ALFA Romeo 8c Competizione test drive since 2007

With a vengeance

An amazing car: is driven by the Ferrari engine, built at the Mazerati factory in Moden, and Alpha Romeo 8C is called. The word compartment has a double meaning - both competition and competence, this combination of the best offers of the Italian auto industry was proposed to evaluate Peter the smaller and Vladimir Solovyov.
Now the most noisy detail in our car is a box with candies. All other sounds merge into the rolling rrr. You hear, Rr.-Russian, Ferrari in the last nine years have won the world championship seven times. Ferrari without spore-rhta is inconceivable!
Although we are not going to Ferrari, the pre -trial mandrazh is already beginning - as before the competition, when you feel a crazy surge of strength. I hope that the sports competence brought from Russia will be enough for here, on the highway of the Balko training ground, not to move into the mud.
The compartment seems to be made of many mobile, different shapes of eights - from wheels to the crossbreed framework, which forms an infinity of movement with the front wing.
The ambitious style is well reinforced by the ideal weight of the machine: 49 by 51 % - all the most massive structural elements are located in the base, that is, between the front and rear axles. Even the motor does not stick out the nose beyond the front wheels. To establish complete harmony, the gearbox is shifted to the rear axle and combined with the main transmission. The body panel anywhere under the pressure of the finger is bend: carbon fiber -an expensive, but true means of combating excess weight. Only steel inserts for stiffness in the bottom, doors and deformable safety zones in front and behind violate composite omnipotence.
It is a pity that on paper it is impossible to convey how this descendant of the fastest road sports car 8s 2900 1937 takes high notes. For a long time Alpha had no rear -wheel drive cars made according to the good old racing scheme. Of course, in comparison with in-line 8-cylinder engines of the late 30s, when the name Alfa triumphantly thundered on car races, the engine of the current athlete became more compact, although he added to volume.
But the sport button is drowned, gas in the floor, several exact drives by the steering wheel - and 450 forces tear off the compartment into frantic rotation in their favorite eights on dry asphalt. This is a silicon - it seems that the wheel with the frozen sign of Alfa Romeo stands still, and the earth itself spins under it. Yes, even now it will light up. But this is only a spectacular warm -up - for courage and warming up, he will still increase in the movement of forces, and with them the risk of lighting a wet curb will increase and risk.
To accelerate in a straight line up to 240 km/h is not scary. Disc brakes will take care of you before the turn: the front mechanisms with six and the rear - with four pistons. Unless, of course, you have time to call them to help at 200, flashing on the sidelines. But there is a protracted turn here, where the inner voice begins to whisper boring: this is like on a formula highway in Monz! Then he will be drowned out by racing emotions, and you, touching the petals under the wheel with your fingers, take control of the gearbox to yourself. The steering wheel is quite sharp - on the racing highway you do not have to intercept the steering wheel in the bend, which is why the steering is more accurate. Another feature of the steering wheel of sports alpha is that its amplifier is equally effective at any speed and at any engine speed. The steering wheel does not freeze on the combination when you step over a 200-kilometer high-speed line. The rider’s hand should never tremble!
Manual control of an automated 6-speed gearbox in the sport mode weakens ESP intervention: this allows you to use excess turning on turns to pass them by a fan. Soberly evaluating our forces, we did not use this opportunity. But still managed to feel the racing buzz. There would be so much strength and emotions that the hand itself makes pressing on the sports switch of the central console and then - to the VDC button - now any electronic safety control is turned off. So we get a pass in a hitherto unknown alpha-beadstry. The driver’s blood is already running in a large circle, and then it is still accelerating from the changed sound of two double exhaust pipes.
A swift set of revolutions, accelerated by half the transfers - all this awakens racing instincts.
It seemed that it was a little to take the steering wheel - and we will fit into the turn, but now the car carries to the side of the road, and there, behind it, a wet field, and even some small ditch is approaching. The main thing is not to put the car sideways to it: we will turn over! Well, the competence of driving on slippery roads helped: they caught on the side of the road - now just not to discard gas, otherwise we will get stuck, the pyrell's high -speed tires are disgusting. Like the wheels themselves - finding themselves on the asphalt, they trembled from an imbalance caused by coastal mud. Alas, the driver did not pass this exam for competence. He failed to restrain the beautiful racing emotions that Alpha herself aroused? We accept the reproach to our address. But still, the meaning of the word added to 8C has become much clearer.
- Why did Russia receive only one of the 500 cars that will be built? - We asked the competent persons of Alfa Romeo.
- We can reassure you, there are many countries that have not received anything.
Yes, the demand for 8C for 160 thousand euros many times exceeds the offer, leaving inconsolable motorhors not only in Russia.
The largest quotas received: the USA, Italy, Germany, Japan, France, where many routes for racing and just everyday training of ordinary drivers are built, who understand that they do not drive with a vengeance on the streets - you can only with permitted speed. For example, in a store for a box with candies.
Peter the smaller, Vladimir Solovyov

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A source: The magazine "Driving"