Alfa puts the 159 on Atkins
Excess weight is the enemy of every automobile. Extra pounds will make a car slower at the top end, more sluggish off the line, wobblier in the corners, more lethargic under braking, guzzle more gas and expel more toxic fumes...among other problems. It can render an otherwise great car imperfect. Case in point: the US-bound Italian beauty, the Alfa Romeo 159.
The 159 is, as we've said time and time again, one of – if not the – most beautiful sedans on the market. Unfortunately its performance has not been quite up to par with its drop-dead gorgeous looks. And the more powerful V6-powered all-wheel-drive Q4 version only adds another 200kg to the problem. But Alfa's working on it, announcing a two-stage weight-loss program for the 159. The first stage will take some extra pounds off the body, chassis and suspension using lightweight construction materials such as aluminum. The second stage will be marked in 2008 with the introduction of a new lightweight five-cylinder turbodiesel.
Of course the same problems plague the 159's sisters, the Brera and Spider, but while the lightweight diesel is almost certain to find its way into the shapely two-doors, there's no word yet on whether the first stage weight loss will hit them, too. Now, nobody wanted to resort to taking the 159 off of pasta and pizza, so next time, Alfa, just watch the weight from the start, alright?
[Source: Motor Authority]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jared 8:59PM (11/26/2006)
I have no problem admitting that any Aston Martin is drop-dead gorgeous. But I don't see what makes this car have the same effect. It's looks unique, stylish, and aggressive but I wouldn't call it beautiful.
Maybe something could change my mind though.
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riverhead 10:17PM (11/26/2006)
It's a very good looking car ... in a Mazda 6 kind of way.
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jpf 10:42PM (11/26/2006)
Sorry to be a nitpicker, but you all do this a lot. Weight does not affect top speed. Top speed is a function of power, drag, and friction (internal and rolling). Technically, more weight could affect the rolling resistance of the tires, but that would be pretty small.
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Travis Ayres 11:12PM (11/26/2006)
Actually, weight affects top speed. Weight is a force (such as mass times the acceleration due to gravity), but in the American system lbs (pounds) is a direct measurement of force, where as kilograms is a measurement of mass. Thats a little off topic, but it relates back to top speed as follows:
Mass is directly related to inertia - that is, the resistance of an object to a change in movement. Think of it this way: if an object was infinitely massive, all the power in the world wouldn't move it, right? So that did affect its top speed, didn't it? Yup, it did.
Put another way: To say that top speed is a function of power, drag, and friction and not to include what that power was acting on, is...not well thought out? Unless you want to include inertia under drag, but that wouldn't be the best use of the word.
Power is energy over time (watts is joules per second), and drag due to air resistance does increase with the square of your speed at high speeds (as well as other factors, of course, density of air, cross sectional area, yatta yatta). Look, if nothing else, you could say that the normal force caused by the ground acting on your tires (in response to gravity acting on your vehicle due to your MASS) relates to the static force of friction (or kinetic friction, if your tires break loose) which will tells you how much 'grip' you can get (frictional coefficient times the normal force) - all of which is important in your top speed run, and for things like chassis dynamics.
'Sorry' but if you are going to nitpick, how about you nitpick about things that you can, you know, be correct about? Mass doesn't affect top speed...HEH. Thats why there are so many 15 ton cars at bonneville, and why formula 1 cars are so heavy.
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Za 11:28PM (11/26/2006)
I more or less agree with you, Travis, except your last point - the Thrust SSC [fastest car in the world] weighs 10.5 tons according to Wikipedia. Furthermore, F1 is not necessarily about top speed - in fact, there are several restrictions limiting it. It is more about handling with cornering and braking being more relevant on all tracks without obscene straights.
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Carlos 11:41PM (11/26/2006)
Travis, you're right about the car's weight affecting the normal force that goes into the rolling friction, but I'm afraid that's it. The rest of your post (F=ma, inertia) is about acceleration, which we're not talking about.
The main balancing forces at top speed for anything that can reach freeway speeds are power vs. drag. Rolling friction and friction in the car's parts are also on drag's side, but they're minor. Really, weight is unimportant if all you're talking about is top speed.
Look at F1 and any car designed with aerodynamics in mind. Engineers happily add weight to a car through downforce, at least tripling the weight of F1 cars at top speed. That kind of weight doesn't affect mass (so acceleration isn't affected, by F=ma), but it does increase rolling resistance and no one really cares.
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jpf 12:15AM (11/27/2006)
Right. Top speed is reached when the drag force=propelling force. The acceleration time is inversely proportional to mass. For a given power, as a vehicle becomes more massive, the acceleration time increases. So a vehicle with mass approaching infinity would have an acceleration time approaching infinity, and would appear to be very slow indeed. But in theory, it would still have the same top speed as a vehicle with the same total drag, if you could wait around long enough.
Travis, as you know, we all make mistakes, but please be more polite. To show that I'm not humorless, I will note that this example ignores relativistic effects. Zing!
