Alfa Romeo 4C Spider undercuts $100K

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Australia has announced a $99,000 entry price for the 4C Spider, the order book for which is now open ahead of first deliveries in November.

That makes it cheaper than previously expected at just $10,000 more expensive than the 4C Coupe on which it's based and about $20,000 less than its price in the UK -- £59,000 or around $A120,000.

Like the 4C Coupe, the Modena-made Spider is powered by a mid-mounted 177kW/350Nm 1.75-litre four-cylinder petrol engine driving the rear wheels through a six-speed TCT dual-clutch automatic transmission.

Based around a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis and wrapped in sheet-moulded compound (SMC) composite body panels, the two-seat roadster has a 40/60 per cent front/rear weight balance.

It's suspended by double wishbones all round and the tight 16.2:1 steering ratio is claimed to "allow 90% of bends to be taken without ever taking your hands off the steering wheel".

The feather-weight 1035kg drop-top (just 10kg more than the coupe) is not only claimed to hit 100km/h in just 4.5 seconds on its way to a 256k/h top speed, but able to generate 1.1 g of lateral acceleration and 1.25 g of maximum braking deceleration.

As on the coupe, there's the option of a Carbon Fiber Package and larger 18-inch front and 19-inch rear wheels, but standard equipment extends to a 7.0-inch full-colour driver information display (DID) cluster, Launch Control and 17/18-inch front/rear wheels.

Unique to the Spider is an unidirectional carbon-fibre windscreen frame that's glued and bolted to the chassis, an aluminium rollbar with mounting points for the new rear deck lid, and a specifically designed manual soft-top that can be removed by one person and stored in the boot inside a special roof storage bag.