Alfa Romeo 4C Tuned A Review with T.H.

  • 16 hours ago
Transcript
00:00Here we have an Alfa Romeo 4C. I never thought I'd get to drive one of these.
00:09So the folks over at Boost Customs in Toronto have come through again and hooked me up with
00:13one of their customers' cars to test.
00:15This one has been modified by their partner, AMT Tuning, who specialize in performance
00:20software for European cars.
00:23Their software tune modified parameters in the ECU to produce a car with more horsepower
00:28and a more refined power delivery.
00:30So let's find out what it's like to drive an already fantastic car that has been made
00:35even better.
00:42Okay, so the Alfa Romeo 4C. I'm really excited.
00:46So the owner of this car, Colin Casey, who actually runs an awesome looking karate studio
00:50in Guelph, by the way, if you're into that type of thing, was nice enough to let me borrow
00:53this and take it for a test drive.
00:57Rearward visibility is basically non-existent.
01:03Steering is heavy at low speeds.
01:09Okay, first impressions.
01:11Having the engine behind you is the coolest thing ever.
01:14All the sound is right there.
01:16I've got a little 1.7 liter turbocharged inline four.
01:201.7 liters.
01:22That's tiny.
01:24Stock it makes about 240 horsepower.
01:27This one has been tuned.
01:29Only to stage one, software only.
01:31And it is making about 255 horsepower.
01:37The owner says that the power difference is quite noticeable, actually, and it also smooths
01:42out the ride a little bit.
01:44Not the ride of the chassis itself, but the way that the power is delivered through the
01:48gearbox.
01:49So, 1.7 liters, 255 horsepower.
01:54These are not, like, pinch yourself huge numbers, right?
01:57But keep in mind, this car only weighs about 1,000 kilograms.
02:02So if you look at power to weight ratios, this thing is making the same power to weight
02:07ratio as a V8 Audi R8 or a Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
02:13So this car has a little bit of a love story attached to it, like all Italian Alphas should,
02:18I guess.
02:19The owner was on his way to buy another Lotus, actually.
02:23He was on his way to the Lotus dealership, and he saw this thing sitting outside of the
02:26Maserati Alfa Romeo dealership, just sitting there.
02:29And he thought, you know what?
02:30I may as well stop and give it a go.
02:32And he tried it, and he fell in love with it right away.
02:35He thinks that it is a better car than the Lotus.
02:40He thinks that it is a better all-around driving car than a Lotus Elise.
02:46And that's high praise coming from a part-time race driving instructor who has driven the
02:52best of the best cars.
02:54Obviously, from the outside, this car's curves make other cars self-conscious of their own
02:59body image.
03:01It's pretty, and it knows it.
03:03If you drive by in one of these, even if you're Chris Hemsworth, people aren't looking at
03:07you.
03:08They're looking at the car.
03:14Oh my god, this car is fast.
03:22Oh, just what a thing.
03:25When boost comes on.
03:33Oh my god.
03:36The inside of this car is really, really different.
03:40Any normal person that got in this car, they get in and go, something's weird in here.
03:44And it is, because there's exposed carbon fiber.
03:48This is the coolest thing ever.
03:49Right here.
03:50I'm hitting it.
03:51This is the chassis of the car that I'm touching right now.
03:54I mean, it's very stripped out.
03:56The pedals are just like bare metal looking.
03:59The steering wheel is really unique.
04:01I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of it, but it is very cool.
04:03I don't really care that much, to be honest.
04:05It's got a really awesome digital gauge in the front that's very super car-ish.
04:09The inside reminds me a little bit of a 430 Scuderia, a Ferrari.
04:15It's just stripped out enough to let you know that it means business, but it's still quite
04:19nice at the same time.
04:21I've got stitched leather all the way around here.
04:23The dashboard is all leather.
04:25The seats are really, really nice.
04:26They're actually very comfortable.
