Over the years I have driven a great many performance cars which were a lot of fun for a few hours but which I could not possibly contemplate living with for more than a day or two. Since several of them have been Alfa Romeos with the word "Cloverleaf" in their titles, it might have been expected that I would feel the same way about the MiTo. But that's not how things have turned out.In my launch review of this car and other MiTos with less potent versions of the MultiAir turbo petrol engine, I said that the Cloverleaf neither feels nor sounds as sporty as you would expect it to, nor indeed as Alfa says it is. I still think that's true. On the other hand, I liked it more on every day of this test than I did they day before, and when the time came for it to be taken from me I was feeling rather resentful, and briefly gave some thought to hiding it to foil the delivery driver. It had become a car I wanted to keep.The Cloverleaf naturally shares several features with all other MiTos, which I'll deal with in the rest of this sentence and then shut up about: it's quite good-looking in a slightly ugly-but-cute sort of a way, it feels well-built, it makes no pretence at being a practical supermini and it's a devil of a thing to see out of, particularly if you need to reverse.The two things which make the Cloverleaf stand out are the MultiAir engine (described in pitiless detail in this feature) and the active suspension system. MultiAir first. The fact that the little 1.4-litre unit produces a maximum of 170bhp is interesting, but not as important as you might think - other manufacturers of similarly-sized turbo engines have managed greater outputs.MultiAir's real significance is that it makes the Cloverleaf pull almost like a turbo diesel from less than 2000rpm, while continuing to operate strongly way beyond the point where a turbo diesel would have given up and demanded that you change gear. Again, other 1.4 turbos available nowadays are good at this, but MultiAir seems to be the most impressive of the lot.The active suspension system gives different characteristics depending on whether you have chosen the Normal or the Dynamic mode in the DNA system (which also gives two very different levels of throttle sensitivity - in Dynamic the merest brush of the pedal sends the car shooting forward, while in Normal you have to push it a long way to get any result).Dynamic is, of course, the mode intended for sporty driving, but I have to say that even in Normal the Cloverleaf can be made to corner very briskly. Similarly - and this is something the Alfa engineers were determined to achieve - in Dynamic the ride quality is almost exactly the same in most conditions as it is in Normal. No matter which setting you use, the Cloverleaf is astonishingly composed, even when being spanked along a desperately badly-surfaced mile-long straight near where I live. Many's the test car which has put its own chassis engineers to shame on this stretch, but the Cloverleaf wafted serenely over it even at speeds I am not prepared to discuss in public.(Important note: the active suspension system has been optimised for the 17" wheels fitted to the Cloverleaf as standard. 18s are an option, but they won't suit the suspension so well.)The only slight snag with the insistence on the highest possible levels of ride comfort is that even in Dynamic mode the Cloverleaf is still pretending to be a luxury saloon at the moment you aim it into a corner, though it responds very quickly to the new situation once you have done this. I said in the launch report that it's difficult to believe at this stage that the car will handle as well as it is actually going to, but you do get used to the effect after a while.You can't, however, do anything about the fact that the soft settings make the Cloverleaf difficult to place accurately on the approach to a corner. It's not a problem on a flat, smooth road, but on more challenging terrain I often felt I had the choice of hauling the car over to the correct line before a bend or relying on the grip to get me through on a less suitable one. This was frustrating, but the Cloverleaf is so good in so many other ways that I still count it as one of the few hot hatches I would be happy to use every day. Engine 1368 cc, 4 cylinders Power 170 bhp @5500 rpm Torque 184 ib/ft @2500 rpm Transmission 6 speed manual Fuel/CO2 47.1 mpg / 139 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 7.5sec Top speed 136 mph Price From £17236.00 approx Release date 01/01/2010
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