Production Alfa Romeo 4C and new hot hatches from Audi and Mercedes ...

[Wouter Melissen]

Ahead of the Geneva Motor Show, Alfa Romeo finally offered a first glimpse of the 4C production car. The exterior design is ver similar to the Concept shown exactly two years earlier. Under the compact body the mid-engined machine boasts a sophisticated carbon fibre chassis, 1750 cc engine and twin-clutch gearbox. Unfortunately no exact figures and only these three pictures have been released but this is enough to convince us that the 4C is one of the cars to look out for next week.
German rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz will use the Swiss show to launch two new hot hatches. From the former will come the S3 Sportback. It uses the same 300 hp as the three-door S3 that debuted last year. Much more news is contained in Mercedes' A 45 AMG; especially the new turbocharged engine. Displacing just under two litres, it produces well over 350 bhp, making it the most powerful four cylinder production engine. This power is fed to all four wheels through a 7-speed automatic gearbox. The compact A 45 AMG can accelerate to 100 km/h in well under five seconds and has a limited top speed of 250 km/h.

Enjoy the links:

2013 Audi S3 Sportback - Images, Specifications and Information

2013 Mercedes-Benz A 45 AMG - Images, Specifications and Information

2013 Alfa Romeo 4C - Images, Specifications and Information

[faksta]

Same question as asked by BillK in the article itself: would anybody finally make it clear for me - is 4C an Elise or just too similar?

[Ferrer]

Same question as asked by BillK in the article itself: would anybody finally make it clear for me - is 4C an Elise or just too similar?

AFAIK it's based on the Dallara chassis from the KTM X-Bow.

[Kitdy]

Holy model creep batman! An S3 Sportback! How interesting!

Look at the mess of the front end on that A! Very chaotic, busy, and unresolved. Look at where the hood meets the A pillar! Ahhh! So thick and chunky and ugly. All cars have to rock that now I think with rollover and pedestrian impact standards, but that is particularilly bad.

The car is silly.