My daily is worth less than the 4C parts I drive in it sometimes, and it just suits me fine. I never lied the idea of having expensive DD. Too much stress leaving the car anywhere, potholes in the winter time, salty roads, etc. And you can't have a comfortable daily car with great track performance, it's one or the other...choose one. I choose shitbox as daily and sorted out track car for fun, which is street legal just about enough to get me to the track and back home. That's the current status of 4C, and I have the same idea about QV. A hardcore track focused build, more capable than GTAm.
I wrote a bit weird. By double caliper this is exactly what I meant - 1x rear brake caliper and 1x emergency brake caliper. Looks massive and heavy.
Probably a 380mm steel slotted rotors and proper brake pads is what I would do for the tracking. And of course, try to get rid of all the unnecessary weight ASAP.
By running costs, I mostly meant the wear and tear of such a powerful and heavy car. This could be improved noticeably by again - dropping the weight. I do kind of understand the lack of available motorsport parts and the price penalty for the QV though. It's a rather small market so not much interest in developing parts for these cars by big names. So if the quantities of fabricated parts are small, the pricing can't be good. Development (carbon moulds, CAD programing, welding JIG etc.) and testing (stress analyze, FEM analyze, track testing,) of 1 item costs the same as for 1000 pieces, while fabrication costs are drastically lower for large amount of pieces (CNC operation, etc.). Also proper motorsport parts are never cheap, so when you find a pair of "race" control arms, full exhaust or full carbon body kit for a few hundred $, you can be sure it's not really a "motorsport" grade (light, durable, effective). I'm not a wealthy guy by any financial means so I've had my share of cheap race parts on previous cars and it always ended the same. I had to buy proper items sooner or later and in the end it costed me even more. Over the years, we have bind together a team, business partners, know how and capabilities to fabricate decent parts. We strive for the best right from the start, as it's proven best approach when it comes to motorsport. If I can't afford a project, I come back for it later. No shortcuts! I would have done the same with QV. Step by step development, testing and improvement.
What you want is a Ferrari, the 488 Pista. The meaner version of QV engine and 300kg less with mid engined layout. That's the real deal. Too bad it costs 8x times used QV.
Sure, the 911 GT3 series are pure example of what constant development and improvement can bring. We can probably agree that MR layout is superior to RR layout (weight distribution, rear diffusers, handling, etc.), yet the Porsche kept improving the RR layout to the max and made one of the best sport cars. The performance gap between each generation is noticeable - 996, 997, but the 991 was a game changer. Car is next level in terms of performance compared to previous versions. Had Alfa Romeo had the same approach, I'm sure that the 3rd gen of cars would be probably close to perfect. It's just that Alfa Romeo doesn't do that. They made 4C, right from scratch and the car is pretty damn good, given this is their first modern MR car, but it's a bit unfinished. They release the car, it gets bad reviews, sells bad and it's a financial failure for the company. They were so close to success but didn't pull it off. Used 4C price are appreciating a lot now and would make a great leverage for the next gen 4C. I'm sure 2nd gen 4C would sell for 20% higher MSRP easily if the car had sorted out gen 1. weaknesses and it would cost close to none to repair these. The sales revenue would be on a completely next level compared to 1st gen. They did all the hard work and boom - they quit. I don't really understand the Alfa Romeo's financial department, please forgive me.
Now, the Giulia. Brand new platform - Giorgio, again, close to perfect, but unfortunately, now abandoned. This way Alfa Romeo will never get the sports car right. Impossible. And they'll never make a revenue out of it. They'll loose the interest in sport cars probably soon, if not already. Focusing on common cars like they do now, won't bring in the money in either. The battle for market share in this segment is enormous and Alfa's reputation is not being the most affordable or the most reliable car which is pretty much what this segment is all about, so it's gonna be tough. It would be better for them to focus on sport cars and leave the common cars for Fiat and Lancia. Porsche did the same (VW and Škoda as common cars) and they have one of the highest revenue per sold car. Base Cayman is about 60k€ and fully loaded GT4 is close to 200k€, yet the actual build cost difference between these two is perhaps additional 30% to the base Cayman.That's financial's department doing their work. With such approach the generated revenue will always be able to support further development and new great sport cars. I'm sure we'll see more of supreme sport cars from Porsche, while I'm afraid the 4C and QV is the best the Alfa Romeo will gave us in their modern era. I wish I was wrong, but I'm, not so sure.
