Overview
Sportiness and elegance packaged in a unique, exclusive style. A harmony of shape and volume that adds up to a good-looking, powerful and solid car supplemented by Alfa Romeo mechanical and engineering excellence. This, in short, is the soul of the Alfa Brera, a new prestige coupé that is able to arouse great emotion and guarantee maximum driving satisfaction.
The planners and designers had only one aim in mind: to marry the elegant, sporty line of an outstanding car with the quality and comfort of a luxury saloon.
Design
‘I designed the Brera because Alfa Romeo will never go out of fashion’, stated Giorgetto Giugiaro, the car designer who dreamed up the model that now represents the state-of-the-art in the coupé field: a strong, compact car with mastery of the road and a strong personality. Launched as a concept car at Geneva in 2002, production was never planned, but the final car has changed very little. First and foremost, this appealing 2+2 model boasts generous dimensions: it is 1830 millimetres wide, 4413 mm long and 1372 mm high with a wheelbase of 2525 mm, although the sharply tapered front and rear make the model look very compact. This does not detract in any way from the elegance of the lines that run smoothly from front to back, to the integral bumpers and light clusters shaped like a converging wedge.
The exterior styling is full of classical references, modern interpretations of traditional Alfa styling cues, combined with contemporary details. The broad tail-lights and four exhaust pipes contribute to the impression of a powerful sports car, as do the wide tyres and sporty alloys.
Comfort
The Alfa Brera offers a welcoming, highly sophisticated interior using original shapes, appealing colours and high quality material for panels, dashboard and seats. This impression is reinforced by the adoption of innovative products, such as a panoramic fixed glass roof that allows more light into the car and gives passengers a sensation of space while also accentuating the car’s slender shape.
Alfa Brera is comfort. Thanks to its highly sophisticated technology, it holds in a reassuring and comfortable embrace the driver and passengers of a true Italian sports car. The elegant cockpit, geared to functional use, has rationally arranged instruments and features a Bose Sound System, satellite navigator, bCONNECT infomobility services.
The styling philosophy behind the interior design took into account three guidelines: character, sportiness and quality. There thus emerges a passenger compartment that features truly unique traits such as a wraparound console, shell-shaped panels and a centre console that runs right back to between the rear seats. The designers made these aesthetic features sportier through the use of light, dynamic lines: few of the parts feature parallel lines but instead adopt smooth curves that suggest speed and slenderness.
The whole interior of the Alfa Brera hinges around the driver’s seat with the aim of providing a position that guarantees the best possible control of the car under all circumstances. Sporty details abound, such as the round instruments, the vents with a smooth aluminium trim that delimit the entire passenger compartment and the seats which feature smooth lines and a stitching pattern that emphasises their shape. Practicality is not forgotten, with rear seats that can be folded down to extend the luggage compartment from 300 to 610 litres.
As soon as you sit behind the wheel of the Alfa Brera, you become aware of the outstanding instrument arrangement and the convenience of the controls all aligned toward the driver and grouped logically by function. The ignition system is particularly innovative, comprising an electronic key which fits into the electronic key reader on the fascia, a starter button next to the electronic key reader, and an electric steering wheel lock on the steering column.
The circular analogue speedometer and rev counter are linked by a high resolution reconfigurable digital display, and perfect illumination guarantees clear, easy reading of all the instrumentation, particularly at night. Finally, hand position and grip are perfect on the three-spoke steering wheel, which also incorporates remote controls for the audio system.
The seats in the new Alfa Romeo coupé provide excellent support and safety and have been designed specifically to absorb vibration. A convenient central armrest between the front seats contains a climate controlled storage compartment, while the head-restraints are built-in and enhance the car's sporty look. The rear seats are split folding and Isofix attachment for child seats are standard.
Control
The new Alfa Brera is self-avowedly an Alfa Romeo in its uncompromising sense of control and driving satisfaction. Driving comfort and dynamic behaviour have always been specific features of Alfa Romeo cars. The Alfa Brera is fitted with suspension systems that are exceptional and which produce a greater capacity to absorb road roughness, maximum linearity and precision in the steering response, great roadholding, maximum stability in high-speed manoeuvres and the agility of a true Alfa Romeo over tight mixed routes.
