Star cars 2021: Autocar road testers' best drives
You can’t drive very quickly on any road these days, so it’s important that a car is a lot of fun at sensible speeds. Weighing nothing, with unassisted controls and being exceptionally narrow, the 170 would do that even if it didn’t handle superbly. But it does. Autocar was banging on about the advantage of narrow cars as long ago as the 1970s. At 1.47m wide, the 170 isn’t just narrow by general standards, it’s even 105mm narrower than any other Seven.
The Evora is compact against McLarens and the like but on the heavy side for its size. In the electrified tomorrow, however, it’s pretty light. At around 1400kg at the kerb, it’s a cool 250kg lighter than the original battery-powered Tesla Roadster, which was based on the Lotus Elise. Fully electrified future sports cars won’t be hitting 1400kg any time soon.The best thing, though, was the ride quality.
In deliciously naughty style, the car largely destroyed a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres in the process of going that fast – and it did so within about six or seven laps, in 4WD Sport driving mode to boot. And the really impressive thing? BMW offers the car on Pirelli Corsa tyres, too, so the Michelin is actually the more sensible tyre option.
It’sabigoldbruteofacar,and the fact that it’s a mix of outrageous pace, easing comfort and surprising agility is beguiling, and would do me nicely. And besides, my driving talent runs out a long way before my colleagues’, so I’m happy with something that tickles my fancy just about enough. It ticks almost all the boxes for me. It’s not quite as delectably tiny as a Caterham, but by modern standards it’s pretty narrow – enough to fit down the average B-road with some wiggle room. Despite the retro design, I can’t help loving how it looks . The interior is basic but has just enough Gallic elan to feel special. The automatic gearbox shifts crisply and the engine even sounds pretty good when you wind it up.
That’s because it is better and more refined. And so should it be, really: by the time a car is at the end of its life, its maker has perfected the build process and tweaked and tuned the car through successive facelifts and model-year updates to the point that it’s as good as it’s ever going to be. For a car as luxurious as the Mk4 Range Rover was fresh out of the box, that refinement made for a quite exceptional car at the end of its life.
But the Giulia GTAm is that Alfa. I know, it’s preposterously expensive and I wouldn’t even buy one, because if I wanted an impractical two-seater for that money, I’d have a Porsche 911 GT3. So how can it also be my favourite car of 2021? Because it still made my heart soar, not just for what it did on road and track across two days of hard driving in North Wales but for what it meant.
With the GTS, you’re getting 85% of the on-road GT3 dynamic experience but with 140% of the rolling refinement and 50% of the attention-seeking bodywork. What an irresistible proposition that is.There was a time not so long ago when pocket rockets like the Hyundai i20 N were two-a-penny. Almost every manufacturer had one loitering with intent in its price list, helping to add some much-needed street cred to an otherwise sensible line-up of shopping trolleys.
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