A sportscar for the light hearted

At the 2013 Geneva motor show Alfa Romeo revealed its small and lightweight sports car called the 4C. This then had to carry the torch of the famous Spider and GTV. Now it has finally arrived in the showrooms up here in the north.

Alfa Romeo 4C in Madreperla White

The car immediately caught the eyes and minds of the motoring world with its striking looks. The curvy and smooth lines combined with the aggressive stinger bee sort of glare is quite characteristic of the Alfa Romeo design department (Centro Stile Alfa Romeo). The 4C is mid-engined but if there would be no glass cover I don't think anyone would notice. It doesn't suffer from the short nose syndrome as other mid-engined cars.

For a small car it is extremely wide, over 2 meters wide in fact.

Why no ordinary road dweller will notice the mid mounted engine is because it is tiny. The engine is only a 1.75 litre unit lifted from the company's Giulietta hatchback. With a turbo and some other bits and bobs the power output becomes 240 HP. And in true sports car fashion all of this goes to the rear wheels. This isn't that impressive until you realize that the chassis is almost entirely made out of carbon fibre and the entire car of other composite materials and aluminium. This means the car weighs only 895 kg. With this weight - or lack of it - the 240 horsepower is sufficient enough. This sports car is build like most of the super cars build today, and the performance numbers reflect that as well. Officially the snorty 4-cylinder achieves 100 kph in 4.5 seconds but road testers have done the 0-100 sprint in 4.2 seconds. The 4C will keep on going to an impressive 260 kph.

I'm only small, but I'll bite your head off if you're not careful.

Super car numbers and super car materials in a small compact Italian sports car that also is beautiful to behold comes at a high price of over 50 000€ in Italy. Here in the north the added taxes will push the price to an eye watering 90 000€. The question now is, do you have the heart, soul and riches to own one? Because I now you want to.

Not making it easy

Last post was about the Ferrari 458 Speciale. This will be about another Italian super car manufacturer who does the same thing that Ferrari but only on a whole 'nother level.

Lamborghini takes a different approach when making a car than Ferrari does. The approach is more stylish and over the top than precise and analytical. So that had to change when Audi took over Lambo. But I think they never lost the art of extravagant presentation. The common opinion is that Lamborghinis have become more boring and more, well, German. There are versions of standard Lamborghinis that seem like there were less German watchful eyes over the Italians. I'm not talking about the "one offs" like the Sesto Elemento or the Veneno. I mean the tweaked versions of standard Lambos that make them more, lets say, exclusive.

But with the Gallardo it has gone a bit far I have to admit. There are probably a dozen of "special edition" Lamborghinis.  There's the Tricolore, Balboni, Super Trofeo and many others. To me they just seem like filler episodes to a TV show when the writers are working on a new story line.
But there's one that is like the 458 Speciale i wrote about earlier, it's called the Performante. What it is is a Gallardo Superleggera but with the roof taken off and replaced with fabric. It has the same slightly tuned engine as the Superleggera, 562 hp (10 more than the standard V10).
I have long thought about what my favourite car is and the Gallardo Superleggera comes very close to my beloved R8. The Performante may be the car to take the crown away from the R8.

So Lambo is not making it easy,  no no. They have tens of different versions of the same car to confuse everyone. And one of them has even got me questioning my choices.

Those stripes are very ungerman. 

Even though the policeman isn't impressed, I am for sure!

This is the hard top Performante, better known as the Superleggera. 

More is better (sometimes)

In the recent events or happenings - what ever you want to call them - I have spotted that even a "normal" super car isn't enough anymore for the filthy rich.

It has been a trend for a while now where tuning companies have taken an unbelievably expensive and powerful car and then fiddled around with it. Giving it even more power and a higher price tag. I don't understand this kind of tuning. I thought that just by buying a high performance car like an M-powered BMW or a Porsche was enough. But apparently I stand corrected. The filthy rich are actually buying these tuned super cars to make an impression on they're "average super car buying" friends. It seems a little tacky. I don't mean a little tacky do I, I mean a lot tacky.The cars are so vulgar, flashy and loud that I'd hate to be in the same room with the owner of the car. But the cars are also very impressive to look at. Even though I don't like what they represent. 

I'll give you an example. A Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG has 570 horsepower goes well over and beyond

300 kph and from 0-100 kph in 3.8 seconds. When it was new in 2010 the price was around 170 000€ (200 000$) without taxes. So not exactly a normal car if you'd say so. But obviously a tuning company said; 'Yes, very good. But we need something more.' So FAB Design - a Swiss tuning company - took hold of the SLS and created a bigger, louder, more powerful and a more expensive version of a car that already is big, loud, powerful and expensive. 

Here is the normal Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.
Guess what car the driver is taking  a photo of.

Yes, this. The Mercede-Benz SLS AMG FAB Design.
That's a lot of capital letters.

FAB Design designing them air vents.

So there. The FAB SLS just has and is more than the normal SLS. I guess there's no point in searching for another reason for these cars than that it just has more of everything. In good and bad ways.

This - I guess - Mansory tuned beast made its appearance at the Gumball 3000  

As well as this Porsche Panamera. I'm not sure from which tuning house.
Maybe you fine people could tell me.

Should it stay the R8?

When people who find out that I'm a car enthusiast - or car nerd if you prefer - they always ask me what is your favourite car..... in the world? Good for you if you got that reference. I always think a bit because I do not want to answer Audi R8, but i always do.

Looks stunning in white.

The thing is that I actually don't know what else to answer because it's such a perfect car. It looks fabulous (not in a gay way), it has great performance and has a great noise which makes it the perfect super car. I don't really care about the V10 version of the R8 - even though it has a hundred more horsepower than the original V8 model - because then the R8 becomes a cheaper Lamborghini Gallardo. And who wants that? 

Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera and a woman.

I've thought about saying that my favourite car is the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera but I don't really feel comfortable with that answer. Saying that your favourite car is a super car from Italy is like saying your favourite band is Coldplay. It's a bit mainstream. Don't get me wrong I absolutely adore the Gallardo, I even think it's better looking than the R8 but I still don't want to put it as my #1 car.

Lancia Stratos with the legendary Alitalia colours.

One car that I also put high on my list of all time great cars is the Lancia Stratos. I usually state this car to be my favourite classic car. I think that many European car bores - and why not some Americans too - would name this car their favourite. Its glorious body, its fantastic 2.4 litre Ferrari engine and its success in rallying is a hard combination to resist. Actually, you would have to have a heart of stone not to like this car.

Well, here are my favourite cars that I came to think of in the 30 minutes it took me to write this little post. Here are some pictures of cars that I think could be someones favourites. And do feel free to comment on what your favourite car is.

Jaguar E-type

Nissan GT-R

This car has to be someones favourite. Ferrari 365 GTB/4 (Ferrari Daytona)