Michael Chuang tests an Alfa Romeo 4C tuned to 320 hp, up from 237 stock. The Euro Compulsion tune sharpens throttle response and exhaust sound but doesn't change shift quality. Acceleration numbers show how it stacks against a C7 Corvette and Porsche 718.
Questions this video answers
237 brake horsepower
258 foot-pounds of torque
2,487 pounds
Almost 320 brake horsepower (about 320–330 bhp to the crank when including intake/exhaust/tune)
4.34 seconds
Chapters
Remember that Alfa Romeo 4C that I drove a few months ago? Well, it's here again. But things are a little different this time around. Because this time it's back with a vengeance. Well, not really. It's just back with a phase two tune from Euro compulsion. Kind of the same thing though. In its stock form, the Alpha 4C makes 237 brake horsepower and a healthy 258 foot pounds of torque from a tiny 1.75 liter boosted inline four. The impressive thing is that it only weighs 2,487 pounds. So I've always been curious what would happen if we added say about 70 or so horsepower to it. Would it make it the car it was always meant to be? Let's find out. The answer is unequivocally abso freaking lutely, yes. The power band is much more dramatic now. A lot of the hesitation down low is gone. I'd say that the tip and on throttle is a bit more responsive as well. I will say that first two third is a lot more sensitive, but it's still plenty drivable. The turbos spool a lot louder, the exhaust crackle, you can hear the blow off valve pretty distinctly. Overall, I would just say it's a much more enjoyable driver experience. Frankly, this is how the car probably should have come from the factory. Okay, maybe not this hot, maybe like a phase one tune with around 290 to the crank. But if you're gonna do it, go all the way right. I will say that I am still a little disappointed with the shifts. They haven't really improved. It's still pretty lackluster for something that's supposed to be like a racy DCT. With phase two, we're looking at almost 320 brake horsepower in a 2,500 pound car. That's a power to weight ratio of about 8 to 1. And that would make it competitive with a lot of cars in its price range. I'm talking about C7 Corvettes, Shelby GT350s and Porsche 718s. There's actually a video out there somewhere with a phase 2 4C racing a Ferrari F430. I can't remember who won, but that's still impressive nonetheless. In stock form the powder weight ratio was like 10.5 to 1. And you know what, that's not bad. But I just don't feel like 237 horsepower does this car justice. So anyway, today we're going to find out what kind of difference this tune makes on an otherwise, stock 4C in our acceleration test, It's. It definitely looked and felt like a big improvement from stock. But here are the actual times. Real Life 060 happened in 4.34 seconds, which is still nowhere near as fast as the 4.2 second time claimed by Alpha. But then again, remember, no launch control. It is a significant amount faster than the 5.11 time we did in stock form. Even though it was just a stab and go time. Real life 0100 was 10.32 seconds, almost a second and a half faster than the stock time. And it looks like it would play pretty well with a BMW i8 in this department. Oddly enough, the quarter mile time didn't improve as much as I'd like 12.77 at 108.11 mph when compared to the 13.14 at 105.9 that it did stock. Things do get interesting in our 4100 test where the Tune 4C pulled off a respectable 7.81. That's almost a full second faster than stock here, and that puts it in some pretty quick company. The most impressive part was the 61:30 where the tuned 4C ticked off a time of 15.3 seconds. On its own, that's not immensely quick, but when you compare it to the Internet source stock 60 to 1:30 time of 18.1 seconds, a 3 second gain here is like driving a whole new car. The story continues after the half mile where we cross the line at 20.29 at 128.64 miles per hour. That's a solid gain over the theoretical stock time of about 22 seconds. At 125 miles per hour. It's all pretty impressive. But it's one thing to turn up the boost on a turbocharged car and make a healthy power gain. It's another thing to do that while making it drive like stock. The only way I could tell was the occasional jerkiness if you held a certain RPM in first or second gear for too long. Otherwise it just drove like a stock 4C. If you watched my original review of the Alpha 4C, you'll know that I like this car quite a bit. In its stock form. I always felt like it could use a little bit more punch, but I think with this tune it fixes that problem. I mean, tune, intake, exhaust, you're looking around 320, 330 for the crank right there. I don't think you're gonna need much more than that for about 50 grand on the used market. Give or take. You're looking at the perfect track toy right here. It's too bad, because I already have the perfect track toy for about 50 grand. Surprise, right? Just a little Christmas present to myself. Anyway, this will be my last episode for a few weeks. Sean's gonna hold the fort down while I'm gone, so I hope things don't get too hectic around here. In other news, remember that app I was talking about back in the day with the fast list and all? Well, I'm still working on that, but in the meantime, I built a Google spreadsheet out for you guys. You want to take a look? I left a link in the description below. And special thanks to Tim, the owner of this 4C, for hooking me up with the car again. If you want to try out this beast for yourself, I'll left the link for the toy rental in the description and comment section below. Go check it out. Anyway, have a happy holiday and I'll see you guys next year. First time on the channel. Don't forget to check out some of my other stuff. I produce all sorts of cool content with performance cars and acceleration tests, so if that's your jam, be sure to hit that subscribe button and ring that bell icon for new episodes every Thursday. Thanks for watching. Subscribe.
