ALFA Romeo test drive 156 1997 - 2003 sedan
Love Formula
The end of the year is traditionally rich in contests. But if politicians and beauties are awarded by the results of the year, then the car of the year is chosen in advance. The 1998 car was won by the Italian concern Fiat, which introduced the novelty of the Frankfurt car dealership to the court of journalistic jury - Alfa Romeo 156.
Romeo plus Juliet
At the development stage, the car had its own name - Juliet and was supposed to go into the series under this name. But at the last stage of the work, the member of the Coordinating Council of the Fiat concern and the strong -willed decision left only the index - 156 behind the car. Then it turned out that the authors simply forgot to provide the front number for the number. As a result, I had to adapt the left side of the bumper - for Italy, where numbers the size of two packs of cigarettes, this is not very important.
The script, script and once again the script - this is the formula for the success of the great Charlie Chaplin. Design, design and again design - this is obviously the formula for the success of engineers and fiat designers.
Outwardly, Alfa Romeo does not at all look like the rest of modern cars, like a ring made by a great Faberge, it does not look like the work of its undeniably talented students. In addition to canonical beauty, there is an individual beauty. Perhaps, a professional art critic, who has adopted in juggling with expressions, the depth of perspective, motor skills of influence on the subconscious and the like, can describe its forms well.
But the designers of the fiat of the bicycle did not invent. Before us is a four -door sedan with pronounced sports forms. But here is a small stroke - the designers hid the handle of the rear door in the window opening, and the front handle was made of silver metal to catch the eye more. Outwardly, the car looks like a sports compartment, and even our photographer bought this trick, who took pictures of many cars in art, even the most extravagant and unusual. He was extremely surprised when he discovered the second doorway of quite normal sedan sizes.
Stroch number two - a powerful front bumper, which is literally cut in two of a characteristic alpha v -shaped radiator grille. A similar composition, combined with a long hood and a short but high trunk, gives the whole car a predatory-mating look.
Alpha to omega
There are six different engines in the plant’s portfolio - four gasoline and two diesel. The weakest in the family of gasoline - with a volume of 1.6 liters and a capacity of 120 hp. The most powerful is a six -cylinder with a capacity of 190 hp. and 2.5 l. Only a six -speed gearbox is installed on a car with such a motor, which fully allows you to enjoy the sports character of Alfa Romeo. All other models are equipped with an ordinary five -speed box. Engineers did not even provide an automatic machine, rightly believing that a real athlete prefers to do everything with their own hands.
But will a real athlete want a diesel engine? It can even be very, since there are two types of new diesel engines on Alfa Romeo 156, and Fiat is perhaps the first in Europe, who ventured to offer a diesel for a car of this class. For alpha 156, diesel engines with direct fuel injection, turbocharged and intercooler were specially developed. As a result, the most powerful five -cylinder engine with a volume of 2.4 liters and a capacity of 136 hp. accelerates the car to 203 km/h. The starting dynamics also looks impressive - in 9.5 seconds. up to 100 km/h. Not bad for the tractor engine.
Unfortunately, diesel engines in Russia do not use love, and the autopilot managed to see only the weakest gasoline engine. Press releases claim that to achieve greater power while maintaining economy, engineers used a fundamentally new injection system with variable geometry.
Do not believe the rumors! Behind these stingy technical phrases normal human diet is disguised! They say that Alfa Romeo engineers did these jokes with the injection system for one purpose - to achieve a special growing sound of the motor. Like sports cars somewhere on races in Le Mane. Well, they succeeded. If the motor is practically not heard from the outside, then with an open hood, the sound is really serious - like a racing car, only a few decibels quieter.
The resemblance to serious sports equipment is complemented by an autonomous fire extinguishing system - for the first time we encounter such a serial machine.
Nostalgia for the past They say that in Europe replicars and ancient cars are rapidly in fashion. It is not surprising - all modern machines are very similar from the inside one to another, and the differences in the interior decoration and the devices are minimized. You sit down, a quick glance face the workspace and easily determine what you need to twitch so that the car comes to life.
But the old car, like a real English gentleman, has a strict elegance and individuality that we lack so much.
The best new is well forgotten old. The Italians proved this again, expressing in the design of the ALFA Romeo 156 salon nostalgia for good old days. Everything in it is in its usual places, but it looks very unusual and very stylish the first time.
There is nothing superfluous in front of the driver’s eyes - only a speedometer and a tachometer. Not an instrument shield, but separately a tachometer, a separate speedometer. As on sports machines of the 50s or on replicars such as Morgan Plus 8. Between them there is a block of control lamps that go out after the engine started, and the driver is not distracted more. But the main devices are just attracting attention - first of all, thanks to the unusual location of the shooters. When the motor turned off, they do not lie in the usual place between the family and eight for hours, as the professional pilot would say. They look strictly down, as if emphasizing the fact that the car is really at rest.
Auxiliary devices are put to the central console. In order not to overload the driver with information, the engineers left only a gasoline cost sensor, a clock and a coolant temperature sensor.
This block is also designed in a classic style - three separate round dials of a pleasant silver color, like a speedometer with a tachometer. Only the diameter is exactly half as much.
Obviously, then the question faced the developers - what is the control panel of the climate installation so that it does not fall out of the general style? And we must pay tribute - they found a decent exit. Under dials of auxiliary devices are placed three round handles like those that stand on the video recorders of Sony. Roting rings can adjust the air temperature, the speed of the fan and the direction of the flow. The buttons located inside the rotating ring include air conditioning, the heater of the rear window and the airplane damper.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Everything else is familiar, usually and relevant, although carefully hidden from immodest glances. Between the seats we found control of electric mirrors and fog lights, on the door - electric windows.
