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By
EWAN KENNEDY
4 December 2006
Though Alfa Romeo builds sedans and hatchbacks, even some station
wagons, most people still think of the famed Italian marque primarily as
a producer of sports coupes. Great looking coupes, that is, and few have
ever looked better than the sensational Alfa Romeo Brera that was
ushered into Australia midway through this year.
Like the much-missed Alfa GTV, the new Brera has styling by
Italian automotive legend Giorgietto Giugiaro. The design was
first displayed at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show and public interest
was so great that Alfa Romeo Centro Stile, the company’s own
styling department, worked with Giugiaro to develop the coupe we
see here today.
A further legendary Italian automotive name comes into the
equation as well, for the Brera bodies are built by the
coachbuilding company Pininfarina.
In Australia, the Brera is available in two versions. With a
starting price of $69,990 is the four-cylinder variant, with
2.2-litre JTS 136 kW engine. The top level Brera JTS twin-cam V6
3.2-litre boasts 191 kW and has a substantially higher price tag
of $94,950.
Alfa’s V6 engine is interesting in that it’s based on the
V6 block manufactured by Holden in Australia, before being shipped
back to Italy for further worldwide on-selling. Alfa is keen to
point out that the rest of the engine, the parts they say give it
soul, are all by Alfa Romeo and are made in Italy.
You get more than simply two extra cylinders when you opt for
the V6 engine, because you also receive Alfa Romeo’s all-wheel
drive system tagged Q4. This setup has a self-locking Torsen
centre differential which pretty well eliminates the understeer
which characterises many all-wheel drive vehicles. It gives this
Alfa Romeo the feeling of a rear-drive car, but with a lot more
road grip when things get hard.
While Alfa has gone to some lengths to give the exhaust note of
the new V6 engine a heart-throbbing "burble" at 2500
rpm, sadly this disappears as the engine speed rises. At times
when an enthusiast driver is beginning to stir the car along a
bit, it goes eerily quiet. The engine also seems to lose some of
its grunt at higher rpm.
Six-speed manual gearboxes are standard on both Brera models
and work pretty well considering the gearbox is alongside the
engine and therefore a fair way from the gearlever.
The Brera retains some of Alfa’s traditional idiosyncrasies,
such as seats that do not locate the driver’s body as well as
they could during hard cornering. Then there are the less than
perfectly placed pedals. Having to hold the steering wheel for
support when lifting the left foot to operate the clutch pedal, we
found, detracts from the driving experience.
Our test car used the V6 powerplant and typically used 11 to 13
litres per hundred kilometres in suburban use and when being
fanged along interesting roads in the country. These figures
aren't too bad for a performance machine running an
all-wheel-drive setup. Easily paced open road trips, if you can
make yourself do such a thing to a sporting coupe like this, often
saw the petrol consumption drop below nine litres per hundred.
This Alfa is quite a large coupe, but interior volume isn’t
one of its strong points. The front pair of seats has already been
mentioned as providing less support than we like when cornering.
They are also quite firm and after an hour or so at the wheel many
will be happy to get out and give their backsides a rest.
Back seat space is precious and probably best left to the kids.
Trouble is that the high window line makes it hard for the
littlies to see out and this can bring on boredom ahead of its
normal time. But, let's be fair on the car, this is a coupe and
therefore really only intended for one or two inhabitants.
Boot space is fine for a car in this class and unless the
luggage is on the bulky side you can fit a fair bit in there.
Build quality is reasonably good, but certainly not to the
standards of the Japan, or even latter-day Korean cars. Once upon
a time you could say that parts that didn’t fit as well as they
should have done gave the car character. But we’re not sure the
younger generation of drivers looks at this the same way as did
their fathers.
AT A GLANCE
MODEL RANGE
JTS 2.2-litre two-door coupe - $69,990
JTS V6 3.2-litre two-door coupe - $94,950
FEATURES
ABS Brakes: Standard on both models
Air Conditioning: Standard on both models
Automatic Transmission: Not offered
CD Player: Standard on both models
Central Locking: Standard on both models
Cruise Control: Standard on both models
Driver Airbag: Standard on both models
Passenger Airbag: Standard on both models
Front Side Airbags: Standard on both models
SPECIFICATIONS (Alfa Romeo Brera JTS V6 3.2-litre two-door
coupe)
ENGINE
Capacity: 3.195 litres
Configuration: V6
Head Design: DOHC
Compression Ratio: 11.25:1
Bore/Stroke: 89.0 x 85.6mm
Maximum Power: 260kW @ 6300rpm
Maximum Torque: 322Nm @ 4500rpm
DRIVELINE:
Driven Wheels: All-wheel drive
Manual Transmission: Six-speed
Automatic Transmission: Not offered
Final Drive Ratio: 3.895:1
DIMENSIONS, WEIGHT AND CAPACITIES:
Length: 4410mm
Wheelbase: 2528mm
Width: 1830mm
Height: 1341mm
Turning Circle: 10.7 metres
Kerb Mass: 1630kg
Fuel Tank Capacity: 69 litres
Towing Ability: Up to 1500kg (with braked trailer)
SUSPENSION AND BRAKES:
Front Suspension: Independent, double wishbones, anti-roll bar
Rear Suspension: Independent, Multi-link
Front Brakes: Ventilated disc
Rear Brakes: Ventilated disc
PERFORMANCE:
0-100 km/h Acceleration: 6.8 secs
Standing 400 Metres: 16.2 secs
FUEL CONSUMPTION:
Fuel Type: Petrol 95RON
Fuel Consumption - Combined Cycle (ADR 81/01): 8.7 L/100km
STANDARD WARRANTY:
Three years/100,000km
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Marque Publishing Company
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