Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and Spider: a legend reborn

By James Page

| 30 Oct 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and Spider: legend reborn

There are easier places than south London in which to have your first experience of a high-performance car worth a six-figure sum.

It’s late morning, but the traffic is still heavy and I’m trying to get some sense of where the corners of this Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione lie without rubbing them against anything or anyone else.

Ahead, somewhere, is Richard Norris, at the wheel of an 8C Spider, and I need to keep him in sight so I don’t get lost before our day has even started.

The 8C’s interior mixes traditional Alfa Romeo styling cues with modern materials

Past the remnants of Croydon airport and through endless traffic lights.

The 8C is currently in ‘fully automatic’ mode, which is probably just as well for now, the V8 burbling away and the lazy gearshifts in the six-speed transaxle taking care of themselves.

We have already discussed which buttons to press in order to hand more control to the driver, but that will come later.

We slowly creep south, eventually breaking out of the urban confines and beyond the suffocating M25.

The pace begins to increase as we continue on the motorway for a while, the Alfa well able to sweep from moderate to high speed with a gentle prod of the throttle – even in its relatively subdued automatic setting.

Richard has already identified an alternative route to our first stop of the day, where we will rendezvous with photographer Tony.

We peel off the motorway and, before heading on to a stretch of B-road, he stops and comes back to check that I have pressed the Sport button and am correctly set up.

The Alfa Romeo 8C’s V8 is based upon a Ferrari design

Now the speed of the gearchanges is increased – and the timing of them is completely in my hands.

The throttle response is keener, too, and, above 3000rpm, valves open in the exhaust to better liberate the engine’s crisp bark.

Most press reports that appeared when the Alfa Romeo 8C was new were written following a few laps of Alfa’s Balocco proving ground.

Heroic road testers spoke of immediately taking the car to its limits, of balancing the rear end on the throttle when exiting corners and ‘using wheelspin’ to stay in the powerband.

Which is all very well, and some of them might have done just that, but the likelihood is that we have already covered more miles than they did and it’s not yet 10am.

And driving on a test track bears little relation to how mere mortals will use a car on the public road.

Quad tailpipes and large rear haunches set off the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione’s aggressive styling

So, Sport mode enabled and we’re ready to go.

Ahead, Richard buries the Spider’s throttle, so I follow suit in the Competizione and we charge into the countryside.

The engine comes from very good stock, being based upon Ferrari’s F136 unit – as used in the F430, plus the Maserati GranTurismo and Quattroporte – but bored out to 4.7 litres to give 444bhp.

You could be forgiven for thinking that a big V8 would major on torque yet show little willingness to rev. Wrong.

You wouldn’t believe how easily and quickly it spins around to 6000rpm, at which point you are making exceedingly good progress and basking in the savage noise, but still 1000rpm shy of where peak power is produced.

In straight-line terms it lacks the once-and-for-all pace of an F430, but few are the occasions when you think to yourself that it could do with more grunt.

The Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione’s woven leather trim was a costly extra

The steering is remarkably fast, so much so that it catches me unawares as we barrel into a quick right-hand bend.

The Alfa Romeo’s long snout turns in far more readily than my clumsy input had allowed for, but not for a moment does it feel as if it’s losing grip.

While the double-wishbone suspension was sourced from Maserati, the 8C received its own bushes, geometry, springs and dampers. The tyres are bespoke, too – 285/35 ZR20 Pirelli P Zeros.

The upshot is that the Alfa rides very firmly, jiggling away beneath you and keeping you informed of the state of the road surface via the thin, carbonfibre seat – as seen in the Ferrari Enzo and Maserati MC12.

It slides fore and aft but needs removing to adjust its height. Only a 20-minute job, apparently, but less than ideal if, for example, you’re 5ft 7in and need all the help you can get in terms of visibility.

Our exhilarating blast comes to an end near Bolney in the Sussex countryside, and we pause as the cars cool in the summer sun, ticking and pinging to themselves.

