Video: Alfa Romeo 4C drag races MINI JCW Roadster

Comparing an Alfa Romeo 4C to basically anything else on sale today is an unfair process. That’s because the Italians truly made a unique car, one that provides incredible performance in a compact package with a small engine. However, the video below pits the Alfa against another interesting car, one that is no longer in production, the MINI JCW Roadster.

The Roadster was taken out of the line-up a while back and the reason was pretty obvious: low sales. The Roadster was always a favorite of mine in the MINI range but I understand why it was discontinued. The more traditional Convertible model is a bit more practical and nearly as much fun, and it sold in higher numbers. In JCW guise you’d also get over 200 HP from its 1.6-liter turbocharged engine which was more than decent for such a small car.

In the video below we get to see the Roadster JCW going up against the Alfa Romeo 4C in an old-school drag race. There’s a bit of a twist at play though. In drag racing, the big differentiator is the power to weight ratio. The MINI JCW Roadster uses a tuned engine in this video, one that was taken up to 270 HP, a noticeable increase over the stock numbers. At the same time, the Alfa was stock, meaning its 1.75-liter engine delivers 240 HP.

The Alfa is also lighter and rear-wheel drive and comes with an automatic gearbox, with launch control. The MINI is a manual and therefore, a lot will depend on the skills of the man behind the wheel. Luckily, he’s been driving the car for quite a long time and probably knows it really well. The video also includes a couple of launches from the Alfa without launch control. Let’s see what happened.

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