Alfa Romeo Marks Return to U.S. with Premiere of 4C at New York Auto Show

It's been a very long time in the making, but the first move to re-introduce the Alfa Romeo brand to the U.S. will take place at the New York Auto Show in April with the North American premiere of the new 4C mid-engine sports car, which was just recently displayed in roadster form at the Geneva Motor Show.

Alfa Romeo Promises Yearly Updates for the 4C, Doesn’t Rule Out Hardcore RS Model

Alfa Romeo’s flagship sports car, the 4C, will get regular updates each year to keep enthusiasm alive, the company’s marketing boss revealed.

Alfa Romeo 4C Coupé Will Be Available with Spider Headlights

Good news for Alfa Romeo 4C fans who are not delighted at all with the coupe’s controversial headlamps. Since the Geneva debut of the 4C Spider, many enthusiasts have been wondering whether the Italian carmaker will offer the more conventional lights from the drop-top model on the 4C coupe as well.

Marchionne Changes Tune on U.S. Fiat Dealers Getting Alfa 4C

When Harald Wester, boss of Fiat’s Alfa Romeo and Maserati units told reporters in September that the new Alfa 4C mid-engine sports car would likely be sold in the U.S. through Maserati's 68-strong dealer network alone instead of Fiat's 210 showrooms as well as originally suggested, he dealt a strong blow to the latter, even though they had never received a letter of intent or an outright promise from Chrysler.

Now, Chrysler-Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has come out to address these concerns by saying the plan is “the best performing Fiat dealers will be the ones that will be entitled to have a crack at Alfa Romeo distribution,” according to an Autonews report.

The issue at hand isn't as much about the 4C itself, of which only about 1,000 units are earmarked for the States, as it is for future products of Alfa and their distribution rights in the country.

For now, Fiat's U.S. dealers will have to make ends meet with whatever products they have.

“Even if we get Alfa tomorrow, we’re not going to get any volume for at least two years,” Gary Brown, chairman of the Chrysler National Dealer Council and a Fiat dealer on Long Island told Autonews. “Our game plan as Fiat dealers is to figure out how to make due with the product that we have and hopefully, there will be more Fiat product on the way in the next few years.”

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Alfa Delivers First 4C Launch Editions to European Customers in Style [w/Video]

While North American consumers have been left in the dark about the arrival and pricing info on the new 4C, European customers are beginning to receive their cars.

To celebrate the delivery of the first five examples of the 4C 'Launch Edition', Alfa Romeo held a special ceremony at the Balocco Test Centre in Vercelli, Italy.

Pierluigi De Silvestro from Switzerland, Philippe Walch from France, Carlos Diniz from Germany, Aldo Mariani from the Netherlands and Stefano Zanotti from Italy, are the lucky owners of the first five of a total of 500 numbered editions earmarked for the European market.

Along with a number of Alfa officials, the Italian carmaker invited racing legend Nicola Larini who received a trophy in memory of the DTM title he won in 1993 behind the wheel of the Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti, which remains to this day the only 'non-German' car to have won the German touring championship.

The European 'Launch Edition' of the 4C is offered with two available liveries, the 'Alfa Red' and the matt 'Carrara White', and comes with a carbon aerodynamic kit, including headlights, spoiler and door mirror covers, to reduce weight, along with a rear aluminum extractor in a dark finish, Bi-LED headlights, and 18-inch front and 19-inch rear alloy wheels in a dark treatment.

Furthermore, the special edition sports front air intakes, brake calipers in a specific color, a racing exhaust system and suspension kit with a different calibration for shock absorbers and rear anti-roll bar, while inside, the seats and steering wheel are covered in leather and microfibre and trimmed with white or red stitching, depending on the exterior color chosen.

Mechanically, the Launch Edition features the same 236hp (240PS) 1.75-liter turbocharged engine as the regular 4Cs.

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VIDEO

Alfa Romeo 4C's 8:04 Nürburgring Lap Run in Full

When Alfa released a short video of the new 4C completing a lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife track in eight minutes and four seconds the other day, we were left with a bitter taste in our mouths, as we wanted to see it in full. To our delight, our wish was granted with the release of a full –length video shot through an inboard camera.

The Italians said that the 4C's lap time is a record for a series production car with less than 250-horses under its hood.