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Tiago do Vale 12:41AM (11/27/2006)
hehehe The Mazda 6 comment was a funny remark, as it was designed with the Alfa 156 in mind! :p
Yes, it's easy to say the DB9 is stunning, even if only by pictures. I'm affraid the 159's shapes and proportions aren't so easy to perceive by images. But if you only could see it on the road... It's stance isn't comparable to anything around that price range... or even on the next segment!
Only one note: the way the article is writen, makes it seem like the Alfa is a strangely heavy car: it's not: it has about the same weight of any car of it's class.
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Designer Monkey 1:48AM (11/27/2006)
Pardon me for being critical, but people spend all day harping on Ford and GM for being boring and having unoriginal designs, but a 5 year old could have designed the front ends of these Alfas. I don't think these cars look like they took that long to design, I mean a car should grab your attention even if you only see a small portion of it. I see front end shots all day on Alfas, but looking at the sides and back I want to know what small details the designers spent nights dreaming about.
For now though it looks like 9 pieces of cheaply stamped, lazily designed sheet metal and people seemed to be more impress that Alfa has designed a new car than the fact that the design is boring, and had it been an American car people would not be no kind in their praises.
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Tiago do Vale 3:39AM (11/27/2006)
Maybe you understand design as much as a 5 year old.
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fragmaster170 4:05AM (11/27/2006)
It's like the new maserati quattroporte, they look a lot cheaper in photographs.
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Tiago do Vale 3:56AM (11/27/2006)
Alfa's 159 won the Design Award in the 2006 Fleet World Honours, with the chairman of judges George Emmerson commenting: "It's a tough marketplace and Alfa is pitching for very high stakes with the 159. But it just looks wonderful, and it's a great car to drive as well."
Fleet World editor Ken Rogers comments: "Rarely has there been an Alfa Romeo that didn’t look exciting, stylish and - yes, quite simply - Italian. The marque just has a charisma. Alfa Romeo is one of the very few manufacturers that can retain styling-cues from its classic designs of the nineteen-thirties and earlier, and yet still offer cars that look truly contemporary, fresh and desirable - without at the same time being self-consciously ‘retro’."
The Brera (same platform and front end) won the AutoCar Design Award.
Commenting on its choice, Autocar describes the new Brera as "an imposing coupe with rare grace. It creates impact through the quality of its lines and proportions rather than visual gimmicks. The style is carried through into the cabin where a sporting mix of materials and shapes creates a real driver-focused feel. It's the sort of car you just want to get in and drive".
The prototype has won numerous, prestigious international design awards including First Prize – ‘Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2002’; Most Fascinating Car and Most Innovative Design of the Year – Michelin Challenge Bibendum 2002; Best Concept of the Year – Automotive News 2003; The Most Beautiful Car in the World – Automobilia, Milan 2003; and the XX ADI ‘Compaso d’Oro award for Design – 2004.
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Peter 5:26AM (11/27/2006)
> Only one note: the way the article is writen, makes it
> seem like the Alfa is a strangely heavy car: it's not:
> it has about the same weight of any car of it's class.
Let's see:
Audi A4 3.2 quattro: 3395 lbs
BMW 330 xi: 3650 lbs
Mercedes C 350 4matic: 3650 lbs
Alfa 159 V6 Q4: 3870 lbs
Alfa Brera V6 Q4: 3920 lbs
Audi TT 3.2 quattro: 3190 lbs
laptime Hockenheim short course:
Brera: 83.2 s
TT: 79.8 s
The Alfas are indeed very beautiful, but also a bit overweight...
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Richard Warren 8:21AM (11/27/2006)
As we sit here discussing the weight of the car perhaps we should also consider looking in the mirror and deciding how much the drivers weight affects performance.
"Chif Mario!" How does that new Alfa handle?" "Wonderful, but it sits a little low on the left side and it corners different goig left than when it's going right."
"The dealer mumbled something about the Pasta Bomb going off internally."
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Marco 6:56AM (11/30/2006)
I just want you to remember that the whole FIAT Group has just survived its worst crisis in 107 years...so if 159 (by the way the worst colour for Alfas,especially for taking pictures,is that grey),Brera,8c etc and the upcoming 149 and Junior are the results of this period...well...if I were in the Germans I would be not worried of course,but let's say "interested" in the future of "Biscione"....I think that most of the problems of weight will be solved by new engines ,hoping that a very liiiiitle help would arrive by Maranello for what lighter materials are concerned...
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Novali 2:47PM (11/27/2006)
Beautiful car.
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RayRay 12:13PM (11/28/2006)
A beautiful Italian women is both quite curvy and maybe just a little bit plump - like a ripe peach.
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Chris Goldrick 5:34AM (11/28/2006)
You see, this is exactly what car companies should be doing. Instead of more power, less weight through lighter materials. It seems to work with BMW, Jaguar, Audi. Of course with lighter materials comes price...
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Rick 8:57AM (1/23/2007)
The 159 is weighter then audi & bmw but the performance seem not to be so bad.
Look this video (by GERMAN magazine Auto Motor Sport)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zON4bWsl2Ek
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