Alfa Bravo

How many times did we think that, this time, Alfa really was back? There have been so many, so here are just a few. The Brera: as fabulous to look at as it was disappointing to drive, an absolute pudding in catwalk clothing. A car at its best when parked. And that is not what any car is for, least of all an Alfa Romeo. The 8C: not bad at all, had it actually been an Alfa Romeo, not a reskinned Maserati. And then there was the 4C.

It was launched in production form at the Geneva show in 2013, and all those who said it would never look anything like as good as the 2011 concept were forced to swallow their words. It was gorgeous. It was also unfeasibly light and it had a carbon tub. Alfa was back! I got so excited about it I had a quiet word with someone I thought was a friend on the Alfa stand about putting down a deposit. Then an hour later I was chatting with someone at Ford who told me he’d heard I’d been ‘flashing the cash’ down Alfa way, and that was the end of that. Turns out the alleged mate had done me a huge favour by blabbing about my enquiry and you won’t need me once more to trot through the myriad ways the 4C failed to live up to expectations. But offhand I can’t think of another car that promised so much, but delivered so little.

But then the GTAm. We met in Snowdonia, which is not a bad place to get acquainted. Actually that’s not entirely true: my first encounter was when I speared one up the Goodwood hill at the 2021 Festival of Speed but if you can do a car assessment in less than a minute it should be you doing this job, not me. My first meaningful experience came on a two-day Autocar test that autumn, the first on mountain roads, the second on the Anglesey race track.