ALFA Romeo test drive 156 2003 - 2005 sedan

Sports for the lazy

Alfa with an automaton? Unnatural symbiosis! Inability to order a machine? Nonsens! And where is the way out? Teach the mechanics to work automatically! Cream of the car community is already operating similar schemes: at Ferrari it is F1, in Maserati Cambiocorsa. Daimlerchrysler came up with Sequentronic, on BMW SMG. Alfa Romeo has a similar system called Selespeed, and it is offered for models 147 and 156 with two -liter engines.
 
The beauty of the 156th is enduring and she is already six years old! Calling the need to refresh the appearance of the car, the designers saved: as a true masterpiece, Alfa 156 cannot be improved. Creative torment ended with a banal transfer of fog. Much more changes are made inside. The sophistication of the updated interior car surpasses the older model 166 and is able to compete with German business sedans in a price twice as much higher. Look at the joystick of the gearbox! And the climate control unit? Visor's eyes! And the equipment of the machine at a height: a dynamic stabilization sistema, a two -zone climatic installation, six pillows and Acoustics Bose are included in the standard.

  

But back to the transmission. There are two modes: fully automatic City and manual, with the control of the aforementioned joystick or keys on the steering wheel.
 
There is no clutch pedal. The automatic mode is quite suitable for crawling in traffic jams, however, when driving all the money, the tightness of the switching and the skips of the body accompanying them begin to irritate. You can intervene in the box for a short time by choosing a transmission yourself (for example, before jerking forward), after which Selespeed returns to the City mode. In a more understandable manual regime, the clinks are easy to level, taking the gas pedal instantly before changing the transmission. Selespeed works very agile, faster than Opelian Easytronic and Citroenovsky Sensodrive, but there is still no sense of complete control that the usual mechanic gives. This is especially pronounced when switching to a lower gear before a quick turn. In order to accurately predict the moment of loading the front wheels, long training is needed.
 
Alfa controllability science fiction! In the near-line range, the car is like a foster soft and lightning-bearing, but it is worth turning the steering wheel a little sharper and to a larger corner, and the 156th is on a new trajectory before you realize it! Moreover, the level of transverse accelerations is such that it is simply impossible to hold the vertical position of the body! Yes, for all this buzz is paid by smoothness: Alfa regularly counts all road defects, but it is worth it! A similar feeling of unity with the machine, its perception as a continuation of myself recently, I experienced only at the wheel of WRX STI and Mini Cooper.
 
And Selespeed on the one hand, this is the embodiment of a dream of automatic Alfa Romeo. On the other hand, it is hardly the best way to enjoy the magical Italian in full.

  
The car is provided by the company Center-SPRZ.
During the test, the car is insured by LLC Nation Center.
The editors thanks the State Unitary Enterprise Stadium. S.M. Kirova for help in organizing the filming.
 
Text: Leonid Klyuyev
Photo: Roman Ostanin
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 

Source: Wheel magazine [No. 68/2003]