nberry:

I will defer to Nick’s and Lain’s judgement on the 4C. 

However, I don’t find an underpowered, small uncomfortable car with a Funky exhaust sound particularly enticing. Is it possible that the lack of power steering which makes it more difficult to handle thus requiring more driver focus the reason for the raw experience?yes

 

The 4C is similar to my Lotus Elise in many ways.  It really just comes down to sensations over speed.  You feel more feedback from the steering wheel and through your butt as to what the suspension and tires are doing, what the texture of the road is, and simply a better sense of speed.  60mph in my Elise feels about the same as 100mph in my GT4.  Your brain is getting a lot more information (not all of which needs to be reacted to) and therefore it's just more mentally stimulating to drive.  On the downside, there is a limit to how long you can drive such a car (I doubt you would like to spend more than 30 minutes in a Ferrari 360 Stradale).

Modern Porsche GT cars are far more insulated to make them usable day-to-day and for road trips, so that's a plus.  They also have modern adaptive shocks which help them be more usable in a variety of situations.  On the downside, they are not as interesting to drive until you start pushing them hard, at which time they start to give the same kind of sensations as above, just turned down in "volume".  At regular speeds, you just turn the wheel, the car follows, no drama or real sensations.

Matt Farah did a good job of explaining when he did a One Take on my Elise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHdTpGWBHNE