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Alfa Romeo will show this updated 4C sports car concept at the 2011 Frankfurt motor show next month. The blood-red 4C concept stole the Geneva motor show earlier in the year with its mini-me 8C Competizione styling and mid-engine/rear-drive layout. Six months later this ‘Fluid Metal’ coloured car should renew interest in Alfa’s Porsche Cayman rival.

The tech spec hasn’t changed, so it’s still a taut, lightweight little car. At four metres nose-to-tail it’s the same length as Alfa Romeo’s Mito supermini, and around 35cm shorter than the Cayman its crosshairs are set on. At 850kg, it’s also around 500kg lighter. That welterweight figure is achieved by carbon and aluminium construction, including a carbonfibre tub from Dallara, who develops the same technology for the KTM X-Bow.

A 200bhp-plus (bet on around 250bhp) 1750cc turbocharged petrol engine is mounted behind the driver and passenger (it’s a strict two seater) and powers the rear wheels via a TCT twin-clutch automatic gearbox, which also filters down to the Mito and Giulietta hatchbacks at Frankfurt. Another similarity to those cars is Alfa’s DNA system, which applies Dynamic, Normal and All-Weather modes to the throttle response and suspension. If the 4C’s system is anything like its more bread-and-butter brethren, though, you’ll be flicking it into ‘D’ every time you drive…

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