News: Swiss Watch
June 1, 2008
Poetic hyperbole is an occupational hazard when it comes to writing about such cars as the new Alfa Romeo 8C Spider. Nonetheless, I will endeavor to keep my cool and resist the urge to quote William Shakespeare or Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It won’t be easy, however, because if ever there was a car more lovely and more temperate than a summer’s day, it’s this. Arriving on the heels of the similarly dreamy 8C Competizione coupe, the 8C Spider carries on as a sort of style and performance emissary for a rejuvenated (and America-bound) Alfa Romeo.
Mechanically, the Spider parallels the hardtop 8C, with a Ferrari-built 444 hp 4.7-liter V-8 driving the rear wheels through an aft-mounted 6-speed automated manual transmission, actuated by paddles behind the steering wheel. The Spider prudently foregoes the weight, complexity, and bulk of a retractable hardtop, instead employing a two-layer folding canvas roof with one-button electro-hydraulic operation.
Top stowed, the sun warms a matte-finish carbon-fiber dashboard brightened by scads of aluminum pieces, many of them (like an 11-pound sculpture that defines the center console) machined from solid billet. The seats feature stiff, lightweight carbon-fiber composite shells wrapped in creamy, sweet-smelling Poltrona Frau hide.
Thanks to a highly rigid, Maserati-derived steel chassis and carbon-fiber body panels, the open-topped 8C’s structural integrity should remain exemplary and curb weight should only marginally exceed the coupe’s 3,500 pounds. Acceleration to 60 mph will be a tenth or two off the Competizione’s 4.2-second sprint and top speed will be a few hash marks shy of its drag-limited 180 mph.
As with the 8C Competizione, Alfa Romeo plans to release only 500 8C Spiders, assembled at the revamped Maserati factory in Modena, Italy. Of those, a scant few will be sold and serviced by Maserati dealerships in the U.S. Pricing is yet to be determined, but expect the 8C Spider to relieve its fortunate owner of something close to $300,000.
Alfa Romeo, www.alfaromeo.com
advertisement
