Alfa Romeo Returns to America at Last

Speed Read

First Impressions:
A gorgeous vision in carbon fiber that takes your breath away.

Featured Specs

• 450-hp 4.7-liter V8
• Automated sequential manual gearbox
• 14.2-inch front disc brakes
• 20-inch wheels

The corner was slow, even unremarkable. A constant-radius, 2nd-gear curve that happened to be a part of Circuito de Balocco, Fiat's official test track, although it could have been any decent-size roundabout in the world.

We turned the wheel, and as the nose of the car greeted the apex, we squeezed the accelerator hard. As expected, the rear wheels slid wide, and thanks to a little steering lock to catch up to them and a touch more power, we were able to keep the tail out of shape for a second or two until the corner opened up.

It was a childishly simple maneuver, but there, in an instant, was a moment for which we have been waiting more than 15 years.

We were powersliding a brand-new Alfa Romeo — the 2009 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.

Back From the Brink of Front-Wheel Drive
These are such simple pleasures that it seems absurd that one of the world's most evocative, emotive marques, one that built its brand on pure driving pleasure, has been denying them to its devotees this last decade and a half. Since 1992, a rear-wheel-drive Alfa Romeo has not been available, as a succession of front- and all-wheel-drive platforms was supplied to Alfa Romeo from its Fiat parent.

The car responsible is the 2009 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. It's been a long time coming. First shown in concept form at the 2003 Frankfurt Auto Show, the car finally is scheduled to go into production next year. You know the wait has been worth it as soon as you see how little its shape deviates from the original, how wonderfully proportioned it is and how it acknowledges Alfa's past without being defined by it.

Its purpose? Think of it doing the same sort of job for Alfa Romeo as the Ford GT has done for the Blue Oval. What matters is that they get enthusiasts feeling warm about their respective brands once more. Both companies realized the need to drive their product ranges upmarket, and a dream car is cheaper and more effective than a lengthy marketing campaign.

This is why all 500 8Cs that will be made in 2008-'09 were sold long before anyone so much as sat in one, even at a price of about $226,000. The 8C will also reintroduce Alfa Romeo to the United States. About 99 cars of the production allotment will cross the pond, and then 500 8C Spiders will be built and a batch will also come to America.

Good Cars Come From Good Partners
When faced with building 1,000 cars that bear no relation to anything already in your store cupboard, you can't simply start from scratch. You have to knock on a few doors. Given that Alfa Romeo now has overall control of Maserati, the door that opened widest was the one with a large trident on its front.

It would be hard indeed to underestimate the contribution that Maserati has made to the 8C. The floor is borrowed from a Quattroporte, then cut and shut to suit the 8C's wheelbase and adapted to Maserati's double-wishbone independent suspension. The engine is the Maserati V8, its displacement increased from 4.2 to 4.7 liters, presently a specification that is unique to the 8C for now but will soon be found in Maseratis as well. It's matched with the six-speed automated sequential manual transmission that came with the first version of the Maserati Quattroporte.

The whole thing is assembled not in Alfa Romeo's Turin, but instead at the Maserati factory in Modena. Which is why when you need your 8C Competizione serviced, it is to a Maserati dealer that you will drive.

Carbon Fiber Can Be Stylish
The 8C Competizione is made from carbon fiber, which is more than you can say about any Ferrari on sale today, let alone Maserati. The shape is distinctly, inimitably Alfa Romeo.

The gorgeous cabin owes little to anything else, too. Nasty instrument dials apart, this is one of the best-looking cabins this side of a Bugatti Veyron. There are plastic parts if you look for them, but these are not what your eyes fall upon, as they are rather too preoccupied with all the leather, aluminum and carbon fiber.

And the view down the hood — an almost lost art these days — is unforgettable. You peer through a quite small windshield to the two kicked-up humps marking the tops of the front fenders. When driving hard, you can use them to guide you in and out of corners.

