Review of the new Alfa Romeo 8C Competizone

The 8C Competizione is the prefect riposte to all those who thought Alfa Romeo's collection of front and four-wheel drive models didn't really hit the mark. A stunningly beautiful rear-wheel drive coupe with an old-school philosophy but state of the art execution, it breathes life anew into classical Italian supercar manufacturing.

When the last of the original Alfa Romeo Spider Commemorative Editions rolled off the production line in 1993, a new page in Alfa Romeo's long and illustrious history was turned. Few would have believed that it would be fully fifteen years before the next rear-wheel drive Alfa Romeo would be delivered to customers, but the early Nineties marked a period when Alfa needed to pull its belt in and rely ever more heavily on parent company Fiat. This was the era of unfettered platform sharing, where the costs of developing a new car could be defrayed by making many different variants, some with different body styles, some with different badges. Fast forward to today and car manufacturing has got no cheaper, but manufacturers have learned to be a little more sophisticated with platform sharing and brand management. The Alfa Romeo 8C borrows much of its underpinnings from Maserati but clothes the oily bits in one of the most beautiful bodies ever to grace a contemporary production car.

The 8C Competizione would sell regardless of what engine's under the bonnet, but when there's a 4.7-litre V8 engine tucked in there that generates 450bhp, it's easy to see why demand has gone through the roof. The engine is a bored and stroked version of Maserati's acclaimed 4.2-litre V8 and the 8C chassis itself is a Masearti Quattroporte floorpan that has been shortened by 40cm with a revised rear structure to which the Quattroporte's double-wishbone suspension has been grafted. A paddle shift six-speed gearshift helps the sprint to 60mph flash by in 4 seconds on the way to a top speed of 182mph.

Fantastic weight distribution (49 per cent front; 51 per cent rear), extremely firm damping, a smart traction control system and an all-up weight of just 1,585kg means that the 8C corners as well as it goes. Hefty ventilated disc brakes that measure 360mm at the front and 330mm at the back take good care of stopping duties. It sounds awe inspiring too, with a deep-chested howl at full throttle that's then accompanied by some staccato crackling on the overrun. In short, the 8C Competizione is a car that goes, stops and steers as well as it turns heads. Well, almost.

"The Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione has virtually no peer in its price bracket.."

I wouldn't be surprised if somebody buys the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and never turns a wheel in the thing. A millionaire bike enthusiast did likewise with a Ducati 916, mounting it in a glass case visible from his front room. The 8C Competizione is one of those rare cars that simultaneously challenges the eye yet doesn't include a single gratuitously weird angle or detail. In 2003, its designer, Wolfgang Egger, was tasked to produce a car that harked back to the company's competition roots but it wasn't until overwhelming public demand forced Alfa's hand that they secretly started building a run of 500 cars early in 2006.

A strict two seater, the 8C Competizione isn't big on practicality. The carbon-backed front seats are fixed in place and need a spanner to adjust them. The boot resides under a lifting glass hatch and is just about big enough to house a briefcase. A pair of Schedoni leather bags can sit behind the seats, strapped to the bulkhead. The cabin finish is best described as 'enthusiastic' with no great continuity of material or finish yet somehow contrives to be a wondrous place to sit.

By now you're probably wondering where the catch is with this vehicle and there is a big one. If you're thinking of buying one, you've missed the boat. The production run of 500 cars has all been accounted for and just 41 cars are heading to these shores, so a level of exclusivity is guaranteed if you're lucky enough to be receiving one. Not quite as lucky as the one person who receives New Zealand's allocation with that country's open roads and 51p per litre fuel price, but let's not split hairs. With a price tag of £112,000, exclusivity isn't coming cheaply, but viewed in comparison to a top-line Mercedes SL or an Aston Martin DBS, that doesn't look bad value at all.

There's also an open-topped 'Spider' version, also limited to a 'sold out' production run of 500 cars. Here, inside the carbon fibre cockpit, a dashboard-mounted button effortlessly transforms the perfectly cosseted cabin of the Alfa 8C Spider into a sublime open top GT cruiser. Constructed from two layers of fabric, the roof creates a perfectly weatherproof, acoustically comfortable passenger environment. For added individuality, the roof can also be personalised in various colours to suit the body colour of the vehicle.

If pressing buttons and having your posterior massaged and blow-dried is your thing, a Mercedes would be a better source for your funds and while the 8C Competizione doesn't want for key equipment, it's not what you'd dub a luxurious cabin. Instead, just enjoy the deeply ribbed bucket seats, the beautifully finished carbon fibre body panels and the Sport button on the dash that opens the exhaust bypass valves and shortens the throttle travel.

Get a bit enthusiastic with the loud pedal and you won't replicate Alfa Romeo's quoted 17.9mpg combined fuel economy figure. Make no mistake, the 8C Competizione likes a drop of 98RON and will fall into insurance group 20 and will have all the running costs of a top line Maserati model. The limited production run means that these things are in huge demand. Alfa Romeo has worked hard to keep the 8C out of the hands of the most obvious speculators, but the more exigent buyer may well be tempted by the prospect of a big profit when the next 'must have' car appears on the far horizon.

Emissions are rated at 377g/km, so if you're planning on running one as your company hack, expect the Chancellor to extract his pound of flesh! Thanks to the immutable laws of supply and demand, the 8C Competizione may well work out cheaper to run, in the short term at least, than a diesel Ford Fiesta. Now who says that the best things in life don't come for free?

As a consumer desirable, the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione has virtually no peer in its price bracket. It's exclusive, beautiful, makes the most intoxicating noise, is blistering quick and fuses old-school appeal with high-tech manufacturing processes. It is, by most subjective assessments, a masterstroke. With such a limited production run, demand is sky high and running one will therefore be as close to free motoring as it's possible to get.

For a manufacturer whose premium products otherwise struggle to top £30,000, the 8C Competizione wears its badge surprisingly comfortably. Would buyers flock to a £110,000 Peugeot or Volvo? No, and the reason is charisma, a quality the 8C has in bucketloads. It may fall somewhere between junior supercars like the Ferrari F430 and the Lamborghini Gallardo and GT cars like Mercedes SLs and Bentley Continental GTs in its execution but it won't stop you wanting one and, unless you're one of the lucky 41 in this country, it won't stop you being much too late.