Alfa 8c Axed
Plans to put the stunning Alfa 8c Competizione concept coupe into production have been scrapped at the 11th hour. The heartbreaking decision was taken by Luca di Montezemolo because he feared that the beautiful 8c would badly damage demand for the Fiat group's other great-looking rear-drive coupe, the Maserati 4200GT. The 8c was to be built on a tubular chassis, with a revised version of the Maserati's V8 drivetrain, but Alfa could not settle on a pricing strategy. With only a limited production run planned, the 8c would have had to be priced higher than the big-volume Maser, and this was at odds with the overall group strategy. It was also felt that the existing network of Alfa dealers was not set up to handle such a specialised, premium product available in very limited numbers.
There is, however, a glimmer of light to come out of the 8c's sorry demise. Engineers have been ordered back to the drawing board to create a smaller coupe (possibly to be known as the Sprint) based on the next- generation Alfa 147. The team has been briefed to use as many styling cues from the 8c as possible, as Montezemolo still believes in the spirit of the idea. It will be a long wait, though. With not even an outline design in place, we don't expect the car to be ready before 2008 at the earliest.