Speed Thrills
Hard driving is what this car invites more than most, even in the rarefied air of the six-figure supercar. After waiting so long for an Alfa whose direction of travel can be determined as much by your foot as your fingers, the temptation to streak off into the sunset is overwhelming. Only the concrete confines of Balocco stop us from doing so.

Initial impressions are uniformly good. The engine note is perfect. This 450-horsepower V8 has a similar capacity to a small-block Ford in the classic Mustang, but its voice is not a transatlantic rumble but instead the smooth, sweet melody of the true European aristocrat. Hit the Sport button, which sharpens the throttle response, cuts the shift times in half and opens a valve in the exhaust, and the 8C sounds at once gloriously rich, angry and assertive.

There are 354 pound-feet of torque at 4,750 rpm, so if you hit the throttle pedal hard enough, this Alfa sits back on its heels, takes a deep breath and then cannons you up the road, with its fat, rear 285/35R20 Pirellis yelping all the way. The engine develops its 450 hp all the way up at 7,000 rpm, and the 8C will fling you past 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.2 seconds on its way to the far side of 180 mph. The swiftness of the gearchanges doesn't defy logic as with the Ferrari 430 Scuderia, but it's still quicker than you'd manage on your own.

Let's Go Drifting
There is, however, mild disappointment in store and you find it when you reach the corners. For while the 8C Competizione will slide and slide until its tires are molten, this is not a delicate car to handle.

There's too much inherent understeer, not enough steering feel and the sense that if you turned off all the safety systems and really drove the doors off it, then it might just reward your efforts with an unseemly excursion through the nearest hedge.

We're not sure that we should be too bothered by this. We've lost count of the number of people who have asked if the 2009 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione is Alfa's greatest work to date. Out there, among enthusiasts everywhere, most of whom will never even see an 8C, this really matters.

And to everyone we have given the same reply: It's not the greatest, but it is very good. Most important, for the purpose of bringing Alfa Romeo back to the U.S., it is more than good enough.

Road Tests on

Speed Read

Vehicle Tested:
2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia 2dr Coupe (4.3L 8cyl 6AM)
Price It!!

First Impressions:
The Ferrari 430 Scuderia might be the absolute best performance car we know, and Novitec Rosso makes it even more amazing.

Featured Specs

• Twin-supercharged 4.3-liter V8
• 708 hp; 533 lb-ft of torque
• Three-piece 20-inch wheels
• 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds; 0-124 mph in 10.1 seconds

Twin-Supercharged 708-hp Novitec Rosso

It takes cojones to tuck into a new Ferrari in hopes of ending up with an improved street machine. Pininfarina showcars don't really count, since that's like cheating. And race-prepared GT2-class racing cars don't count either, since we don't see any Le Mans racers parked in front of sushi bars or Circle K.

But the 2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia by Novitec Rosso is another thing entirely. While a Ferrari 430 Scuderia impresses, this twin-supercharged Novitec Rosso enters the territory of shock and awe.

Novitec's Wolfgang Hagedorn does business in the German town of Stetten (an undeniably manure-perfumed burg in the German province of Swabia, not far from Stuttgart). He's a hell of a businessman, but he's still what many non-risk-takers would call a nut case. After years of up-rating Fiats and Alfa Romeos (not hard to do in the 1990s), Hagedorn sucked it up in 2001 and bought three Ferrari 360 Modenas for tinkering purposes. At the 2003 Frankfurt Auto Show he revealed his supercharged Ferrari 360 Modena by Novitec Rosso and orders quickly appeared.

Since then, Hagedorn has really made his Ferraris true specialty models, much more than simple tuner cars. And so here is the newest Novitec Rosso, Hagedorn's improved Ferrari 430 Scuderia, the V8-powered berlinetta that beats the lap time set at Ferrari's Fiorano test track by the overly worshiped Ferrari Enzo .

