Car: Alfa Romeo Brera S range
Prices: £25,425-£28,925 – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 15-18
Emissions: 218-273g/km
Performance: [2.2] 0-60mph 8.6s Max Speed 138 mph
Fuel Consumption: [2.2] (urban) 21.7mpg / (extra urban) 38.7mpg / (combined) 30.1 mpg
Safety: Twin front, side and knee airbags, ABS, traction and stability control, ABS with brake assist
Dimensions: Length/Width/Height, 4413,1830,1372mm
A VERY BRITISH BRERA
Our Rating: 7.0 / 10
Alfa has tweaked its Brera coupe to perform better in UK road conditions and the Brera S special edition is the result. Steve Walker reports.
Revised suspension settings courtesy of Prodrive make the Brera S better suited to the rigours of the UK road network. This sharper handling combines with the good looks and generous specification of the standard car to desirable effect.
An Alfa Romeo "developed for UK roads". That, according to the Italian marque’s PR machine is the Brera S. Now this could mean that the car has been equipped with tough 4x4-style suspension to tackle the monster speed humps and cavernous potholes that pockmark our thoroughfares or extra large cup holders to house the liquid sustenance that traffic-bound British motorists need on their marathon morning commutes. It could mean that, but it doesn’t. What Alfa is trying to say is that the Brera S has been carefully tuned to deliver an optimum ride and handling package for UK roads and UK drivers, both of which being notoriously hard taskmasters.
The Brera S is a special edition version of Alfa’s Brera coupe and only 500 individually-numbered examples will be produced. The car is the result of a partnership between Alfa Romeo and renowned British engineering firm Prodrive which has made its name in motorsport as well as producing high performance versions of various road cars including Subaru’s Impreza. The Prodrive engineers have been hard at work on the Brera’s suspension with the aim of sharpening its grand-touring dynamics into those of a thoroughbred British sportscar.
The UK’s road network is a notoriously demanding environment with its surfaces ravaged by utility companies and littered with potholes. Testing undulations and adverse campers are the norm, presenting challenges to any car but particularly one with sporting intentions. The Alfa Brera arrived on the scene to critical acclaim for the way it looked and a more muted response to the way it drove. To set the handling side of things to rights, the latest Brera is significantly lighter than the slightly lardy original and this Brera S features a thoroughly revised chassis. Alfa’s Prodrive consultants tried numerous combinations of ride heights, spring rates and damper settings to produce a more nimble, flat cornering set-up that still retains good levels of ride comfort. The Brera S is available with the 1
The components in the Brera S have been substantially upgraded compared to the mainstream Breras. Prodrive commissioned special Bilstein dampers and Eibach coil springs as well as redesigned exhaust silencers fitted with a Holmholtz resonator to give a give more charisma to the car’s soundtrack. Lightweight 19" alloy wheels shod with Pirelli PZero tyres are also included to reduce the crucial unsprung weight. There are enough famous names involved in this S model for one of those performance brand ‘shopping lists’ that boy racers affix behind the front wheelarches of their modified cars - although Alfa sensibly chose not to go down that route.
The Brera S has been designed to look as well as handle a little better than the standard Breras. There’s no Union Jack roof sticker to underline its UK focus with the enhancements following a subtle theme. The exhaust is finished in chrome and reshaped to mirror the rear light clusters with the Prodrive logo appearing on the pipe itself. There are also Prodrive front stone deflectors and a red S or SV6 decal on the C-pillar to reveal which engine is installed. Keeping exterior changes simple was a wise move on Alfa’s part as the svelte lines of the Brera would surely have been tough to improve on.
Inside, the Brera S model receives black leather sports seats with red stitching and the same material is used to adorn the dashboard in the V6 models. Customers can specify this fetching option on their 2.2-litre JTS model too but at a price. All Brera S models get drilled aluminium pedals and an aluminium plate in the headrest recess that features the British and Italian flags. General build quality in the Brera is good enough and there’s a certain retro appeal to the design that should strike the right note with Alfa enthusiasts.
Alfa has been forced to price the Brera fairly high (you’re looking at a premium of around £1,500 for the ‘S’ models over standard prices which begin at around £23,500) to retain space below for its
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