Alfa Romeo has released the first images of its new Prodrive-tweaked Brera S.
The carmaker has attempted to answer criticisms that its coupe is nowhere near sharp enough by spending a year sorting out the suspension.
The good news is that there is supposed to be a weight reduction, a very small weight reduction, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
The car comes in 185 bhp 2.2 JTS and the 260 bhp 3.2 V6 JTS guise and is only available with front-wheel drive.
It will be limited to 500 individually numbered models and has been designed as less of a long distance tourer and more with UK B-roads in mind.
Prodrive engineers have lowered the car by 10mm, giving it less roll and a lower centre of gravity.
Spring rates have been increased by over 50% compared to the standard Alfa Brera, which is said to give the car a more nimble and agile feel, while specially tuned gas-filled mono-tube dampers give tighter body control.
To reduce roll and pitch and achieve an even flatter cornering attitude, Prodrive commissioned bespoke Eibach coil springs and Bilstein dampers.
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According to Prodrive Project Leader, Peter Cambridge, the result is ‘a car that “shrinks” around the driver and delivers all the fun and engagement of a sports car driving experience on A and B-roads. Yet, on motorways, offers a compliant and composed ride.’
He said the car now inspires more confidence and has significantly better steering.
‘Our painstaking work with the spring set-up controls exactly how much the car pitches and rolls with every lump, bump, camber and pothole on our roads,’ added Cambridge.
‘Then we developed the dampers to control the rate at which the springs respond. Once we were satisfied with that, we set about really affecting the feel and response of the steering to inspire confidence.’
The suspension geometry has been revised and there are new 19” 8C style alloys that reduce unsprung weight.
Alfa has also added hollow anti-roll bars and aluminium suspension components which it says also shave a little bit of mass.
The problem is when you go to Alfa’s website you notice that the standard V6 is exactly the same weight as the new S version, 1540kg.
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Perhaps the weight saving is too minimal to measure, or maybe the company is being a bit coy about its new creation.
Acceleration is the same as well, the 3.2 V6 JTS Alfa Brera S can reach 62 mph from rest in 7.0 seconds respectively, and go on to 155mph.
The 2.2 is £24,950 OTR and the V6 is £28,450.