How can the 2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia by Novitec Rosso possibly improve on a car already so impossibly super?

Heavy Breathing
A look through the polycarbonate rear glass (so like a sneeze guard at the buffet table) in the Ferrari 430 Scuderia's rear deck reveals all. Here are two compact, belt-driven, Rotrex centrifugal superchargers fed by two immense carbon-fiber air boxes. Two front-mounted water-cooled intercoolers (with double the efficiency of the units that Novitec formerly specified in this sort of application) help keep the intake air at the right temperature. This engine conversion is referred to as the Novitec Race Bi-Compressor Engine kit, and the full deal runs $89,999 through Novitec's full-service importer CEC.

Getting more out of the 2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia evidently doesn't take much, as each Rotrex screwgie hits its max boost at 7.0 psi. It's all available in the twitch of an ankle from low revs all the way to 8,350 rpm, where the horsepower count surges from 503 hp to 708 hp. Meanwhile, the torque has been wrenched from a measly 347 pound-feet up to 533 lb-ft at 6,250 rpm. Novitec has managed to keep all the heat-inducing friction and combustion in control by applying competition-level cooling upgrades.

The Ferrari-engineered 136E V8 engine (which also sits in the Alfa Romeo 8C and assorted Maseratis) is otherwise stock. So is the Scuderia's six-speed automated manual F1-Superfast2 gearbox; and its shift times remain wildly quick going up or down (70 milliseconds in the Race, CT-Off and CST-Off settings of the manettino mounted on the steering wheel).

Naturally, the ECU has been fiddled with by a local German fiddler to boost the engine's self-confidence, while the port fuel injectors are now higher-flow units, a fact that further ruins the Scuderia's already sufficiently ruinous mpg rating. But if you whine about this mpg thing at a barbecue for Novitec Rosso owners, you're probably a waiter from the catering company.

Nimble Jack
While the technicians at Novitec's facility in Stetten have fiddled not one bit with the wheel alignment, new stiffer springs all around slightly alter the over-the-road feel of the five suspension settings afforded by the manettino, and the overall ride height is 1.2 inches lower than that specified by Maranello. The Ferrari MagneRide dampers are too complicated to modify, so the settings are the same as before.

Aside from hunkering lower to the asphalt, the Novitec Rosso version of the 2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia also features a wider track front and rear thanks to a combination of spacers and the very sharp, yellow-accented, 20-inch Novitec NF3 three-piece aluminum wheels. The wheels themselves measure 20 by 8.5 inches in front and 20 by 12.5 in back. On dry roads, the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Plus tires are terrific, 235/30ZR20s in front and 325/25ZR20s in the rear. But it also rained at times during our thrill ride and these wide, semi-slick Michelins become bobsleds under such conditions.

Overall, the Novitec's crisper dynamics can be clearly felt, especially when the supercharged throttle delivers such enlightenment that we repeatedly lunge past the braking point before corners. In such circumstances, the Ferrari 430 Scuderia's standard carbon-ceramic brake discs are much appreciated.

Even without any bodywork modifications, the 430 Scuderia's lower ride height adds approximately 80 pounds of downforce at both front and rear during high-speed dashes, while the stiffer springs and stickier tires improve stability at ultrahigh speed. Once Novitec's taller final-drive gear is installed, the top speed climbs to 216 mph from 199 mph.

Leave Great Enough Alone
As Hagedorn reminds us, "There's no need to improve much at all on the interior or exterior packaging of an already special-trim Ferrari." While we fundamentally agree, we can't help but wonder whether this isn't Maranello holding Stetten under its thumb. Is this another keep-our-look-and-you-can-keep-the-cavallinos sort of deal for which Ferrari is so famous when dealing with those who dare to modify the factory's products?

