ALFA Romeo test drive 147 5 doors 2005 - 2009 hatchback

Signorina in golfs

A new star appeared in the ALFA Romeo fashion house - model 147. The Italian motto - compactness, prestige, technical perfection. Signorins are great, but not groundless ambitions. Apparently, the success on the podium of the golf class is provided to her.
 
Speaking about Alfa Romeo, we mean an excellent sports shape and sophistication. As if in confirmation of this, the Italians arranged for the rendezvous of journalists with a novelty in Monaco. In their opinion, the 147th, like its older sisters, Alfa Romeo 156 and the flagship 166, are noticeably standing out against the background of competitors. Where, if not in the principality of dreams, the monastery of millionaires, many of whom are somehow connected with big sports, bring the novelty? ..
 
ALFA ROMEO 147, sleepy in the coastal parking lot, climbs the city serpentine at ease, clearly prescribing 180-degree studs, limited by gentle red and white borders, and attracting the attention of a few passers-by. My colleague and I liked her appearance damn, but since even the Ferrari, Bentley, Porsche and Lamborghini, the inhabitants of Monte-Carlo, who were spoiled by half-cloths, complain to Alfa with favorable glances, which means that she really is all right with aesthetics. We only emphasize that in a hundred percent Italian design of the small Alfa, the family features of the ancestors (such as, for example, 6c 2500 Villa d'este in 1949) are extremely harmoniously intertwined with the characteristic features of the heroines of our time-the 156th and 166th models.
 
A second hitch on a steep rise (in Monaco, all, without exception, drivers humbly give way to pedestrians, even impudently crossing the carriageway outside the transition zone) allows us to make sure that the car is flexible. Unlike poor fellow, who did not twist his Opel and shamefully stalled in a timely manner, we easily touch the place as if under the mountain.
 
The thrust on the bottom of the 147th is like a diligent student for knowledge. But under the hood is not God the news that is only a 1.6-liter motor. True, 16-valve with variable phases of gas distribution and therefore developing 120 hp. But the main thing, the skillful Italian motorists managed to achieve a gentle moment characteristic, in which 2/3 of the maximum torque (146 nm at 4200 min-1), the engine generously gives at one and a half thousand revolutions.
 
Light start not only in 120-horsepower Alfa. The most mundane 147th (if I can do this about this car) with a 1.6-liter engine with a capacity of 105 hp. Touches from the place no worse than we were convinced later, changing the horse. What can we say about the variety with a 2-liter power unit, and even more so about the diesel version 1.9JTD, which will appear closer to spring.
 
No matter how strange it seemed, the elastic motor of the car combines both painfulness and dynamism. Actually, without the second component, Alfa would not be Alfa. And although the achievements of the 147th are far from absolute world records, the sports vein of the car makes itself felt. Agree, 10.6 seconds to 100 km/h is a decent result for a golf-class car with a 1600 cubic engine.
 
The engine engine, but without a 5-speed mechanical transmission balanced in transmission numbers, the sled qualities of our Alfa Romeo would not be so good. To wield a clear, elastic-fragile lever of the CP, they are sure that everyone will appeal, even those who are skeptical of manual boxes.
 
Of course, we dreamed of clicking the buttons of gearboxes on the steering wheel when we move to the two -liter Alfa, equipped with a semiautomatic device SelySpeed. Alas, our dream (and several hundred hundred journalists) was not destined to come true. Italians for unknown reasons created a terrible shortage of cars with Celespid. And then they completely removed them from the appeal.
 
Having confirmed her ability to accelerate quickly, Alfa proved to us that she would quickly go on the shoulder - she swallowed a stormy section of the highway in half an hour with a little. Neither aerodynamic nor other noise during a rapid race was felt. Perhaps because starting with 3000 min-1, the salon was filled with a cute heart of any temperamental driver with a muffled baritone of the motor. This did not interfere with enjoy the sound of a high -class Bose radio (specially designed for the Alfa Romeo 147), but we preferred the incendiary roulades of the motor from eight regular speakers of poppies.
 
When the road again pierced among the rocks of the Mediterranean Alps, going down to the sea, the 147th finally convinced us of its near-sports role. At first it was scary, because on the right was deep instead of the side of the road - you won’t collect the bones - the abyss, and we continually pressed the brakes. It seems that disk mechanisms on all four wheels are pleased to strangle speed. How else to explain the responsiveness with which they continued to respond to the pedal?
 
From where the flying rain came from theoretically increased danger, but in practice everything turned out to be different. The indestructible union ABS and EBD (a brake force distributor), which is included, like ASR (control control), in the basic package, neutralized the intrigues of wet asphalt, and the slowdown of the machine almost did not lose efficiency.
 
