Alfa Romeo 4C

📸: Photo courtesy Automobilemag.com

We've been focusing on tails too long, time to change our point of view. Our new series is "Unforgettable Faces," an examination of the front end design of fast cars. As usual, we will proceed in roughly alphabetical order...

First up is Alfa Romeo and their gorgeous sport coupe, the 4C. The eye is immediately drawn to Alfa's signature inverted triangle grill, with the legs of the triangle feeding creases that stream across the hood to the windscreen. From the front, those creases help give further definition to the headlights and fenders.

The 4C was designed by Lorenzo Ramaciotti, who started his career at Pininfarina. While there, Ramaciotti designed a slew of formidable Ferraris: the 456 GT, the 550 Maranello, the 360 Modena, the F430 and the 612 Scaglietti.

Alfa's inverted triangle grill has been around for a long time, so it's great to see it still being incorporated in the design.

📸: Photo courtesy Barrett-Jackson.com

Here we see it on a 1976 Alfa Romeo Spider.

📸: Photo by Simon Davison

And here it is on a concept car developed by Alfa Romeo in conjuction with the Bertone design house. This is the 1955 Alfa Romeo BAT 9 (Berlinetta Aerodinamica Technica). Note also the air intakes straddling the inverted triangle; a similar layout is found in today's 4C.