Within this car's cabin, you'll find all the familiar Ferrari touches, particularly the perfect Scuderia seats. Additions by Novitec include a flat-bottom, suede-upholstered carbon-fiber steering wheel, and it features the significantly larger carbon-fiber shift paddles, plus there's a set of anodized aluminum pedals. The larger shift paddles on the steering column make a drastic improvement for flicking shifts at any point of the steering action, especially through and exiting hairpins.

One final Novitec modification can be found when the manettino switch is clicked into the slippery-road setting farthest to the left. Finding ourselves in a dense but silent neighborhood at night, we set it here and the transmission automatically stays in 2nd for creeping speeds while the bypass valves close to lower exhaust noise considerably. Besides this Novitec software change (useful for avoiding the attention of the constables), this car also has the ability to hydraulically lift the nose 1.6 inches to avoid a scarred chin in parking garages and driveways. Up to now the only Ferrari from the factory with this feature has been the Enzo.

Stunning Made Stunning-er
As Ferrari expands its brand name into any number of marketing agreements and even theme parks, it's easy to wonder about the soul of the company from Maranello. We were thinking this recently while contemplating the forthcoming Ferrari California, the company's new hardtop convertible, which looks as if it has been created to serve the agendas of far too many cooks.

So it was nice, then, to drive the all-conquering 2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia by Novitec Rosso, an authentic Ferrari lust machine. Letting Novitec Rosso have at the Ferrari 430 Scuderia has ended in an even harder-core Scud. It's a car never meant for every day, and this genuine Ferrari-style concept thoroughly validates the leaner and even meaner German approach.

That is the 2010 Ford Mustang

2010 Ford Mustang

The new Mustang is instantly recognizable. If we weren't on the stand at the L.A. auto show, however, you might not know it's actually a new car. Ford has stuck to the tried-and-true belief that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The 2010 model is an evolutionary redesign, but the mechanics have left the hardware pretty much alone. The V-6 and V-8 make 210 bhp and 315 bhp, respectively. That pales in comparison to the new Chevrolet Camaro, with its 300-bhp V-6. The Mustang GT's V-8 engine is not much different than that of the most recent Mustang Bullitt. It is a good powerplant, but not quite as potent as we'd have hoped.

Almost all the changes made to the Mustang — inside and out — were for refinement. The hard plastics of the old car have been replaced by soft materials and modern gauges that look good yet are easy to read. The hood, replete with power bulge, hides its window squirters beneath, the radio antenna has been moved to the back of the car, and the gas flap is now flush. In addition to larger wheels, the tail lamps are unique in that they light up sequentially when used as turn-indicators.

You might think the new 2010 Mustang is wider and more aggressive, but its dimensions are identical to the previous car. The raised bumper cap, pinched headlamp enclosures and chamfered rear corners all contribute to the allusion of a smaller, lower car.

We have heard whispers about Ford bringing back a supercharged package in the near future, which would bump the V-8 to 400 bhp. We'll keep our fingers crossed and hope we see such a car at the Detroit show in January. In the meantime, if you like the previous Mustang, you'll love this one. It's simply just more of a good thing.

What are The Difference Between Diesel and Gasoline Engines

Today, diesels are being purchased in huge numbers by Europeans, with diesels estimated to represent more than half of all new vehicles being sold there. Contrary to what you might think, these are not just small, entry level diesel vehicles from VW, Renault, or Fiat, but also upscale diesel-driven rides like the BMW 7-series, Jaguar S-TYPE, and Alfa Romeo 156.

This is in stark contrast to the diesel scene here in America, where nationwide diesel choices are almost nonexistent and limited to diesel pickups or passenger vehicles like the Mercedes-Benz E320 BLUETEC, VW Touareg TDI, and Jeep Grand Cherokee CDI. That will change dramatically in just the few short years ahead. Many models are in the pipeline to meet what’s expected to be a growing demand for high fuel economy vehicles of all types...an area where diesel excels.

Even if you are a diesel fan, you probably have had little chance to explore this option if you live in California, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, or Vermont, where tighter emissions regs have kept diesels largely off the market in recent years.

The Diesel Difference

A gasoline engine runs on the Otto cycle, in which a vaporized mixture of gasoline and air is delivered to the combustion chamber, where it’s then compressed and ignited by a spark plug. In the Diesel cycle, air is compressed during the compression stroke and fuel is injected into hot, compressed air in the cylinder, spontaneously igniting the fuel. Because of this, the diesel is sometimes referred to as a compression ignition engine in contrast to a spark ignition engine.

There are also significant differences between diesel fuel and gasoline. For starters, diesel fuel requires less refining than gasoline and is similar to kerosene, jet fuel, and heating oil. Indeed, the military now uses a single fuel, JP-8, in its jet engines, helicopter turbine engines, and diesel engines. Diesel fuel is heavier, oilier, and evaporates much more slowly than gasoline. Because of greater use of diesel fuel across the Atlantic, European refineries are more oriented toward refining crude oil into diesel rather than gasoline, the opposite of what occurs here in North America. This preference is then reflected in how fuel is marketed.

A diesel engine gets more miles-per-gallon than an equivalent gasoline engine. With gasoline costing up to $6 a gallon in Europe, fuel economy has historically been more important to Europeans than Americans and a key factor in their preference for diesel power, even when diesels were still noisy and dirty. Diesel fuel has a higher energy density – on average, a gallon of gasoline contains 85 to 87 percent of the BTUs (British Thermal Units) of energy of a gallon of diesel fuel.

Diesel engines are also more efficient than their gasoline counterparts because more power is produced as a result of the higher compression of the air/fuel mixture. Today’s gasoline engines have compression ratios of about 10:1 to 11:1, while the compression ratios in diesels can be as high as 25:1. The higher the compression ratio, the more power generated.

The much higher compression ratio means diesel engines have to be heavier and more robust. This means they are more expensive to build, but the higher cost is offset by much longer lifetimes. For instance, we’ve seen Mercedes-Benz diesels with 350,000 or more miles on the odometer running great on the original engine. Because of higher component weight and high compression ratios, diesels operate at lower rpms, producing lots of low end torque but less horsepower.

The Early Diesel

Rudolf Diesel obtained a German patent for the Diesel Cycle engine in 1892. Early diesel engines were relegated to stationary, industrial, and shipping applications because of their great weight and very low rpm operation. While Diesel invented the diesel engine, an American named Clessie L. Cummins can be credited with developing, and most importantly, marketing the diesel for highway use in the U.S. in the early 1930s.

Cummins set a diesel speed record at Daytona Beach in a converted Duesenberg and drove a Cummins-powered truck coast-to-coast on only $11.22 worth of diesel fuel. In 1931, a Cummins team set a new endurance record of 13,535 miles at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This, plus the introduction of the Cummins Model H Truck engine in 1933, caught the attention of truckers and began the virtual “dieselization” of the North America heavy-duty trucking industry.

The popularity of diesel cars was much slower in coming even though Mercedes-Benz offered the first diesel-powered production car, the Type 260D, in 1936, and usually has had at least one diesel car in its catalog ever since. There was heightened interest in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a result of the 1973 and 1978 oil crises, but this really turned out to be a false start. When Americans began buying Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, Isuzu, and VW diesel cars in significant numbers, American automakers, especially GM, decided it needed to start building diesel cars, too.

Unfortunately, rather than using the vast expertise of its own Detroit Diesel division, GM assigned the task of developing a diesel engine to Oldsmobile, which essentially converted its 350 cubic-inch (5.7 liter) V-8 into a diesel...with disastrous results. Among the many problems resulting from this approach, the higher compression of diesel combustion caused cylinder blocks to crack, head gaskets to blow, and crankshafts to wear out quickly. The Oldsmobile-built diesel was offered between 1978 and 1985 and installed in everything from Chevrolet Impalas to Cadillac Eldorados. In all fairness, the engine was quite good by the time it went out of production, but the damage was already done: More than anything else, this engine soured the thought of diesels in the eyes of Americans for decades to follow.