The new high wishbone layout adopted on the front suspension is the ideal solution to guarantee precise control of wheel movement, with a clearly defined steering axis. The architecture was borrowed from motorsport and endows the car with outstanding dynamic performance, and extremely sensitive, pinpoint steering.
With an excellent ratio (12.7° steer for every degree of wheel steer) and an overall rotation of two and a quarter turns of the steering wheel, the Alfa Brera steering system translates into a more direct response for the driver and better stability control.
The new Multilink rear suspension allows wheel movement to be controlled in a sophisticated manner, achieving the best possible balance in terms of performance. The system has three levers and a transverse link which, acting together, provide faster responses, enhanced stability and extreme grip.
The Alfa Brera with the powerful 3.2 JTS V6 engine also comes as standard with the same 4x4 system with three differentials already adopted on the Alfa 159 Q4.
The critical central differential is a Torsen-C unit that also incorporates the front diff, a solution that ensures considerable benefits in terms of dimensions, weights and also performance giving improved traction and cornering stability.
The basic torque distribution of the Q4 system is mainly to the rear (57%) for a sporty drive. Due to its locking effect, the central differential is able to send drive torque to the axle with the best grip on the ground moment by moment, allowing a distribution focused on the front (72/28) or the rear (22/78) in fast, automatic and continuous manner.
Braking is an equally critical part of the control of a car, and the system fitted to the Alfa Brera upholds the Alfa Romeo tradition in this field. The power-assisted, hydraulic system comprises two independent cross-over circuits, guaranteeing prompt, smooth braking combined with minimal stopping distances. Given its exceptional performance, the powerful Alfa Brera 3.2 JTS V6 Q4 is fitted with 330mm ventilated discs with a four piston monobloc aluminium callipers on the front wheels and 292mm ventilated discs, with floating callipers, on the rear wheels.
To complement the high-performance brake system, the Alfa Brera also comes with one of the most advanced ABS systems on the market today. It features four active sensors and a hydraulic control unit with 12 solenoids. The ABS also contains electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD) which apportions braking action over all four wheels to prevent locking and ensures control of the car under all conditions.
Standard on all cars, the Vehicle Dynamic Conrol (VDC) system cuts in under extreme conditions when car stability is at risk and helps the driver to maintain control of the car. As befits a true Alfa Romeo, the VDC is a sporting device that provides outstanding roadholding. It allows the driver the full satisfaction of controlling the car as long as conditions are normal but cuts in just before a situation becomes critical.
To achieve this result, the VDC continually monitors tyre grip in both longitudinal and lateral directions using sensors to detect the rotation of the car body about its vertical axis (yaw speed), lateral acceleration and the steering wheel angle set by the driver (which indicates the chosen direction). It then goes on to compare this data with parameters generated by a computer and establishes – via a complex mathematical model – whether the car is cornering within its grip limits or if the front or rear is about to skid (understeer or oversteer).
To restore the correct trajectory, it then generates a yawing movement in the opposite direction to the movement that gave rise to the instability by braking the appropriate wheel (interior or exterior) individually and reducing engine power (via the throttle). This is the key attribute of the device designed by Alfa Romeo engineers. It acts in a modulated fashion on the brakes to ensure the action is as smooth as possible (and the drive is not therefore disturbed). The engine power reduction is contained to ensure outstanding performance and great driving satisfaction.
The ASR system, an integral part of the VDC, optimises traction at any speed with the aid of the brakes and engine control. Computing the degree of spin on the basis of wheel rpm calculated by the ABS sensors, it activates two different control systems to restore grip: either reducing engine torque by reducing the throttle or, if only one wheel slips, automatically braking it without the driver touching the brake pedal.
The equipment array on the Alfa Brera is completed by the HBA system, the hydraulic electronic braking assistant which automatically increases the pressure in the braking circuit during emergency braking, and by the hill-holder system, which maintains braking pressure for a few moments after the driver removes his foot from the pedal, to simplify hill starts and prevent the car from slipping backwards.