To be precise, the European market specification model seen in this video piloted by former Sport Auto magazine editor Horst von Saurma, sports a 1.75-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine delivering 236hp (240PS) to the rear set of wheels via a TCT twin-clutch automatic transmission.

While sales of the 4C have already started in Europe, we hear that the U.S. launch has been pushed back to the second quarter of 2014.

VIDEO

Watch the Alfa Romeo 4C Set its Nürburgring Lap Time of 8:04.40

Last week Alfa Romeo confirmed the 4C’s Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time of 8 minutes and 4 seconds, which is a new record for cars with engines under 250 hp. Now the Italian carmaker has released a video that includes footage from the 4C’s Nürburgring lap record. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the entire lap, but a full on-board video will probably surface later.

Still, the 4C seems to be in its element at the 'Ring, although the car does look a little peculiar because of the black tape that was used to seal the gaps between the body panels. The exact lap time set by journalist and Nordschleife expert Horst von Saurma on September 12 is 8:04.40.

The video contains some on-board footage during which we can hear the lovely sound of the 236-hp 1.75-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine and we can see the Alfa Romeo 4C reaching speeds in excess of 225 km/h (140 mph).

By Dan Mihalascu

VIDEO

Alfa 4C's 8:04 Nurburgring Lap Time, Matches Cayman S and Sets Record for Cars Under 250hp

We started the month of October this year with a story of an alleged 8:04 Nürburgring time for the Alfa Romeo 4C, at the time coming from an Italian car magazine. Now, some two and a bit weeks later, we get official confirmation of the run and the time, as well as the announcement that with the time, the 4C has set “a new all-time record for all cars with engines producing less than 250hp.”

We'll add that it matches the lap time of one of the Alfa's main rivals, the much heavier but also more powerful and luxurious 321hp (325PS) Porsche Cayman S, which was executed by famed German rally driver Walter Röhrl for Sport Auto magazine.

Journalist and Nordschleife expert Horst von Saurma drove the car when the lap-time was set on September 12, 2013.

Apparently, it was one of “countless tests” faced by the “Alfa Romeo supercar,” which ranged from extreme cold and hot weather testing in Sweden, Abu Dhabi and Arizona in the US to other track tests mostly organized around the historic Balocco test track.

As we’ve seen in the reviews posted so far, the 4C is a thoroughly unique offering on the market today, it has unassisted steering with great feel, a spritely yet competent chassis (a claimed maximum 1.1 lateral g), pretty styling bar the insect-like carbon headlights and ultra-low weight. Credit is due for the 236hp (240PS) 1.8-liter turbocharged engine, as well, and Alfa says its broad swath of torque (the 350 Nm it has on tap come between 2,100 and 4,000 rpm, while 80 percent of it is available from 1,800 rpm).

The final piece of Alfa’s ‘Ring puzzle are the tires, which are said to be special Pirelli P Zero Trofeos, the sportiest P Zeros there are, which were specifically designed to make the 4C competent on both the track and the twisty back road.

By Andrei Nedelea

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Note to Self: Check the Date of Reports or Else, You'll Go Back to the Future…

Obviously, this is a tongue-in-cheek kind of post that goes along the same lines as the widely circulated story on the four-door Toyota GT 86, but since we received the same tip as many other sites about a report Alfa Romeo's "latest" plans to include racing and roadster versions of the 4C and other information on the car from Autoedizione, we'll explain why we skipped on it.

To begin with, we shared all these details and much more in an exclusive report with information secured from a reliable inside source about a month before the Autoedizione story went live…in March of 2013.

Yes, that's right; Autoblog.com's "according to the latest rumors" and consequently, Worldcarfans's "new" report is from an article written back in April of 2013. We'll leave the commentary to you.

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Oh, Oh, Someone Just Ditched an Alfa Romeo 4C Prototype…

It's been a year and nine months since Alfa Romeo pulled the covers off the impressive 4C Sports Coupe concept at the 2011 Geneva motor show, and even though it had been initially suggested that we could see the final production model on sale this year, obviously that never happened.
Alfa Romeo officials have said that this may happen sometime in 2013, but with the Italian brand, one can never take these statements for granted – Alfa's on and off return to the U.S. market is a prime example…
Well, while we're waiting for the Italians to give us a date on the only interesting model it has in store for us , a driver in Italy spotted a camouflaged prototype of the 4C coupe -ahem- stranded on the side of a road.