It’s not Goodwood Festival season, but the guys at Goodwood TV decided to make use of a rare sunny day at the track, and put a new Italian sports car they had lying around to test. So they got Touring car legend Anthony Reid to pilot the Alfa Romeo 4C up the hill climb course and set a time.

Maybe it was Anthony’s superb driving skills, maybe it was Alfa’s light weight and agile handling. Whatever the reason, the 4C posted an astonishingly fast time of 61.1 seconds. That is a hugely impressive time, not just because it is faster than the likes of Jaguar F-Type V8 and Corvette Stingray, but also because the course was damp in places.

Alfa Romeo 4C proves once again that the old approach to make fast cars by adding more and more power is outdated. These days it is lightness that matters. If you have a light car you don’t need a big, thirsty engine to achieve the performance you want. You can have a frugal, 240-hp four-banger.

While we’re on the subject of Alfa Romeo 4C on track, we thought you may also want to see the car in full safety car garb pacing a Superbike race: