See The Wild Artigianale 001 Alfa Romeo 4c In The Real World

The recently unveiled Mole Construction Artigianale 001 custom Alfa Romeo 4C has made a public debut at the Turin Auto Salon, and the presentation provided a much better opportunity to check out the one-off coupe's overhauled design.

The Artigianale 001 is essentially the 4C's evil twin. Everywhere the Alfa is round, designer Umberto Palermo gives his custom interpretation angular lines. The Artigianale 001 features flying buttresses up front, and the headlights occupy the corner of the holes. The rear fender vents also shrink, and there's now big intakes near the roof for routing air to the engine bay. At the back, new vents are part of the niches for the taillights. Overall, the changes add 11.8 inches (30 centimeters) of length, 2.4 inches (6 cm) of width, and slightly less than an inch (2 cm) to the 4C's height.

Inside, the Artigianale 001 features lots of leather in a mix of black and light brown. Cow hides even cover the headliner. In addition, the center stack is mostly aluminum, and there's exposed carbon fiber in the footwells.

The powertrain comes directly from the 4C. A 1.75-liter turbocharged engine produces 237 horsepower (177 kilowatts) and 258 pound-feet (350 Newton-meters) of torque. The clip above includes a start-up and revving of the powerplant, and the quad exhausts don't alter the sound very much. The 4C grumbles at idle and builds to a more high-pitched with more rpm.

Alfa Romeo's five-year plan makes no mention of any updates for the 4C range, so it doesn't look like a second-generation version is on the way. At least in the United States, the sports car  hasn't been a success. Alfa managed to sell just 407 of them in 2017 and 480 in 2016. Through May 2018, deliveries in the U.S. have totaled just 95 units.

Motor1.com's team in Italy was able to check out the coachbuilt 4C on video, too. Unfortunately, there are no subtitles for it. However, the clip provides a few different views of the car, including a look underneath the rear hatch for a chance to see how the engine nestles behind the driver. Plus, there's an interview with designer Umberto Palermo – although in Italian. Watch below: