Michael-5 said:
Alby_da_Wolf said:
@ Michael:
Good choices too, particularly since Porsches 911 aren't anymore the devilishly hard to drive cars they used to be once. I'm a fan of light cars, lowering weight is often more effective to increase power/weight ratio, and it betters cars' handling in most roads, important if you don't live in a boring, flat place. My late dad, before getting older, was an excellent driver, far better than me, on old, rear traction Alfa Romeo's. It's impressive how relatively light the Corvette is, considering its huge engine and the robust transmission an engine with such a torque requires.
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I also like light cars, but the corvette feels like shit inside. Fast as hell, press the gas and your red lining and going 60km/h in an instant. Thank god I test drove the auto when I did. However because of the crap build quality, I would never buy one.
You are lucky to live in europe. There are no Alfa Romeo's here in Canada, well no modern ones. My pop also used to own a sick ass V8 Benz, but I think Rear or Mid engine is the way to go. Never drove a mid/rear engine car before, but I sat inside the Lotus Elise and Evora before, and the driving position just feels so right.
To me what matters most is not how fast the car is in a stright line, but how fun it is to drive, even at slow speeds. To be honest, I prefer to drive a crazy car like the older 911's and old lamborshini's. It's so much funner knowing that pressing the gas pedal can make your car end up spinning. I know in racing sim's, and in real life, getting the ass out just a bit is fun as hell, and that's why I want an engine behind me. I just want something that needs skill to drive, but if you have skill, the car is capable.
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About the interiors, I'm used to Fiat, Opel and Ford city cars, a Corvette couldn't scare me! 
And the last Alfa Romeo my dad owned had terrible build quality anyway, despite the excellent mechanics.
About RWD, rear engine, the only ones I drove were very old Italian city cars, like Autobianchi Bianchina and Fiat 126, their engines were to weak to obtain power oversteering, unless in very low grip conditions, and their reactions in limit conditions were quite nasty.
I should try a Porsche before deciding, everyone I know that has or had one is satisfied even of those from 30 years ago, the really nasty ones were even older, and killed countless people, as, like those old city cars, but in this case with a lot more HP's, the switch between underseering and oversteering was quite unpredictable for drivers not yet used to them (older Porsches had a higher % of their mass BEHIND the rear axle, making them very different not only from forward engine ones, but also from central and rear-central ones), but up until now I'd prefer forward engine, RWD for the fun and all forward for practical and relaxing use, and they can be fun too, my mom, after the everlasting old Opel of my grandpa and her first, boring and ugly, but reliable one, disappointed by her second unreliable one switched to a Citroën C3, and it's a nice car to drive, considering it's just a large city car.
Ah, and except dream sportcars, for normal use and normal fun I prefer turbodiesel engines, I like high torque at low RPM and I like to save some euros on fuel too, that in EU, and particularly in Italy, is horribly expensive, shopping at hard discounts we can find some decent, even protected designation of origin, wines cheaper (some "Castelli Romani" in 1.5 and 2.0 liter bottles, just to name one, although the best Castelli Romani are slightly more expensive than fuel).
About your considerations on fun driving, totally agree, although rear traction is a more essential ingredient than having rear engine too to obtain power oversteering, while with forward traction, unless you're driving a rally car, tuned to obtain more oversteering when needed even if they are all forward, you need to use car balance, steering wheel, brakes and engine brake to get a little oversteering, so you can obtain it only while slowing down, it's useful too for fast turns, and even amusing, but not as rear traction power one.
