Taking a drive in either the Alfa Romeo 4C or Porsche Cayman offers a precisely controlled driving feeling that allows you to traverse the various road and elevation changes offered throughout the beautiful continent of Europe. The only thing missing from this drive comparison is a couple test drivers to run the cars, I would love to volunteer for this one and think you would too, but too bad for us the test drivers at Car and Driver have already taken care of business and found these two exciting luxury sports cars to be a lot of fun on the road and amazing to look at when done driving for the day.
The Alfa Romeo 4C and Porsche Cayman are the middle of the road models from these highly regarded automakers, making it so you don’t have to have upwards of six zeros in your bank account to be able to afford one of these beauties. In a test that lasted over 650 miles the goal of finding which one of these two was the all-around better car seems like more of an excuse to drive them longer than anything else, but here is what was found.
Looking at the Porsche Cayman the power comes from the 2.7-liter flat six-cylinder engine that shows up with 275 horsepower and rides on 18-inch wheels and tires. This comes in at a price that stars out at $53,595 and can soar to $70,345 when the infotainment package, power sport seats, adjustable dampers, 19-inch wheels and tires, and the brake-based torque-vectoring system are all added to the car. The Cayman, in true Porsche fashion is very low to the ground and unmistakably attractive while screaming down the road or when sitting in your driveway.
The Alfa Romeo 4C on the other hand has a smaller engine, a 1.7-liter inline four-cylinder model that pushes out 237 horsepower. This doesn’t really sound all that powerful, but the tub of the 4C is a carbon-fiber-composite that checks in at only 235 pounds. Add the BorgWarner turbo to the engine as well and the power on the torque end is boosted. Along with the lightweight tub, the overall curb weight of the 4C is 609 pounds lighter than the Cayman giving it quite an advantage in this area. Starting with a price of $55,195 the 4C can be brought to $68495 by adding every available option but keeps it in the ballpark of reasonable.
Overall, both cars performed extremely well on the track giving an exciting, tight and controlled ride to the test drivers. Once off the track the Cayman outperformed the 4C in a big way. The exotic technology of the light tub in the 4C allows it to have some saving grace as this is the first car with this tech at this low of a price point. Even with that said though, there is truly no loser when it comes to these two cars, except maybe this writer who still doesn’t have one sitting in his driveway. Someday maybe, until then I will keep looking and dreaming about these hot and fast cars.
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