Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione: a legendary name for a unique car

Posted 1 month ago in Italian, Supercar News

The definitive version of the gorgeous exclusive Alfa 8C Competizione, Gran Turismo car that is to be produced in a limited edition makes its debut in Paris. The car, designed by Alfa Romeo, is directly derived from the concept car that aroused such admiration at the 2003 Frankfurt Motor Show.

It has benefited from the best technical and industrial know-how that the Alfa-Maserati Sports Centre can offer. The cooperative venture between both manufacturers was conducted with a view to ensuring integration between the Alfa Romeo design departments and the Maserati production departments.

The 8C Competizione is inspired by Alfa Romeo’s glorious past, projecting its brand values of technology and emotion into the future. The historical allusions begin with the evocative name, recalling the great sporting tradition of Alfa Romeo. The 8C code was used to identify cars (racing and on-road) of the Thirties and Forties equipped with the revolutionary eight cylinder engine produced by the famous designer Vittorio Jano. The term ‘Competizione’ is intended as a homage to the ‘6C 2500 Competizione’, a sports coupé driven in 1950 by the duo Fangio and Zanardi in the famous Mille Miglia race.

The engine is the beating heart of any Alfa Romeo. In this case it takes the form of a brand new 90° V 8 cylinder unit with a cylinder capacity of 4691 cc that was designed with one aim in mind: to ensure extraordinary performance while still offering a smooth drive and being usable in all circumstances, from the track to city traffic. The top engine performance figures may be summarised as a maximum power output of 450 bhp at 7000 rpm, a peak torque of 470 Nm at 4750 rpm and a top speed of 7500 rpm.

I first fell in love with the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione when I saw it up close and personal at last year’s Motor4Toys Exotic Car Show. The company is now releasing an even more breathtaking Spider convertible that will arrive on our shores starting January of 2010. There will only be 500 units of the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider produced, just like it’s hardtop brethren. However, an even scarcer 35 are scheduled for the US with a manufacturers’ cost of 299,000 US (which includes shipping). This price makes the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione Spider the company’s most expensive model to date. That said, you can be sure that real world prices for this car will probably clip north of 500,000 US.

The 8C Spider will be built in Modena, Italy with many of its parts sourced from Ferrari and the Maserati GranTurismo. A 4.7-liter V8 engine capable of 450 hp at 7,000 is mated with an automatic 6-speed gearbox with paddle-shifters mounted behind the steering wheel. Stopping power comes via racing-inspired carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes.

This is a tremendous platform for Alfa Romeo and, as such, it looks like the company will seek to push the envelope a bit further. The Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione hardtop is going to be repackaged in a high-performance GTA version sometime next year. There will only be 100 examples of this car produced. However, there is some speculation that the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione Spider may also get released as a GTA version as well somewhere down the line.