Alfa Romeo

So, in a nut shell, here's the scoop. The Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione is one of the most exquisite autos to emerge in recent years. But with such amazing gusto comes a steep price tag. Amazingly, Alfa managed to condense the lineage of this supercar into the diminutive MiTo, retaining much of the same charm but at an attainable cost. And to celebrate this feat of automotive styling, Alfa Romeo challenged two up and coming designers to create women's jeans as cool as MiTo's genes. Or so the story goes...

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 (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.

We normally bring news of Novitec Rosso putting out amazing tuning packages for Ferrari, their bread and butter operation. But lately the Company has been cosying up with another member of the Fiat family, Alfa Romeo. And strangely enough, they chose the super petite Alfa Romeo MiTo as their newest offering. Novitec first started by bumping up the 1.4-liter four-banger to 186 hp, a process known as NOVITEC POWERJET 2. By adding 31 hp and 22 lb-ft of torque they knocked 0.7 seconds off the 0 to 62 mph sprint, coming in at 7.4 second.

Okay, so it's not really a sub-5-zero car but we're talking about Novitec here so we'll let it slide. The MiTo's diesel engines also get reworked with new ECUs for the 1.3 and 1.6 JTD motors that add 20 hp and 24 hp respectively along with a 34 lb-ft jump in torque. This is available as the NOVITEC POWERRAIL 5 module.

Alfa Romeo is back. Back in a big way. They had a bit of a lull in their performance and aesthetic prowess for a while but have recently really found their stride. Their standard Alfa MiTo is a cool alternative to the MINI or Audi A3. But the Alfa Romeo MiTo GTA has the power-to-weight ratio and performance specs to eat a JCW MINI or Audi S3 for lunch. GTA stands for Gran Turismi Alleggerito. Unfortunately, this car is still in the concept phase but it looks like a production run is in the works. It will be officially unveiled at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show next week.

Only 500 will be built to distribute world wide and all are sold out. But the real news is that Alfa is back in America! The 8C Competizione comes in 8c Red, Competition Red, Black or Yellow.

A variety of manufacturers all had their hands in the pot. The engine is assembled by Ferrari and the carbon fiber shell comes from ATR Group. The chassis is steel and is produced by ITCA Produzione. Alfa Romeo then takes all the pieces and parts, puts them together in Modena, Italy and out comes an 181 mph dynamo. The 4.7L Ferrari/Maserati derived engine puts out 444 horses which proper it from 0 to 62 mph in 4.2 seconds and give it over 1g of lateral acceleration.

Source: Alfa Romeo