italian love story
Alfa Romeo makes its return to the United States with a stunning, thrilling sports car
It’s been 20 years since Alfa Romeo sold cars in the United States, which means we’ve had a two-decadelong drought of words like “passion” and “soul” in car reviews. Yet here I sit in the 4C, Alfa’s first car to hit American shores since 1995, and I find my soul stirred with passion. Yes, that’s totally cheesy and unoriginal, but it’s also 100 percent true.
Maybe it’s the way this car evokes the warm memories of an old Alfa Spider I used to own, or perhaps it’s the exotic lines and ear-splitting, operatic exhaust note that could only come from sunny Italy.
Whatever the reason, the 4C awakens something spiritual inside me every time I drive it, so much that even a simple spin around the block makes me glad to be alive as my eyes glaze over with happy tears.
Out of the hundreds of cars I’ve driven through the years, this is the only one that’s made me run inside to tell my wife, “We’re selling the house and writing a check for this car tomorrow.” The kids can live in a box on the roof, I suppose. Of course, that probably means I have mental problems — but that’s fine because you’ve got to have mental problems to want a 4C.
The 4C makes no sense logically and is, by far, the least comfortable, least practical car I’ve ever driven. It has no glove box, virtually no trunk space, no power steering, not even a muffler to keep the noise down on my test car.
This car rides so rough that it makes my old ’94 Miata sports car feel like Grandma’s Cadillac in comparison.
But oh, I want it, and it takes every ounce of selfcontrol to not throw a toddler-style tantrum, screaming and slapping the ground until I get one.
Why? Because the 4C is pure. It’s the most basic, raw, wonderful, emotion-producing machine you can imagine.
When you plop yourself into a 4C — there’s no graceful way to do it — you find yourself surrounded by a carbon-fiber tub, just like a Formula One race car, with a beautifully sonorous turbocharged engine right behind your back. This car sits so low that you feel like your bottom must be underground.
The engine produces 237 horsepower, which doesn’t sound very impressive until you realize that all the carbon fiber, aluminum and exotic engineering on this car have gotten the curb weight down to a feather-like 2,465 pounds. That means it feels wicked fast when you step on the gas pedal and hear Placido Domingo bellowing through the tailpipe.
You’ve got to tolerate attention in this car because the Italian styling will get you plenty of it. The 4C turns heads like Ferraris and Lamborghinis but, starting at $53,900, is a fraction of the cost.
Even the Launch Edition, priced closer to $70,000, feels like the biggest bargain of the year considering what you get for the money. No other car comes close to this supercar look and feel for the price.
Does the 4C make sense for everyone? Of course not. In fact, I’d argue that the 4C makes sense for no one, since nobody really needs a noisy, impractical, carbonfiber car that looks like a work of art and makes you weep with joy when you drive it.
Am I glad I live in a world where a car like this can exist? Yes. A thousand times, yes.