Alfa Romeo 4C Spider - price, specs and pictures

The Alfa Romeo 4C Spider is now on sale, following its launch at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. The soft-top version of Alfa’s flagship sports car is priced from under £60,000.

Alfa Romeo has worked very hard to make the 4C Spider lightweight, using materials like titanium and carbon-fibre throughout the car to make it just 60kg heavier than the standard 4C coupe. The way the 4C is built means very little structural changes are needed to keep the convertible version stiff.

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Convertible versions of hard-top cars are usually significantly heavier, because the lack of a roof means the body has to be bulked up to make it safe – this can often have a negative effect on the car's performance, so minimising weight increase is important, especially with sports cars.

The low weight of the 4C Spider should mean it's as good to drive as the 4C coupe, which is both impressively fast in a straight line and fun in corners. The carbon-fibre parts on the 4C Spider include rollover bars, spoilers and the windscreen frame.

A new exhaust system made from titanium helps reduce the 4C Spider's overall weight while improving its performance and making it sound nicer. There’s a new carbon-fibre air intake, too, which should help the engine breathe better and provide better performance.

A new canvas roof made from a lightweight fabric, fresh alloy wheel designs and a unique optional metallic yellow colour (Giallo Prototipo) set the Spider apart from its coupe sister. If the fabric roof isn’t your thing, Alfa will provide an optional carbon-fibre hard-top roof instead in the near future.

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The Spider uses the same 240bhp 1.75-litre turbocharged petrol engine as the 4C coupe, which takes it from 0-62mph in under 4.5 seconds and on to a top speed of just over 155mph.

Inside, Alfa has made improvements to the interior, including a new Alpine stereo head unit and new options like premium leather seats with ‘accent stitching’.

The official starting price for the 4C Spider is £59,500, which is around £8,000 more than the coupe version. That price puts it dangerously close to the BMW M4 Convertible, while the Mercedes SLK 55 AMG is roughly £4,000 cheaper. The Alfa is available to order now.

For reviews of the cars in the current Alfa range, head over to Carbuyer's dedicated Alfa Romeo page.