Following the long hood is the cabin, which sits far back to improve weight distribution. Thin, curved windows precede flared fenders that look as if sculpted by the wind. An integral lip spoiler ties up the dramatic styling with two round brake lights - a detail borrowed from Zagato's Giulia TZ.
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| Style details from Zagato's classic Giulia TZ (TZ1 shown) can be seen in the backend of the 8C. (Photo: Alfa Romeo) |
To back up the classic sports car styling, Alfa Romeo has given the 8C Competizione an extremely race-like power plant. Correlating to '8C', the concept features an 8-Cylinder mill borrowed from cousin-brand Maserati, the same 90-degree, 4.2-liter V8 fitted to the Spyder, Coupe and upcoming Quattroporte. It isn't, however, a stock transfer like that in the Brera concept. Rather, Alfa Romeo has gone a step further and added a turbocharger, a simple but effective piece of hardware that should transform one of the sweetest V8 engines into a veritable monster.
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| For the 8C, Alfa Romeo has added a turbocharger to cousin-company Maserati's brilliant V8 engine. (Photo: Alfa Romeo) |
But that's where Alfa's published numbers don't make sense. With output levels of 400-hp and 325 lb-ft of torque in turbo form, I'm left scratching my head at why the boosted V8 only achieves a 10-hp increase over the 390-hp Trident model. And what happened to the stock engine's 8 lb-ft of torque? The turbocharged V8 is showing 325 lb-ft while the naturally-aspirated 4.2-L produces a healthier 333 ft-lb of torque - strange indeed.