Car Moon

The new Alfa Romeo 4C Sports Concept will receive its UK public debut at the rapidly approaching 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed, which takes place from July 1 to 3.

Seen for the first time at the Geneva Salon in March, Italy’s answer to the Lotus Elise boasts a lightweight chassis with power coming from a mid-mounted 1.75-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine delivering 200 ponies to the rear wheels. It can complete the 0-62mph (100km/h) sprint in less than 5 seconds and reach a top speed of 155mph (250km/h). Production is set to start in 2012.

It may not be the best sports car Italy has to offer us right now, but Alfa Romeo’s 8C Spider is certainly a prime candidate for being one of the most beautiful out there. That said, even Novitec Rosso is smart enough to know that you don’t mess with a good thing with the German tuner focusing its attention on improving the Alfa’s mechanical hardware.

The highlight of Novitec Rosso’s performance package is hidden under the 8C Spider’s hood with the adoption of a modified version of the supercharger system used on the firm’s Maserati GT tune. A new water-to-air intercooler with a dedicated radiator, custom injectors, a stainless-steel high-performance exhaust system and an ECU optimization round off the changes to the 4.7-liter V8 engine.

Alfa Romeo has unveiled a concept study for a compact and affordable "supercar” called 4C Concept at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. The car is a two-seater, rear-wheel drive coupe with a mid-mounted engine that could find its way into production as early as 2012. According to the Italian car maker, the 4C represents “the true essence of a sports car, according to the brand values: performance, Italian style and technical excellence aimed at maximum driving pleasure in total safety.”

As the name suggests, the car is supposed to be a smaller version of the 8C Competizione, which is also true in the case of the design, as the 4C looks very similar to Alfa's supercar. The Alfa Romeo 4C Concept has a length of approximately 4 meters and a wheelbase of less than 2.4 meters. These dimensions emphasize the compact size of the car and also accentuate its agility, Alfa says.

Found hidden amongst a bunch of used, older generation Alfa Romeo models in Autotrader's used car listings, is this extremely rare 8C Competizione Spider. The 450HP V8 Italian exotic has been put up for sale by Connecticut-based Miller Motorcars, with the dealer stating it is a one-owner example driven a mere 825 miles since new and that it's one of 20 cars made for the U.S. market out of a total run of 500 examples (we must note that to our knowledge, Alfa Romeo built 35 Spiders for the USA).

The art piece you see pictured above was created to celebrate Alfa Romeo's centenary at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex (2-4 July). Designed by artist Gerry Judah, it is located on the front lawn of the Goodwood House.

The Centenary sculpture showcases two of the Italian marque's most important cars and at the same time, the first and most recent Alfa Romeo to feature an eight-cylinder engine: the famous 1925 World Championship winning Alfa P2 Grand Prix racer and the modern day Alfa 8C Competizione. The two cars are placed inside a red metal structure that represents Alfa's famous Cloverleaf.

Italy's famed but troubled design house Bertone made a comeback at this year's edition of the Geneva Salon with a new sports car concept designed to celebrate Alfa Romeo's 100th anniversary.

Named after a species of raptors, more commonly referred to as the sea hawk, Bertone's Pandion concept is loosely based on the Alfa Romeo 8c Competizone using the same high-revving 450HP 4.7-liter V8 engine.

Joining the celebrations for Alfa Romeo's centenary, Stile Bertone will pop the covers off a new concept model at next month's Geneva Salon. The Italian design house, which was recently left independent after the Fiat Group acquired the firm's manufacturing facilities, released a shady teaser sketch of the Alfa Romeo concept that is rumored (but not confirmed) to be based on the 8c Competizione model.

The first Alfa Romeo 8C Spider production car to be seen on the move in Britain will participate at next weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Spider will be joined on the hill by several famous motor racing cars from Alfa's historic museum collection in Arese, Italy, including a 1924 P2 Gran Premio which won the first World Championship in 1925 and the 6C 3000 CM that was driven to second place by Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1953 Mille Miglia.

You would think that since only a mere 84 (of a total of 500 examples) of Alfa's classically beautiful 8c Competizione were sent to North America, by now all of them should have been parked in a garage of some luxurious villa. Apparently not as currently, there are three brand-new 8c Competiziones up for sale on eBay Motors. The first one is located in Chesterfield Missouri and has a starting bid of $243,900 while the second one that is in Minnetonka, Minnesota, has a "Buy it Now" price of $329,995. Finally, there's an 8c in Houston Texas with a "Buy it Now" tag of $295,000.

But guess what; despite the fact that we're talking about one of the most gorgeous cars in the planet and a sure future classic, as we speak and aside from a declined offer, no one has placed a bid on any of the three examples.

Via: Insideline , Link: eBay

A few dozens of extremely fortunate American owners of one of the world's hottest sports cars, the Alfa Romeo 8c Competizione, will have to return their Italian beauty for a quick fix after it was discovered that certain models were manufactured with incorrectly torqued front and rear suspension upper and lower ball joint nuts. The recall also affects MY 2008 Maserati Gran Turismo and Quattroporte which share the same platform with the Alfa.

Some guys have all the luck... Car collector James Glickenhaus who made headlines last year for his custom-ordered, Pininfarina-designed, Ferrari P4/5, has become the proud owner of the first Alfa 8C Competizione destined for the US market. The handover ceremony took place at "Miller Motorcars" in Connecticut where Glickenhaus picked up the gorgeous Alfa. Of the five-hundred 8C Competiziones that are to be produced, 84 are destined for US clients and will have been delivered by the end of the year. The Alfa 8C Competizione is equipped with a 450HP 4.7-litre V8 engine teamed with a 6 speed paddle shift gearbox.

As usual, Alfa Romeo folks were quite talkative during the media launch of the new MiTo hatch earlier this week. Following yesterday’s announcment on the 2009 Alfa Romeo MiTo GTA with the 230Hp 1.8-liter Turbo engine, Dutch magazine “Auto Telegraaf” brings us more good news.

Talking with Alfa Romeo’s CEO Luca De Meo, the driving Dutchmen learned that the Italian carmaker is considering to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2010 with the launch of a limited edition GTA version of the luscious 8C Competizione that would be lighter and more powerful than the standard coupe that’s fitted with a Ferrari sourced 450Hp V8 engine. -Continued