Photo Credit: Raphael Orlove

There I was, as I usually find myself on Wednesday afternoons, conscious in a coffin buried six feet under the ground with only a flashlight and my bare hands to get myself out. As I finally clawed my face free, I glimpsed around the dark cemetery to realize that hey, the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider is still for sale.




The 4C is a good car in and of itself, with an exciting chassis, an exciting engine, and the general excitement of skateboarding across the road with a turbocharger psh-tsh-tsh-tshhhhh directly behind your ear as you get on and off the gas.

The 4C Spider also meets all the qualifiers for being a good convertible:

1. The roof is stupid.

2. That’s it.

Indeed, this is a roll-top car, with the center section just being some canvas that you unclip on either side and then roll up like a newspaper for swatting a fly. There will be flies, actually, if you find yourself wisely buying one in yellow. They are impossibly attracted to the color.


I had sort of forgotten that the 4C Spider is still for sale (build your own here!), as last year Alfa canceled the coupe version.

But do not sleep on this thing. I have had outstanding driving experiences in a Porsche Cayman. But in a 4C I have had adventures. It is a wild machine with no power steering whatsoever. I can’t say it’s necessarily a smart thing to buy, but it is a car I would want in my garage.