What makes the Alfa 4C better than an Elise/Exige?

[darkswordsman17]

Who said it was better?

The praise is just general praise for a good driving car and like others said you can actually buy it whereas the Elise/Exige is harder to source depending on where you are. There's probably some Alfa/Italian appeal to it as well. That and the new and limited nature of it is boosting it for now.

Its decent but needs to be quite a bit cheaper for what it offers. If the Abarth version of the Fiat version of the new Miata gets the same engine then it'll probably give it a serious run for the money for like half the price. And there will likely be a lot of options for further improving that car due to the popularity of the Miata.

There's a lot of things about the 4C that is overrated. For that price it needs more power (should be pushing 300hp). For all the work to make it lightweight it's not spectacular. Plus stuff like welding the front bonnet shut is just stupid (doubly so when you see they didn't take the time to remove the visual gap...). There's a bunch of nonsense that reminds me of other cars where they tout the nonsense as major positives (the Lexus LFA and the Paganis for instance). They're good cars but I don't get why they spout so much BS and often talk about negatives as positives. I guess its to cater to the stupid Top Gear crowd that seems to love that.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Who said it was better?

The praise is just general praise for a good driving car and like others said you can actually buy it whereas the Elise/Exige is harder to source depending on where you are. There's probably some Alfa/Italian appeal to it as well. That and the new and limited nature of it is boosting it for now.

Its decent but needs to be quite a bit cheaper for what it offers. If the Abarth version of the Fiat version of the new Miata gets the same engine then it'll probably give it a serious run for the money for like half the price. And there will likely be a lot of options for further improving that car due to the popularity of the Miata.

There's a lot of things about the 4C that is overrated. For that price it needs more power (should be pushing 300hp). For all the work to make it lightweight it's not spectacular. Plus stuff like welding the front bonnet shut is just stupid (doubly so when you see they didn't take the time to remove the visual gap...). There's a bunch of nonsense that reminds me of other cars where they tout the nonsense as major positives (the Lexus LFA and the Paganis for instance). They're good cars but I don't get why they spout so much BS and often talk about negatives as positives. I guess its to cater to the stupid Top Gear crowd that seems to love that.

The gap is probably necessary for maintenance so you can unbolt the panel from below to get access to the suspension towers etc. Since there is no storage there it makes no sense to give it hinges and latches.

 

[hans007]

ig uess really the only thing better about the 4C is you can still buy one new.

im not particularly a fan of how it looks, not to mention if i were in the market for this type of "toy" (say i was super rich, and this was a 2nd car) i'd probably want a manual. so yeah 4c < exige

 

[Pantlegz]

ig uess really the only thing better about the 4C is you can still buy one new.

im not particularly a fan of how it looks, not to mention if i were in the market for this type of "toy" (say i was super rich, and this was a 2nd car) i'd probably want a manual. so yeah 4c < exige

It is manual, all dual clutch setups are manual transmissions just no 3rd pedal.

 

[tweakmonkey]

Can it shift automatically? Does it have a clutch? Does it have an H-pattern that lets you choose the exact gear at any time? Let's not confuse our terms here. It's an automatic. Maybe a good one, but it's certainly not a manual in the sense he's talking about.

http://www.caranddriver.com/alfa-romeo/4c
"sadly, only a six-speed automatic is available"

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-car.../a5576/2014-alfa-romeo-4c-first-drive-review/
"The only transmission available, in modern Ferrari style, is a dual-clutch automatic."

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/alfa-romeo/4c
"It has a standard six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox with paddle shifters"

 

[jlee]

Can it shift automatically? Does it have a clutch? Does it have an H-pattern that lets you choose the exact gear at any time? Let's not confuse our terms here. It's an automatic. Maybe a good one, but it's certainly not a manual in the sense he's talking about.

http://www.caranddriver.com/alfa-romeo/4c
"sadly, only a six-speed automatic is available"

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-car.../a5576/2014-alfa-romeo-4c-first-drive-review/
"The only transmission available, in modern Ferrari style, is a dual-clutch automatic."

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/alfa-romeo/4c
"It has a standard six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox with paddle shifters"

It's also not an automatic, in the slushbox sense.

 

[Wuzup101]

Looks pretty cool. How tunable is the engine?

 

[k3n]

According to Wikipedia, it's the fastest car on the Nordschleife with under 250 hp.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The gap is probably necessary for maintenance so you can unbolt the panel from below to get access to the suspension towers etc. Since there is no storage there it makes no sense to give it hinges and latches.

From what I've gathered they claim to actually weld it shut. Now maybe they can do tack welds in just a few places or something, but it just seems like a silly thing overall and then Alfa or someone at Alfa tried to spin it as some positive design idea.

I forgot to add to my post that funnily enough, Top Gear actually pointed out a lot of the BS about this car. It's light but it's not Elise level of crazy lightweight, and it feels really cheap. They still liked it from what I recall though. But considering how much extra it cost over the Elise it just doesn't seem to be worth it. Sourcing a 250hp turbo 4 cylinder isn't exactly difficult these days.

 

[JulesMaximus]

From what I've gathered they claim to actually weld it shut. Now maybe they can do tack welds in just a few places or something, but it just seems like a silly thing overall and then Alfa or someone at Alfa tried to spin it as some positive design idea.

I forgot to add to my post that funnily enough, Top Gear actually pointed out a lot of the BS about this car. It's light but it's not Elise level of crazy lightweight, and it feels really cheap. They still liked it from what I recall though. But considering how much extra it cost over the Elise it just doesn't seem to be worth it. Sourcing a 250hp turbo 4 cylinder isn't exactly difficult these days.

Sourcing one that weighs less than 2500 lbs on the other hand...

If the hood is tack welded shut then how would you service the brakes? Or the components of the front suspension?

 

[jlee]

Sourcing one that weighs less than 2500 lbs on the other hand...

If the hood is tack welded shut then how would you service the brakes? Or the components of the front suspension?

http://4c-forums.com/12-appearance-body/3842-under-bonnet-hood-2.html#post78978