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.

For the hopefuls who put their name down for an 8C Spider, then fingers crossed – you’ve a one in six chance of landing one… For the rest of us, there’s certainly no harm in looking!

The Spider uses the same 4.7-litre V8 powerplant as the hard-top, which boasts 450bhp and 354lb ft alongside a 181mph top speed and 4.2sec dash to 62mph. After the 500 Spiders have been built and delivered to their lucky owners next summer, Alfa will then begin work on producing a Porsche GT3-style GTA version, which is intended to be a sportier, more hardcore 8C to close production of Alfa’s most expensive and exclusive car.  Prices and details for that are yet to be announced.