in the flesh
>> Dirty exhaust note
>> Mid-corner grip

Not so much:
>> Track-day interior
>> Those headlights!
>> Pricing still unknown

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