Alfa Romeo 4C New Performance Specifications Detailed

Alfa Romeo just released new technical details from the 8:04 Nurburgring lap it announced the 4C sports car made late last month.

The tiny, lightweight sports car use a 1.75-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 240 hp mounted behind the seats to offer what the company bills as supercar performance in a small package. The lap time is the fastest of any car under 250 hp. Needless to say, making around the “Green Hell” that quickly is no small feat.

Deceleration peaks for the car in the 1.2 g range while lateral acceleration boasts over 1.1 g. It’s also especially nimble because 60 percent of the weight is placed over the rear and 40 percent on the front. Special Pirelli P Zero tires also lend the car better grip during performance driving. Alfa Romeo and Pirelli collaborated on developing the rubber and came up with a product in under a year. The 4C uses offset wheel sizes with 17-inch alloys in the front and 18 in the rear or 18 in front and 19 in the rear. Pirelli developed two versions of the tire called “AR” P Zeros and “AR Racing” tires. The lesser set is available for both wheel sets while the racing rubber is only offered for the larger versions.

The power-dense engine achieves maximum output at 6,000 rpm, but peak torque is available between 2,100 and 4,000 rpm, although 80 percent of the twist comes on with the engine spinning 1,800 times per minute. Alfa says the engine sets new output records for mills of its size.

Alfa Romeo 4C Sale in US Jeopardized by Chrysler IPO

An ongoing spat between Fiat and a UAW heathcare trust (VEBA) that owns the remaining 41.5 percent of Chrysler threatened to keep the 4C from being sold to U.S. buyers earlier this month. A dispute over what VEBA’s stake in Chrysler is worth led the trust to file for an IPO. Fiat said it would stop supporting Chrysler if the IPO went forward and North America’s allotment of 4Cs would have been killed in the process.

If and when the vehicle begins arriving, it will be sold through Fiat’s Maserati dealer network.