Environmental Challenges

Environmental concerns have also impacted America’s image of diesels. Many Americans still envision a diesel-powered vehicle belching out clouds of black smoke. That’s an image we’ve seen all too often from transit buses, big-rig trucks, and older diesel passenger cars over the years. But if that’s your view of diesel vehicles now, then you have a lot to learn.

Computerized, turbocharged diesel engines equipped with emission control devices have pretty much taken care of this very obvious pollution problem. If you see a modern diesel smoking, it probably can to be attributed to poor maintenance.

Besides carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, unburned hydrocarbons, and oxides of nitrogen emissions that are common to all internal combustion engines, diesel engine designers also have to contend with significant amounts of particulate matter, or soot. However, because carbon dioxide emissions are directly related to the amount of fuel consumed, the fuel-efficient diesel engine does better than its gasoline counterpart when it comes to this greenhouse gas.

With the growing attention being devoted to C02 reductions these days, not to mention legislation that’s sure to drive the auto industry toward higher efficiency and lower C02-emitting vehicles, diesel is sure to have a promising future.

Smart be: Ford Fusion Hybrid Tops Camry, Prius in Comparisons

Ford Fusion Hybrid

If you're in the market for an ultra fuel-efficient hybrid that makes a convincing family sedan, your best choice has always been a Toyota -- until now. Toyota's Camry Hybrid and Prius have been the only realistic alternatives for many. Most American-built hybrids simply haven't matched their fuel economy, and the Nissan Altima Hybrid remains rare and hard to find.

A new entrant in the contest, however, may have knocked the Toyotas from their lofty perch.

The automotive press has begun testing the all-new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid in recent weeks. Two prominent publications have now published comparisons pitting the Fusion Hybrid against its Toyota competition, and the Ford has won both.


USA Today writes: "OK, let's just get it out there: The 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid is the best gasoline-electric hybrid yet. What makes it best is a top-drawer blend of an already very good midsize sedan with the industry's smoothest, best-integrated gas-electric power system. It's so well-done that you have to look to the $107,000 Lexus LS 600h hybrid to come close."

"The Toyota Prius crowd will protest," they note, but USA Today says Ford's car simply drives better. "A car is, after all, a driving machine. Brownie points for saving somewhat more fuel or offering a cargo-friendly hatchback, but driving feel is most important. And there, Fusion is without equal among hybrids."

Car and Driver set the Fusion against the Camry Hybrid, Chevy Malibu Hybrid and Altima Hybrid, but the result was the same. "Ford has pulled off a game changer with this 2010 model, creating a high-mpg family hauler that's fun to drive," they write. "Nothing about the leather-lined test car, optioned up from its $27,995 base price to $32,555, seemed economy minded except for the mileage readings. On that score, the Fusion topped the others, turning in a 34-mpg score card for the overall 300-mile test run."

In our time behind the wheel of the Fusion Hybrid, we quickly came to a similar verdict. The Fusion Hybrid corners with as much agility as its conventionally-powered cousin - one of the best-handling cars in the midsize class. With standard SYNC technology, it allows the driver to control Bluetooth-enabled phones and music players through the car's speakers with voice commands. And its standard leather and high-quality stereo give it an upscale feel for an affordable price. Ford has a hit on its hands.

We had one minor complaint. Ford's SmartGuage instrument cluster does a great job coaching the driver to drive more efficiently with information-rich displays, but the cutesy display that grows leaves as the driver reaches peak efficiency is distracting and can draw your eyes from the road. Still, following the device's prompts, we hit 37.7 mpg in city driving on the first try.

The Fusion Hybrid qualifies for a federal tax credit of $3,400 until the end of March, but few of the cars will reach dealerships by then - if you're in the market, you might want to consider ordering yours before the credit disappears.