Was at the track last weekend with the Gulia and my young Friend Gina kndly let me have 10 or so laps in her 4c. Ill get the Gulia out the way first. Its a road car, it can go on track but its like almost all road cars too soft, near the limit its mush. Yes you can hustle it and the 4wd pulls it out of corners great. But what feels superlative on and fast road, is really quickish soft and saggy on track. To its credit the seats held one in place great, the brakes worked fine, there was no fade anywhere and once back on road there was noting about the car that felt like it has done 3 sessions on track. Before I get into the 4c, earlier this year I drove a new boxter S on track. It too is a road car and while it went ok on track it lacked the focus and buttoned down feel that makes a car really work on track. On to the 4c. The car had a solidity and tightness to it which was a great surprise. Whereas a lotus is all squeaks and rattles, the 4c was simply solid. I mean no twist not a hint of a rattle or movement, that CF tub really works here, and is eye candy to boot. Even the way the seat slid back and forth when being set, felt like well oiled machineary and precise. The seats themselvs could use more bolstering. On track the 4c had none of the softness that plagues pretenders, there was what felt like close to no body lean, very much felt sprung and dampened like a full track car, and the brakes were simply excellent and modulation superb. Unlike road car pretenders(including the boxter) the 4c had no understeer. The motor, I was totaly surprised by how fast this car felt, it was definitely quick. At the end of the long straight at MMC we were hitting 136, Im guessing with track pads so one could bake later(it wasn't my car) and knowing the car better so one gets a good run in onto he straight it will kiss 140. The new vette hits 145 same place. In the 4c one could corner harder faster and brake later than the boxter, the 4c felt totaly at home on track, the boxter S felt like a road car that kinda went on track if it had to. Im talking n factory stock here.. The downsides. The steering on the 4c is heavy, way too heavy. The turbo motor has real spikey delivery, which while thrillign on road means on track means youre very reliant on the elctronics not to let it get out of shape comming off an apex, lots of turbo cars are like this these days but maybe because of the swb the alfa more so. You could really feel the power spiukign off the apex and rear getting loose and then reined in. Being a drive by wire turbo didnt matter if you applied 3/4 throttle or full throttle for this to happen. It defintely feels like it could bite hard near the limits, I could feel the rear moving about during hard braking in way that said hello I can bite, so one really needs to learn it which is perhaps where journos find fault, but that can be said of many greats. Or maybe at the lmit its just snappy (as was a carrera gt) as the journos say. The 4c sounded great, it feels absolutely furious in straight line and happy to be cornered hard, baby ferrai is the thought that comes to mind in terms of subjective experience and feel. Its also one of the most fun cars Ive driven on track. What sets it apart is while great on track its also a car that works just fine on road, thats pretty rare for a car to do both well. Compared to a lotus elige the 4c is a generation or two ahead, its a grown up car, substantial and wide enough to work on street. The lotus feels one size smaller and 1.5 narrower. The lotus steering is light and sublime and the car points like few others. But a stock lotus has body lean a 4c does not. The lotus motors sound like buckets of bolts and its all rattly. The lotus is a car that can go on road, is a blast backroads a pain on highway or the wrong road, thyere great on track because of feedback and balance, but ya gotta ignore the noise,vibes, rattles and creaks. Same track an exige 260 is 4-5 mph fatser down the straight, has linearity of power that gives another dimension of controll. The lotus is faster in terms of laptimes, but its brakes dont feel as precise and it does not have the angry charge through the powerband feel the 4c does. If you're not measuring laptimes the 4c is maybe less precise a little slower but simply more of a riotous blast and far more comfy for the drive home. For thr 50k a used 4c costs today I cant think of a better car for driving to the track for day of fun, or one that would be as economic to run. The only thing maybe close is a new Me vette and thats a big car and a different kettle of fish, which will also eat tires and brakes far fatser and feel more isolated. A cayman GT4 is in a different price bracket as will be the z06 when it comes out.