Fear gave way to excitement. The increase in the pace to the limiting conditions under the data of 60 km/h not a drop was embarrassed by the car. She, as before, was biting into the trajectory in a vest, implicitly obeying the steering wheel. As soon as at the entrance to the turn to throw the car’s nose in the turn, and it went exactly where it was ordered, and the gas pedal, which was trained at the output, forced Alfa Romeo to independently straighten the arc. And - not a hint of lateral sliding.
 
You involuntarily wonder: why do you need a system of dynamic stabilization here, installed as an option? Perhaps in order to cut off the most ridiculous accidents. And then, not an hour, from the apparatus flying on asphalt, the 147th will turn into an object flying from a cliff. And then the crew will not save either the energy -absorbing body, or three -point seat belts, nor half a dozen eirbegs included in the standard completion, nor a standard fire extinguishing system.
 
The compromise suspension of the car conquered the ability to adapt to road conditions. It stops the irritating vibrations of the body on bumps and at the same time has sufficient elasticity to resist the roll in high -speed turns. The steering is similar: sharp, but not enough to keep the driver in suspense. The steering wheel itself is tired so that, leaving the car, I want to unfasten it (as in F1) and take it with you.
 
On a winding road, it turned out that the wide front strings of the body (especially the left) are capable of dirty tricks - like a oncoming car that was suddenly materialized in the turn of the oncoming car. Moreover, adjusting the chair - even longitudinally, even in height - does not help to cope with this problem.
 
The seats seemed comfortable, but after mountain slalom it became clear that the ability to fix the body would not hurt them better. Gallery passengers, although it is difficult to get back (by the way, a more hospitable five -door modification will appear from day to day), it will be quite comfortable. There is only one but - the high -speed will have to support the low side arches of the ceiling with your head.
 
In general, the ALFA Romeo 147 salon is equipped with a higher category. And from the point of view of aesthetics, and in terms of equipment. Each modification of the 147th has a more simple (ProgResion) and more sophisticated. Even the first of them contains a lot of all sorts of things, such as electric windows and climate control. There is no need to talk about the second at all-a list of all kinds of amenities provided by it is much wider than other machines of this class: cruise control, rain sensor, climate control, separate for the right and left half of the salon.
 
A practical person to the brain is unlikely to be satisfied with the novelty. And the trunk here with a thimble (280 l), and gasoline 147th consumes pretty (an average of 8.2 l/100 km). But the car is not designed for strong business executives. And the young history that appreciates comfort does not care about cargo capacity (especially since, folding the rear seats, the luggage volume can be increased three times), and for an extra fuel liter.
 
Two questions remain open: quality and price. I would like to believe that the fiat (Alfa Romeo company is under the auspices of this concern) who has become a lady in the language of the production of products pass the compact Alfa. Unfortunately, some little things talk about the opposite. In our car, some fasteners of plastic details periodically fell from the bowels of the salon casing, and the rear wiper axis (if you shake it with your hand) had an unreasonably large backlash.
 
It is not clear what caused the stubbornness of the steering wheel switch commander of the turn signals. Perhaps resistance to inclusions emphasizes the thoroughness of the machine. By the way, she cannot occupy thoroughness. In general, the 147th looks very solid. With a equipped mass of 1200 kg, it seems more weighty than many of its competitors (the same feeling arises when, after a one -time plastic lighter, you take a metal Ronson in your hands). In this sense, as in many other qualities, Alfa Romeo 147 resembles the elite Audi A3.
 
As for the price, the cheapest 147th excluding taxes will cost $ 13500 in Europe, the most expensive (2.0 Selespeed Distinctive) - a little less than $ 20,000.
 
Technical characteristics of Alfa Romeo 147 1.6 t-spark
 
Body - 3 -door hatchback
Number of places, people. - 5
Equipped mass, kg - 1200
Full mass, kg - 1720
Dimensions (length/width/height), - 4170/1729/1442
Base, mm - 2546
Maximum speed, km/h - 195
Acceleration time to 100 km/h, s - 10.6
Control consumption of fuel, l/100 km:
- City cycle - 11.2
- Country cycle - 6.4
- Mixed cycle - 8.2
Engine:
- type- gasoline, 4-cylinder, in-line, 16-valve., with variable phases of gas distribution
- working volume, cm3 - 1598
- Power, L.S. at MIN -1 - 120/6200
- torque, NM at min -1 - 146/4200
- power system - electronic injection
Transmission - mechanical., 5 -speed
Tire size - 195/60r15
Wheel suspension:
- front - independent, on double transverse levers, with a reptile stabilizer
- rear - independent, mcpherson, with a reptile stabilizer
Brakes:
- front - disk., ventilation., with ABS
- rear - disk, C ABS
Steering - such as a gear -rake, with a hydraulic wrap
Trunk volume, l - 280/1030
Fuel tank volume, L - 60
 
Text: Igor Kuznetsov
 

Source: Magazine 5 wheel [11/2000]