Alfa Romeo 4C vs Porsche Cayman vs Toyota GT86 / Scion FT86 - sportscar shootout

The new Alfa Romeo 4C has the right kind of credentials for a sports coupé, but can it really rival the indomitable and equivalently priced Porsche Cayman? Or how about the much cheaper, and less exotic, Toyota GT86?

The brilliance of the Porsche Cayman and the delicacy of the Toyota GT86's handling is well documented. It is many years since Alfa Romeo build a truly great driver's car befitting of the iconic badge. Autocar's Steve Sutcliffe puts all three of the rear-wheel drive coupés head-to-head on track, in order to find out which one's the best to drive.

Autocar, the world's leading motoring magazine and website, delivers industry-leading news, the most in-depth car reviews and opinion from our team of experts. Our presenters include some of the world's top motoring journalists who have unrivalled access to the world's fastest, rarest, most exotic and most exciting cars on some of the world's best roads and race tracks.

Can a supercar beat a superbike? Can a Audi A1 outrun a Nissan GT-R on a wet circuit? Can a Porsche 911 slay a Corvette on the drag strip? Autocar pitches the giants of the performance car world against each other to deliver the all-important verdict.

[PIGGYBASHER]

GT86 because light, RWD and manual....all you need in a car.

[evomr]

Sorry but at those price points, the FRS is the most fun/ practical car here!

[konakonak]

Ok. Porsche makes for many years very good sport cars.Alfa, with the exception of the limited production - most beautifull car ever- 8C made the very good Gullietta and Mito. So now gives us the 4C, a great looking car that weights only 895 kg! and achieves 0-100km/h in 4.5 sec! Just an 1750cc engine and we have a mini supercar. That is for me, a great achievement for Alfa which i would buy.

[TaylorMartinVideos]

"I want to be in _that_ car!"

Happy I get to drive on every day. ;-)

[samr]

Alfa 4C is made for those who cannot afford a Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini of McLaren. and it is made incredibly well for the money. Now even us mortals can afford a supercar. Cheers to Alfa!

[Kiret]

pure badge snobbery haha, you talk of the best drivers car, a PURE drivers car, its the GT86 that should be the winner! 

[fiansk]

Love the way everybody can make statements such as "this car has a shitty engine", "the other one has shitty grip", "the other one has shitty gearbox" etc etc... and the people making this assertive comments probably go to work in an SUV, or a VW Polo, or whatever.

Please don't misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with SUVs and Polos. But stop making comments about cars you never drove, never will drive and probably haven't even seen on the streets.

[DoNuT_]

Maybe, drifting not what you would do to tiny, little 900 kilogram mid-engined car all day long. Despite the fact, that Steve complains a lot about understeer (on a wet track), i think its a quite fun thing to drive on a track. Maybe you just keep it in the garage if its cold and wet out there, not everyone wants to do trackdays at such weather conditions...

In addition, its probably one of the first track-ready Alfa Romeos since the seventies, so why can't we just enjoy... I think its lovely, maybe because I'm driving a Giulietta and don't really care about boring perfection.

[jitterball]

I see two cars going through a turn at about 40-45 Mph, one of them is smoothly going while the other one is struggling to stay on the tarmac! I think it's all about your preferences, fear of death at 45 or driving calmly at 45.  

[uweheinrich]

Steve Sutcliffe always nails it correctly.

[hachiman]

watching this now gives me MF GHOST vibes

[ListeningPoint]

Are you guys still seriously using that canned overplayed drum and bass line that comes preloaded on every apple computer ever sold?  -50 points production value.

[germi]

Nobody ever will buy an Alfa because is "the better" car, you buy Alfas because they are Alfas, you buy an Alfa to be the owner of an Alfa. That's why Alfa Romeos have never been too good at anything else but being Alfas :)

Good clip Steve.

[adrivas]

No matter what Sutcliffe says, what I can see in the video is:
- The alfa destroys both cars for raw pace.
- The cayman is more dynamically polished.

[LILLO]

Great video and brilliant cars, they didn't mention though that on a straight line the Alfa walks them easily, not too many people know that using launch control on the 4c and pressing also the left paddle when it's ready on "launch" the revs goes up to 6500 rpm making the car goes in 4.2 sec on the 0-60! That's pretty damn impressive imo and i was impressed by the time it got on the Ring. 8.4 min, same as a 450 bhp Audi R8. The Cayman is better but i'd pick the 4C anyday

[mrolskul]

By now, I'm sure everyone not living under a rock knows that the GT86/FR-S come equipped with Prius tires, so taking it to the track seems a little unfair, but I get it. Take away the iconic Alfa grille/bumper and you have what could easily pass for a Lotus. A Porsche is a Porsche, having said that, the Alfa appeared to follow the lines that the Cayman and the Toyota were putting down with such ease that it didn't appear to break a sweat (although a little lackluster in its mission, but good for timed track days). At the end of the day, I would gladly take any of these fine cars for completely different reasons.

[nathanielwatson]

The Alfa has character and yes you can drift it as proved on Top Gear! Out of these cars the Alfa will be a classic, the others won't be, because they aren't special. The Alfa IS special

[kylet]

I'll dream of that Alfa tonight. Although I love all 3 of these cars.

I can't wait for it to come to the US.

[fatboy]

I own a Brz and I love it.  The Cayman is the best car I have ever driven. Nothing else I have touched even comes close. If the 4c can be had for under 60k US it would be my pick. It is like a driving work of art.  I wish it had a true N/A Alfa power plant. I would gladly give up 40 hp to hear a true Alfa sing. It would most likely be lighter, have better throttle response and be less expensive with a N/A mill also. How about a manual 4c?

[RennieAsh]

Driving around a track with no race... :) The Alpha never looked like it was pushed to the limits either, I would have at least liked to see a bigger amount of oversteer or understeer from it.