Alfa Romeo 4C with over 600 miles on the clock

A good friend of mineDan is not a car guy. He is a talented cartoonist with a love for nature, theater, and Legos. Although he now lives in Texas, he also loves the food of his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, especially a sandwich chain there. A few years ago, when we were roommates in Austin, Texas, I happened to be reviewing the 2018 Alfa Romeo 4C Coupe one week. Dan doesn’t get to visit his family and favorite haunts much, so I wanted to give him a taste of his hometown. The 4C was a poor choice for the upcoming trip, but it made for a story I’ll never forget.

A few months before we set out on this pilgrimage, Dan told me that the one place he’d miss most about Cincinnati was the East Coast Subs restaurant in Penn Station. A quick online search revealed three locations in Texas, but they were all in the Dallas area, about three hours from our apartment. We ended up going there two or three times in various media vehicles I’d reviewed, including a Ford F-150 Limited. It’s a great car for such a long trip; the 4C is a ridiculous car. That (besides wanting to make my friend feel less homesick) was the main reason I decided to do this. When would I ever get the chance to do something so impractical and silly in a mid-engined Italian sports car with a good friend again?

I had some idea of ​​what to expect from this car. Alfa introduced the two-seat 4C to the U.S. market as a 2015 model, combining Maserati craftsmanship with Alfa sports car proportions, gorgeous curves, and turbocharged four-cylinder power. I spent a week behind the wheel of a 2015 4C Spider to get a feel for how it drives. Alfa didn’t equip it with power steering, which meant I felt the road and my shoulders ached as I whizzed around corners. But I didn’t put anywhere near the mileage I’d eventually put on the 2018 coupe.

Although Dan got a free ride to his favorite sandwich shop, he ended up paying for it in other ways. The 4C was designed for speed, not comfort. To get into it, both of us needed to stick one foot out over the wide door sill, into the footwell, fold the car in half, tilt our heads, slide into the seat, and tuck our other foot inside. After hours of driving straight on I-35’s imperfect roads, I realized how uncomfortable the sporty double-wishbone front suspension/McPherson rear suspension is. It was hard to see behind me because most of my rearview mirror was filled with the engine and the vents on either side of the clear cover. Fortunately, I was able to get ahead of most traffic as the 237-hp, 258-lb-ft, turbocharged 1.7-liter I4 engine delivered with a strong punch while filling the cockpit with an addictive whistle and an aggressive, raspy roar.

By the time Dan and I got back to Austin later that afternoon (yes, I drove about six hours just to eat a sandwich), I had probably put about 400 miles on this Alfa Romeo.

This journey did not teach me a lesson.

I decided to push the odometer higher by taking my girlfriend (now wife) Eli to see the big Christmas light display in Johnson City, about 100 miles round trip. The roads there were better suited to the 4C’s handling capabilities, although I’m not sure Eli would care when the road got bumpy.

As if putting hundreds of miles on such a purpose-built car wasn’t already a big mistake, I then decided to use the 4C to run a few errands and get coffee, which required me to struggle in and out of the car and battle the manual steering every time I entered or left a parking space.

When I drove the 2018 Alfa Romeo 4C Coupe, I put more than 600 miles on it in just three days. I drove it until I hated it for all the good things I once respected and enjoyed. It was uncomfortable, loud, and inconvenient. I understand why people would consider it a second car for canyon carving or a dedicated track toy. Those who choose it as a commuter car deserve my respect (and bewilderment). Of all the cars I’ve tested (except perhaps the BMW i3), the 4C is the worst car I could have chosen for a road warrior. But it might be the best I could have picked for a memorable story. I would be pampered and content sitting in the back of a big, comfortable S-Class, but I probably wouldn’t write about it because it’s designed to consume long distances in a short amount of time. The 4C is the perfect car for making bad decisions—and the perfect car for making good memories.