daro911 said:flat6 said:Hello daro911. I haven't been on here for a while. Glad to see it's still going strong
Hi flat6 longtime away from here and as a founder member you are always welcome despite leaving our Spyder web
Hope all is good with you and your Italian mistress and hopefully catch you at the up & coming Silverstone Classic [8D]
Hi daro911
Yes i'm really enjoying going off piste (as in taking a one-off change from Porsche) and trying out this thrilling little 'Italian Mistress' as you put it lol :-D. It'll leave me open for a scathing attack, but i'll say a little about it
Its opened my eyes to a different type of car, lightweight and unfiltered and makes me want to drive it every day. It's no Porsche but then it's not trying to be so that's good. There's many reviews against the more refined Cayman - it's not engineered like a Porsche and is not going to win track or street comparisons. It's not a Lotus alternative either. It's in a class of its own that for most, won't be of interest. I can't say there is logic in my purchase, purely lust Its the quickest car and most mechanical car i've experienced for sure. Such is it's power to weight ratio, it feels so quick over that initial inertia phase from low speeds or stationary as it launches forward with such brutal acceleration and equally braking is just as brutal. The unassisted steering rack is very quick; if you turn it a millimetre it is executed at the front wheels. You just have to remember the steering weights up when you scrub off a lot of speed. It rides really well for this type of car; I guess because the carbon fibre chassis is so stiff, they have not had to go overboard with stiffness in the suspension, yet it corners with what feels like no body roll. The steering feel is less communicative than I'm used to and coupled with such flat cornering, it took some time to tune into how the car is behaving because there is so much grip.It took some courage to buy the car. I had driven one a few years ago and the steering was very tiring as it required steering input just to keep it straight as you fought against every ripple on the road tugging the car. But I was tempted again and my 2017 car doesn't have that problem. Courage too in that not many will buy an Alfa Romeo for 4C money, so i've no idea what i'll get for the car when its time to move on. But it was within budget and I needed to move the 997 turbo on. Anyone who's read my article on karting in the February '18 edition of Porsche Post will understand why I don't have a Porsche budget at the moment
The Alfa brand struggles to transcend the bad reputation it earned decades ago. But i'm too young to have experienced the bad old days and the Alfa Romeo BT Blackline I had before my first Porsche was faultless, so for me it didn't put me off. With Porsche, the strong brand and engineering transcends a lot of the quite major mechanical and design issues that doesn't put me off either. So I decided, what the heck, let's go for it. There's no track record for an Alfa Romeo of this type, nor a Maserati, where the cars are hand built in Modena. I drive it hard, as you can see from the brake dust on the wheels. There's no other way to drive it. The engine is eager and the transmission doesn't want you to fall outside the surge for a second, so you just have to go with the flow and drive it hard as it is addictive. But it's just had its first service which it sailed through with nothing reported. Hoping that continues as I don't intend to give it an easy life!But i'm really enjoying the experience. The noise, the looks, the acceleration, the grip, the brakes, looking in the rear view mirror and seeing the engine moving around on it's mounts; the astonishing amount of pleasant complements. I'll shut up now and promise not to mention the Italian Mistress again ;-)
