The Grand Tour

Closer Look At the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider Driven By Jeremy Clarkson in The Grand Tour

Isn’t that Alfa Romeo 4C Spider gorgeous? Every line, every curve just looks like art. There’s something so “Italian” about it, which is a silly thing to say considering it IS Italian. Jeremy certainly made a good choice this episode, and it’s not surprising at all that he choice the 4C Spider since he loved its big brother, the 8C, so much.

The Mazda MX-5 and Zenos E10 S are both brilliant cars in their own right, but something about that 4C just looks better. I was actually introduced to Alfas through Top Gear, and while I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a fan of them, it’s hard to deny that certain “something” that comes from looking at one.

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”newwindow” url=”https://grandtournation.com/2516/the-grand-tour-review-closer-look-at-the-zenos-e10-s-driven-by-james-may-mp1123/”]The Zenos E10 S[/button]

Every first Sunday of the month, I attend my local Cars and Coffee with my Mustang. A few times on the freeway, I have run into a fellow Cars and Coffee go-er who owns a 4C (though he has the coupe version). We seem to always drive together, cutting through the local windy roads and ripping down the freeway, both of us with a huge grin on our faces. It’s very clear that this guy loves his car, and walking around it at the show, it’s very clear that I love that car as well.

The 4C Spider may seem to be just a topless 4C coupe, but there are actually quite a few differences. The engine is the same as the coupe; a 1.75 L turbo I4, but the Spider has a different set of headlights, exhaust, and hood, in addition to the removable top. The chassis also needed to be strengthened to cope with the removal of the top, so there is a weight increase (either a 99 lb or 22 lb increase depending on where you get your info from, for a total of 2,487 lbs).

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Despite the weight gain, the Spider is still an incredibly light car, which Jeremy was quick to point out. The chassis is made of a carbon fiber tub, with aluminum subframes in the front and rear. The chassis is a single body design (like many supercars) and weighs only 143 lbs, while the outer body is made from a light weight composite material. A double wishbone suspension keeps the car nice and planted, along with a set of staggered tires and vented disc brakes on all four wheels.

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The 1.75 L turbo I4 features an all aluminum design for minimal weight and makes 240 hp, with a top speed of 160 mph. Italian car magazine Quattroruote published a lap time for the coupe version of 8:04 around the Nurburgring, James May’s favorite place in the world.

So, what do you guys think of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider compared to the other cars featured in Episode 5? Let us know in the comments and on our Facebook page!

Tony Hsieh

Cars, the Buffalo Bills, video games, comics, sandwiches, jelly beans, and the shooting star press; these are the things that Tony loves (in addition to his family, of course). When he's not spending his time writing tech reviews for theslanted.com, Tony puts his lifetime love of muscle cars to use on his 2015 Mustang GT. Tony's top three favorite cars are the 1973 Mustang Mach 1, Ferrari 458, and Aston Martin DBS.

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