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Alfa CEO says 4C can manage more power

With 240 horsepower from a 1.75-liter engine, the Alfa Romeo 4C does a lot with very little. But there's always room for improvement, says the company's CEO. Speaking with Automotive News, Alfa Romeo chief Harald Wester indicated that the historic Italian auto marque could squeeze more out of the 4C's already high-strung engine. "We are only at 134 horsepower per liter," said Wester, "so there is space" for it to produce yet more power. To accommodate the extra muscle, Wester says, the Alfa would also need bigger brakes, but the chassis may already be as stiff as it needs to be. Considering that Mercedes gets 355 horsepower out of the 2.0-liter turbo four in the A45, CLA45 and GLA45 AMG (for a specific output of over 177 hp per liter), Wester may be right, opening the door for a 300hp version with a 0-60 time of around four seconds flat. And his saying so more than subtly suggests the possibility of a more powerful 4C becoming a reality. But then the prospect of shoehorning a bigger engine into the same chassis to make a new Maserati GranSport - another prospect which Wester (also CEO of Maserati) suggested earlier in the 4C's development - never came to pass, largely due to engineering roadblocks. Featured Gallery 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C: First Drive View 57 Photos News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Copyright 2014 Matt Davis / AOL Alfa Romeo Coupe Performance alfa romeo 4c alfa 4c

Alfa Romeo bringing 4C Spider to Geneva

With the Geneva Motor Show fast approaching, we're receiving news left, right and center of various debuts lined up. And the latest bit of intel suggests that Alfa Romeo has prepared an open-top version of the 4C for debut at the Swiss expo. The 4C Spider is tipped to incorporate several changes over the fixed-roof coupe version. For one, it'll have a removable roof panel (Porsche's people might call it a "Targa") along with a pair of carbon-fiber roll hoops affixed behind the bucket seats. That'll give the Alfa 4C a wind-in-your-hair driving experience to go with its high-output 1.75-liter turbo four. We don't know at this point if the car will debut in concept or production form, but word from Italy has it that the 4C Spider will also feature a different headlight design (in place of the controversial fly-eye headlamp units on the coupe) and, of course, a different set of wheels. Featured Gallery 2014 Alfa Romeo 4C View 60 Photos News Source: 0-100.it Geneva Motor Show Alfa Romeo Convertible Performance 2014 Geneva Motor Show alfa romeo 4c alfa romeo 4c spider

Ralph Gilles talks minivans, Millennials, mobility, and kissing Alfa Romeos

We sat down with Ralph Gilles, the global head of design for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show. The veteran stylist has worked for the company for 25 years, and oversees the design of all of the products in the FCA portfolio – everything from mobility pods to Maseratis. This serves Gilles just fine, as his personal automotive interests are exceedingly diverse. The FCA stand was unusually quiet (until Vice President Joe Biden stopped by at the end of our time there) and Gilles was willing to weigh in on a wide range of subjects. Autoblog: We're seeing all of these autonomous mobility pods like Portal being presented at auto shows like CES or NAIAS, but we're not seeing any adoption of this kind of small vehicle in the market. What's your perspective on our pod-like autonomous future versus our truck-centric present? Ralph Gilles: Obviously I pay attention to the industry as much as your readers and yourself, and everyone has a take on the future. We had a debate, we could have done a supercar or something for pure sex appeal [ apparently that's also in the works], but we chose something practical, to really look at the future in a different perspective. We have these Millennials, a huge swath of people born between 1982 and 2004, and the oldest ones are turning 35 right about now, and a lot of them are having families later in life but when they have them they have a little more buying power, so it makes for an interesting cocktail. The one stipulation we had on the Portal project was that everyone had to be a Millennial to be on the team. So that excluded me, I had more of a coach role on the team. And to your point, the Portal in its current state as you see it is not going to be on the road tomorrow. But there's a lot of ideas, a lot of connectivity ideas, a lot of styling ideas, even lighting and technologies that will absolutely find their way into vehicles in the next few years. AB: Being a Detroiter, all of this attention we've had recently in Vegas, CES – I heard that they're maybe going to be running the show at the same time next year. Do you feel a little protective of the Detroit Show? RG: Yeah, it's something to watch. I hope it's not an aggressive thing on their part, by moving the shows on top of each other. They're both important shows. CES, I've been going to for the last five years, and it's changing. There's a lot more automotive content, but there are a lot more start-ups too, and it's interesting to watch.