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Clockwisefrom
above:will they or won’t
they become icons?
Jaguar’s F-type R, VW’s
Up GTI, Abarth’s 124
Spider, Alfa Romeo’s 4C,
Abarth’s 695 Biposto
and Mercedes’ naturally
aspirated C63 AMG
that made you want to clap with excitement if only both
handsweren’tpermanentlyneededtoapplycorrectivelock.
Anotherflawedgemforsure,butavery,veryprettyone.
Currently in the middle ground between icon and ‘I can’t
believewe’restilltalkingaboutit’isthelast-generationFord
Focus RS, which brought torque-vectoring giggles to the
fast hatch world, but could also be hard work ifyou wanted
the kind of rewards a contemporary Fiesta ST would have
offeredathalfthespeed.
Speed,ofcourse,doesnotbuyautomaticentrytoiconclub,
and nor is lack of it a barrier, though the merely brisk VW
UpGTIisstillsurroundedbythebackgroundthrumofhype,
and history may remember its flaws more than its charms.
It’s tooearlytotellwiththatone,andit’s definitelytoosoon
tosayifthenewSuprawillbecomeanicon,thoughthere’sa
sense that witha bit of evolving it could become something
wespeakofinhushedtones.Watchthisspaceonthatone.In
themeantime,considertheGT86,whichisaknownquantity
now, flaws and all. Rather than getting bogged down in its
failingslikea GT86tryingto getup a shallow hillinfourth,
let’s just say that this is the kind of car we’ll miss when it’s
gone, and perhaps when it does disappear we’ll realise that
weshouldhavebeenniceraboutit.
Finally, inthisdifficultalmost-listofmaybe-icons,canwe
consider for a moment that most tricky of subjects, the Alfa
4C.It’softenregardedasadisappointmentandyouneversee
them around, but it’s also a small, carbonfibre-bodied, mid-
engined sports car from an Italian company for a relatively
affordableprice,andisn’tthatsomethingwewant?Ifonlyit
wasn’tabitcrap.Willwelookbackandseethisasaproblem?
Shouldwecarethatit’s toowide,tooexpensive,toocheaply
madeinsideandtoomuchofahandful?Yeah,probably.Who
knows? The idea of it is brilliant, despite its many failings.
With this and all the cars on the maybe list it’s too soon to
say. Maybe time will reveal that in the last five years we’ve
actuallybeensurroundedbyicons.L
‘The F-type made you want to
clap with excitement, if only
both hands weren’t needed to
apply corrective lock’