04:27I mean, the radio is laughable, and the climate control system looks like it came out of a
04:32Nissan Versa.
04:33But other than that, this is a really special place to be.
04:37So first impressions driving it, immediately you notice the steering is different.
04:41It's not powered.
04:42This is just regular rack and pinion steering.
04:49It's heavy.
04:52The steering feels, I've heard other people say this, the steering feels really light right
04:56off center.
04:58But as you get into the meat of the corner, you just, it weights up so nicely.
05:03There's the weight right there.
05:04I can feel what's happening in the road.
05:08The steering, it pops and it tremblines and it grabs little bits of the road.
05:13It feels so engaging.
05:15It's telling me what the surface is like.
05:18It's telling me so much about the asphalt, I'm pretty sure.
05:27I'm pretty sure I could tell you what the guy that laid the pavement had for breakfast
05:30that day.
05:32I am absolutely in love with this car.
05:36Right away.
05:37I've been driving it for ten minutes, and this has got to be one of the most special
05:43things that I've driven.
05:46Oh, that is just lovely.
05:50Just lovely.
05:53So I've put the car into dynamic mode.
05:56I've got the manual options selected, so I'm shifting with my paddles here.
06:02And the dynamic mode kicks up the gear changes a notch, so it barks on the upshift like that.
06:10That's a sound that when I heard audio of this car before, I wasn't actually a huge
06:14fan of, but when you're in the car, trust me, that bark on the upshift, that sounds
06:22awesome.
06:27Holy...oh, the brakes are good.
06:32Got some twisties here.
06:34Oh, you can feel the mid-engine balance.
06:40Oh, the transition from side to side feels so good.
06:44It's immediate.
06:46You load the tires one direction, you turn, you load the tires the other direction, and
06:50it has a ton of grip.
06:52It's got 62% of the weight over the rear axle and the rest of the weight over the front,
06:56and you can really feel that.
06:58It's got proper mid-engine car balance.
07:01You can feel that the back is guiding the car through the corner.
07:10That little bit of extra power, I can feel, even in third gear on twisties like that,
07:15I can easily approach the limit of grip of the rear tires.
07:19I can feel the back start to let me know that I'm approaching that point where I might be
07:24sideways.
07:25So stock, this car does 0-60 in 4.1 seconds.
07:36I don't know how fast that was, but it could feel sub-4 seconds with just that little bit
07:43of tune.
07:45It's fast is really all that matters.
07:47I don't have any instrumentation here.
07:48I don't really care, to be honest.
07:50All I know is that it pulls so much more than you think that it would for a 1.7-liter,
07:56four-cylinder engine.
08:02This thing's got so much character.
08:04How do I describe it?
08:06It's kind of like I'm riding on the back of a feisty Italian dragon.
08:10You give it inputs and it barks consent.
08:14It's telling you constantly about the terrain that you're going over, and if you push it
08:18too hard, it'll bite you.
08:20I'm just a normal guy like you.
08:22I don't get to drive a lot of these cars.
08:24I've driven enough of them, though, to know how special this car is.
08:28This is easily my favorite car I have ever driven in my life.
08:33Yeah.
08:37So some have said that the 4C has an unrefined power delivery.
08:40I can tell you that the AMT wizardry has obviously fixed that.
08:44So for the same kind of money as a fully loaded Dodge Ram pickup truck, you can get yourself
08:49a new 4C.
08:51Is it a practical car?
08:52No, not even remotely.
08:54It is almost nowhere to store anything, and it has trouble getting over some speed bumps,
08:58but the thing is, it doesn't matter.
09:00None of that bothers me.
09:02I wouldn't care if this thing needed an organ as a down payment.
09:05I want one.
09:07I'd be happy to drive a beat-up Pontiac Aztec 99% of the time so that I could have this
09:13for the other 1%.
09:37Thanks for watching.
10:07Subs by www.zeoranger.co.uk
10:37Thanks for watching.