Scheduling a test drive for this weekend...
 

So I'm going to check out/drive an Alfa Romeo 4c this Saturday. Just curious if anyone else has had the opportunity to try one out, and if so, what were your impressions? On paper, it ticks all the right boxes for me- power, weight, style, price, etc. But, on the same token, the RX-8 ticked NONE of the boxes on paper, yet is still a reasonably enjoyable car, despite its NUMEROUS faults.

Seems like an awesome car but no stick shift is a deal breaker for me.

Thats what I initially thought, but after driving a friend's F430 with the flappy paddles, I've seen the light lol. Still incredibly fun, not like the paddle shifters on your typical auto econo box, or the auto RX-8's.

Well, just got back from my test drive and I'm still wearing an ear to ear grin. What a great little car. It is the definition of a proper sports car (yes, even though it isn't a manual gearbox.)

All I can say is that without driving one, you really can't judge it.

All of the complaints I've read about in regards to ride quality- rubbish. It rides like a small sports car, which is exactly what is to be expected, and exactly what I want. If I wanted Mercedes Benz ride quality, I'd get a damn Mercedes Benz.

The exhaust note is much more exotic in person than videos lead one to believe. Very nice sounding car, with quite possibly the loudest factory turbocharger I've ever heard lol.

The seats have sufficient padding to not be completely terrible for long trips, but don't ecpect your ass to be on a cloud. They're purposeful, they have sufficient bolstering and are very snug, even for a small framed guy like myself, so if you're on the husky side, you may find them unbearable.

The steering is fantastic! More sports cars need to come factory with the option to forego power steering. The people in reviews who complain about the steering being overly heavy in parking lots and slow traffic, really need to do a few pushups and push fewer pencils because I found it no more difficult to deal with than my old FB. At speed, it's even better, plenty of feedback, road feel for days. Just great.

The DNA system is pretty unique. Very noticable differences between the settings. Obviously, most of my test drive was done in the Dynamic setting with the last 20 minutes or so in Race mode. It's so much more user friendly in commuter traffic than journalists give it credit for. I kept it in manual shift mode the entire time, and never found it to be inconvenient or too much to handle (then again, driving a streetported 13B REW FB with solid engine/tranny/diff mounts and an Exedy Hyper single makes anything seem like a breeze.)

Overall, I'm completely impressed. By far the best new sports car I've driven in a long ass time. I'll be making arrangements to order one in the near future.

Nice, glad you liked. Thanks for the review. I'm keeping my eye on that one, maybe down the road I'll jump in. Can't really justify throwing $60,000 around the track at the moment ;)

How bad was the cabin noise?

It's a sports car- IMHO a sports car should have cabin noise, and this one did, the most obvious being engine noise. Again, it isn't a Mercedes Benz.

cabin noise is the biggest complaint.

Have to test one and judge for yourself.

I'd hardly call it a complaint, but that's just me lol. It adds excitement to the drive. I hate boring cars.