The new Alfa Romeo 4C has the right kind of credentials for a sports coupé, but can it really rival the indomitable and equivalently priced Porsche Cayman? Or how about the much cheaper, and less exotic, Toyota GT86?
Autocar's Steve Sutcliffe puts all three of the rear-wheel-drive coupés head-to-head on track, in order to find out which one's the best to drive.
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Elephant in the room: the Cayman is vile looking!
The Alfa looks stunning and the recipe is very appealing. Sub 1000kg kerb weight, mid engined, no power steering.
The Cayman just looks awkward and unpleasant and somehow the opposite of what a fast sports car should look like. It's upright, bulbous, ungainly, blunt. Not a sleek, rakish line in sight. The front end reminds me of the the duck faced Ferrari 360 - surely the ugliest ferrari ever.
I'd like to drive them both back to back but the Alfa would have to be dreadful to make me choose the Cayman!
What I'm most interested in is how an unassisted steering system could ever be inferior to two electronic systems?! Utterly mystifying.
What is actually best?
The issue here is some one has chosen what could be called track toys at varying prices with varying specifications, therefore there cannot be a true comparrison.
But ultimately there can only be one winner, The Porsche is poised, well equipped, comfortable but not a point to point car. It is a 2 seater for high level execs who cant quite stretch to a 'proper Porshe'.
The Toyota is a product of 'Fast & Furious' but on the cheap, "how can we make this underpowered car slide round corners? Lets put it on tyres off a Yaris!
The Alfa is a true engineered sports car which is brave and bold and puts a big grin on your face but is also a composed handler and a fast A to B weapon.
The fact is it would easily beat both cars round the track but owing to the amount of money Porshe spend on advertising etc they probably werent allowed to say that
@ 04:15
Caught you out a little Steve?
Great video however you cant buy the GT86 for " pretty much any money "
I think you need at least £24,995 or there abouts.
But I digest, I worry just how safe the GT86 is on the road in wet or greasy conditions given its low grip setup?