Alfa attracting all the accolades
The stunning new Brera was not initially the brainchild of Italian carmaker Alfa Romeo. Its first appearance was as a breathtaking concept car developed by Giugaro’s ItalDesign studio to show their talents at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show.
The people loved it, and so did Alfa Romeo. So much so, they decided to put it into production with comparatively little restyling. Four years on, it has arrived in Australia, having already snapped up a swag of awards overseas, including ones for being the world’s “most fascinating” and “most beautiful” car.
Alfa describes it as a “car that makes grown men weak at the knees’’ and – male orthopaedic ailments aside – just a glance reveals why it gets the accolades. Sitting above an aggressive air dam, the signature shield grille is the key to lines that sweep back over the bonnet and carry the eye into the widely muscled shoulders and haunches.
This is amplified by the shallowness and sharp profile raking of the rear hatch.
Even from the rear, an area where designers often seem to run out of ideas, the Brera is a stunner, with almost brutally horizontal light bezels echoing those at the front and accentuated by the wide lines of the fastback lid. The squared-off quad exhaust tips jutting out underneath give a strong clue that this is special under the bonnet too.
There are two choices here, a four-cylinder and a six-cylinder. The engine in the $62,990 variant is the great 136kW, 230Nm 2.2-litre four cylinder already used in the 159 range. But the Brera also arrives at $87,990 with a chunky 3.2-litre V6 that develops 191kW of power and 322Nm of torque, 90 percent of which is available from a low 1,800 revs.
Both engines are mated to a six-speed manual transmission and the V6 now has an automatic option and the 4 has Selespeed. The 2.2-litre variant is great on the road, and with all-wheel drive the 3.2 is fantastic. You can chuck it around corners with ease, and the way it launches out of the gate is gut-stirring.
The view inside the car is also worth admiring with acres of leather with textured metal accents, swooping lines and sporty touches, all well-lit through the full-length tinted sunroof. But a downside to the gorgeous sloping design of the roofline leaves you with a wide blind spot around the rear pillar.
The car is a two-plus-two-seater, with the back seats being well-shaped buckets. Maybe you could fit a kid in the middle, but they’d have to be small and docile.
Even with the wheelbase being stretched from the Alfa 159, this is still a sports car so there’s not a great deal of room back there for long legs. Likewise the hatch boot won’t take a large amount of luggage, but hell, you’re not going to take this car camping.
Another gripe after spending a week in this beauty was that the tiny sun visors achieved nothing when you swung them around to the side window, although they serve well enough for the shallow, sharply sloped windscreen.
Okay, maybe that’s being a bit too picky. Especially in the face of the car’s sum of performance, street presence and, well, sheer sexiness. Bellissimo.
Auto facts
Price: $62,990-$90,990
Engine: 2.2-litre 4-cylinder JTS, 3.2-litre V6 JTS
Max Power: 136kW@6,500rpm; 230Nm@4,500rpm, 191kW@6,300rpm ; 322Nm@4,500rpm
Transmission: 6-speed manual, Selespeed and automatic
Fuel Consumption: combined 9.4L/100km; 11.4L/100km
Good: stunning styling
Bad: plenty of torque steer in the front wheel drive 2.2-litre
