Alfa Romeo 4C on track with Giancarlo Fisichella (video)

With the Alfa Romeo 4C about to go on sale, Alfa has grabbed Ferrari driver Giancarlo Fisichella to take the 4C on a lap of the Balocco test track.

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The Alfa Romeo 4C – Alfa’s baby supercar – is due on sale next month following its UK dynamic debut at Goodwood, so to get a bit of adrenaline flowing in the veins of potential buyers, Fiat grabbed Ferrari test driver Giancarlo Fisichella and stuck him behind the wheel of the 4C to play at the Balocco test track, Fiat’s proving ground.

And we have to say, the 4C doesn’t just look good, it sounds great and looks to be as light and nimble as expected.

In many ways, the Alfa 4C is an Italian take on the Lotus Elise, but it manages to do it with a huge dose of Alfa flair, both in its design and its execution.

The 4C is small and light, using carbon fibre to keep the weight down, although that limits production to 3,500 total as that’s the most Alfa’s supplier, Adler Plastic, can manage, and it’s put together in Maserati’s plant in Modena.

The engine starts life as the 1750cc lump from the Giulietta, but Alfa has played with it heavily, including a new aluminium block, resulting in an engine that’s 24kg lighter and producing 236bhp, enough for a 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds.

But it’s the nimbleness of the 4C that’s its biggest appeal, with Alfa saying that when they played at Balocco the 4C had the measure of Ferrari’s on the handling track.

The new Alfa Romeo 4C goes on sale in the UY and Europe this month, and in the USA (where it weighs 100kg more due to aluminium inserts in the carbon fibre chassis needed to meet US crash tests) before the end of 2013.