If there's one thing Alfa Romeo has graciously afforded us these past years, it's broken promises – be that its fabled return to the U.S. market or a swarm of new models covering just about every segment in the market, none of which ever happened.
That might change now that parent company Fiat has made the decision to aggressively compete in the lower and mid premium segments with Alfa Romeo and in the upper levels with Maserati.
This week, Alfa Romeo dropped a teaser image showing a five-spoke alloy wheel with the following legends: "The Alfa Romeo prophecy of 2013 won't disappoint" and "Behold, the car to end all cars is nigh."
The only Alfa Romeo we've seen as a thinly disguised concept or in prototype form testing on the roads lately is the 4C mid-engine coupe study from 2011, which is the car we believe the Italians are announcing in their "New Year's" card.
We still don't have the definitive details on the finished product, but we see no reason why Alfa wouldn't keep the study's 1.75-liter turbocharged four-cylinder unit delivering 200 or more horses to the rear axle through a twin dry clutch automatic transmission.
A Geneva Motor Show debut has been rumored, but not yet confirmed.
Story References: Autoblog.com & Worldcarfans
![Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-1[3]](http://lh5.ggpht.com/-JZCQ6qtidt0/UN86Z7pWE5I/AAAAAAAK5C0/hyczHQHVAEc/s1600-h/Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-1%25255B3%25255D%25255B3%25255D.jpg "Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-1[3]")
![Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-2[3]](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-c-TocIcrN8Q/UN86cCGrJPI/AAAAAAAK5DE/vENVQQOqgwU/s1600-h/Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-2%25255B3%25255D%25255B3%25255D.jpg "Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-2[3]")
![Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-3[3]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-SMo1YnCAhek/UN86dmlwJiI/AAAAAAAK5DU/WICakdnoIlA/s1600-h/Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-3%25255B3%25255D%25255B3%25255D.jpg "Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-3[3]")
![Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-4[3]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-F0-wiwZC2RM/UN86fAAq03I/AAAAAAAK5Dk/gCn6_KKkFM0/s1600-h/Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-4%25255B3%25255D%25255B3%25255D.jpg "Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-4[3]")
![Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-5[2]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/-wCaYdjL56xQ/UN86g9INLjI/AAAAAAAK5D0/xV2w9L2vOJc/s1600-h/Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-5%25255B2%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg "Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-5[2]")
![Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-6[2]](http://lh5.ggpht.com/-fxVL1v0yi78/UN86isYbUlI/AAAAAAAK5EI/LyO0GmqcJGI/s1600-h/Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-6%25255B2%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg "Alfa-Romeo-4C-Concept-6[2]")
12 Comments:
Ditch the dual clutch transmission, make it manual and there we have a dream car!!
cant wait til it comes out!
For the rest of us that don't fantasize of a 1995 dream car, please keep the dual clutch, thank you.
Why not have an option for both to make everyone happy?
Those that prefer to have control, please include a manual.
I am sorry to hear your left leg was amputated. Acceptance is often accompanied with fear and anger towards the able. Be strong! Best of wishes!
Yeah, a manual option would be really nice. However, they've apparently done it for packaging reasons (I'm not an engineer, so I don't understand this without researching it).
A small compromise I suppose; the ingredients are sensational, let's just see what they come up with. This has all of the ingredients to be a 21st century Dino Ferrari.
It's a miracle I can drive my everyday car, which is an Alfa with a manual gearbox.
OK, that's unfortunate to hear. I assumed they just ignored the driving enthousiast like it's common these days, but if (assuming it's not just an excuse) there's really a technical reason, we can stop hoping for a manual :(
I mean I can't come up with a reason why a dual clutch transmission would fit in and a most likely smaller manual box wouldn't and the 3rd pedal shouldn't be a problem either, sounds like a problem of not wanting it too badly in first place for me...
Yeah; maybe because they have limited capital, they decided the TCT was easier because it would cost a lot of money to design a completely new manual? (After all, it's mid-engined, so everything is reversed. May hvae an impact).
Only my guess though.
Could be, but when you take a look at the proportions, the engine has to be mounted transverse. This would mean a setup like in a Lotus Elise and therefore they just have to put a FWD powerplant and powertrain between the rear tyres which means I still vote for the explanation of not wanting it too badly ;)
I suppose so. I'm really excited about this if they can prevent it from being too expensive.
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