The seats are quite modern, with good lateral support - a tribute to the sports style and character of the car. Like the three -spoke steering wheel, which carefully hid the airbag.
It is enough to move off, and the feeling that you plunged into the past disappears. In the hands of a real sports car of the late twentieth century. With intensive acceleration from the place, there is no time left to admire the interior finish - all attention to management. As it should be for sports cars, the so -called converged transfer numbers on the Alfa Romeo 156 - the engine instantly responds to the incorrectly turned on the gear and the tachometer arrow immediately approaches the red zone. Maybe a little inconvenient in the city, but will undoubtedly appeal to those who prefer an aggressive driving style and are not lazy to work as a lever gearbox.
From a car with a similar character, it is quite possible to expect a rigid suspension, which immediately responds to small potholes and bumps. But no - Italian designers used a new type of multi -link suspension in Alfa Romeo, which achieved amazing smoothness. Even in steep turns at decent speed, the car holds the road perfectly and obediently responds to the steering wheel.
In general, the big rank from Fiat was right - with all the external and internal beauty, this is not Juliet. In its temperament, this is a real Romeo.
The autopilot thanks the Alpha Romeo car dealership, (095) 959-1433, for the car provided for the test.
The 156th model is a pioneer: she is instructed to begin the revival of customer love for the once famous, and now thoroughly forgotten brand. That is why such indefatigable joy caused the Italians the assignment of the 156th title of the 1998 European car.
Alpha was actually terribly lucky. A few months ago, no one even doubted that the rank of car of the year would get a Mercedes A-class. The rest of the applicants were silent - until the very moment when a pretty Stuttgart baby rolled over on a forest Scandinavian road during a test, which is figuratively called a detour of a standing moose, and we are better known by the name of the transaction. Turn over the month later, and everything would be different. In general, all these automobile ranks are a lottery.
But since it was so lucky, Alfa Romeo decided not to miss the moment and develop success. Immediately reviewed the cost of advertising a new car. The new rank of alpha began to trim the press, television, and radio. On the back glass of each Alfa Romeo 156 sold (and 40 thousand orders have already been received), a proud inscription of the 98th year car (somewhat exaggerating merits of Alpha, which was the first was the first in Europe, and not in the world), is now flaunting. In total, this whole demonstration will cost the expansive Italians $ 2.9 million.
The Mercedesovites, for their part, are comforted by the fact that no one has yet managed to take at least some place with the car that is turning over: it means that everything else is really completely in it.
But actually, it's great that everything turned out so unexpectedly. Finally, the car of the year was not another practical car to the stupidity, - the English Times admitted, and the beautiful car. I don’t give a damn that there are no moldings so useful when parking on the sides that the rear seat does not fold, and the turning radius is too large. But this is a real Alfa in all its previous beauty.
Model/Modification Alfa Romeo 156
The manufacturer Fiat Auto S.P.A.
The producer of Italy
BODY
Type sedan
Number of doors/places 4/5
ENGINE
The type of gasoline with an electronic fuel injection system
The location in front is transversely
Working volume (cubic cub) 1598
Number/location of cylinders 4/row
Cylinder diameter x stroke
piston (mm) 82 x 75.65
Compression degree 10.3 x 1
Power, kW (L.S.) at about./Min. 88 (120) at 6300
Moment, NM at about./Min. 144 at 4500
The number of valves per cylinder 4
TRANSMISSION
Type is a mechanical five -speed
Front -wheel drive
SUSPENSION
Front Independent Dwarf, Pontric Stable Stabilizer
The rear independent type MacPherson, the reptile stabilizer
STEERING
Type gear rack with a hydraulic booster
Brakes
Front disc
The rear disc
ABS standard equipment
Wheels
Tire size 185/65 HR 15
Disc size 6j x 15 ''
Dimensions/about EME/Weight
Length/width/height (mm) 4430/1745/1415
The sizes of the luggage compartment (cubic meter) 378
Wheel base (mm) 2595
The track front/track of the back (mm) 1519/1506
The volume of the fuel tank (L) 63
Dry mass (kg) 1230
Dynamic characteristics
Maximum speed (km/h) 200
Acceleration to 100 km/h (sec.) 10.5
The diameter of the turn (m) 11.1
Economy
Fuel consumption (l/100 km)
90 km/h/120 km/h/city cycle, l 6.4/8.2/11.4
The price of a trained car in Moscow is $ 35,000
What else
The first time the editors came to a dead end when determining classmates. Usually we try to select cars similar in power, engine volume, dynamics and, of course, price. We were looking for a four -door sedan with sports characteristics. And they realized that for such money in Russia a similar car cannot be bought. Those who pay attention only to the accelerated characteristics, we recommend that you do not look for a similar car among sedans, but to search for alternative options among sports coupes. But this is another song. But what happened to us.
For the price and dynamic characteristics, the Renault Laguna RXe is closest to Alfa Romeo. True, with a reservation: the French volume of the French is 400 more cubes, and the power is several horses less.
Citroen Xcara. The new model, which has just gone into the series and appeared on the European market simultaneously with Alpha Romeo. It has a revolutionary design for Citroen design and good dynamic characteristics. At the price of XCARA, Alfa Romeo is much cheaper and is perfect for those who carefully follow the car fashion. By the way, another contender for the title of car of the year '98. Scored 204 points.
Mazda Xedos 6. Until a very popular machine, as evidenced by the fact that they are delivered to Russia only by order. For those who understand, means. In our opinion, the most pretty among other competitors. With an ALFA Romeo, this machine clearly loses the 156th in the characteristics (weaker) and the price (above).
But with all possible similarities and differences, any classmates lose Alfa Romeo in one thing - you will not find a look like design.
Nikolay Kachurin,
Dmitry Novokreshhenov (photo)
Source: "Autopilot"