The name is familiar, but does Alfa Romeo’s 8C reincarnation live up to expectations?

There is little doubt that in either Competizione or Spider form the 8C is a fabulous-looking car.

It first appeared as a concept in 2003, when chief designer Wolfgang Egger came up with a two-seater coupé purely to remind those folk who might have been disillusioned with its contemporary products that Alfa’s heart and soul were intact.

The Fiat bigwigs already had their hands full with Ferrari and Maserati, though, so they weren’t keen on a car that could venture into similar territory.

Not until 2006, with new management in place at Alfa, was it decided that a short production run of the 8C would give the marque a welcome boost.

The announcement came at that year’s Paris Salon, and the response was overwhelming.

There and then, the Milanese firm could quite easily have sold the entire 500-strong batch of Competiziones three times over.

The Alfa Romeo 8C Spider follows the Competizione in this rare, expensive, stylish convoy

To turn concept into reality, Alfa Romeo used a shortened Maserati M139 (Quattroporte) platform with a central steel section and subframes front and rear, plus main outer panels made from carbonfibre.

Final assembly was carried out by Maserati, and the result was a car that tipped the scales at a whopping 300kg less than the GranTurismo.

Pleasingly, the lines remained pretty much unchanged throughout the 8C’s development. It is a stunningly good-looking design, curvaceous and well proportioned.

Its influences are clear, with echoes of the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ throughout, although the overall stance is more muscular and aggressive than delicate and lithe.

Aesthetically, I’d go for the Competizione over the Spider every time and just accept that you can’t really see out of it.

The Alfa Romeo 8C’s centre console was machined from a single piece of aluminium

With the sun shining and the clock still the right side of lunch, we swap cars and press on for the coast.

The Spider, launched two years after the coupé, has carbon-ceramic brakes that are less easily modulated than the fearsomely powerful steel ones on the Competizione, which uses six-pot Brembo calipers up front and four-pots at the rear.

All Spiders (and only that model) got the composite discs, which reduce unsprung weight and offset some of the increase from the necessary body reinforcement.

The open variant’s ride is a little more compliant, too, thanks to different springs, dampers and anti-roll bars.

As you’d hope for an Alfa, the interior is stylish and special.

Traditional cowls house the rev counter and speedo, and contrast with the thoroughly modern digital readout in the middle and the swathes of carbonfibre around the doors and dashboard.

The centre console isn’t some plasticky metal substitute, either – it’s hewn from a solid chunk of aluminium.

The Alfa Romeo 8C’s elegant fitted luggage is made for its tiny boot

Both of the featured cars have the optional ‘woven’ leather upholstery – a €2000 extra when new – plus the matching Schedoni luggage that would have cost the first owner another €5000.

The latter fits into the space behind the rear seats, which offers far more useful storage than the pitiful area (I won’t call it a boot) that is beneath the rear hatch.

You could also have had a carbonfibre steering wheel and gearshift paddles, plus a Bose stereo.

Nothing on the options list was anything less than eye-wateringly expensive, however.

Ours is a very rare convoy. The chances of seeing one 8C in the UK are remote – only 40 Competiziones came to these shores, most heading to the USA.

And, officially at least, the Spider production run matched the 500 of the Competizione.

As a result, seeing two running together is highly unusual, and few things that I’ve ever driven have caused such a stir.

The Alfa Romeo 8C Spider was marginally heavier than the coupé and was set up for a more forgiving ride

We arrive at Birling Gap and use the car park to turn around while going back and forth for Tony. Our first run alerts a group of photography students to our presence.

On our second, a couple of minutes later, a few have abandoned the spectacular coastline to take pictures of the Alfas instead.

For our final pass, at least 10 of them have positioned themselves in various points on both sides of the road.

We are no less inconspicuous when we decamp a couple of miles up the road.

A class of much younger kids is sitting near a set of challenging hairpins.

After a couple of runs, it is all too clear that more faces are pointing in our direction than towards the person trying to educate them on the local flora and fauna.

The Alfa Romeo 8C’s thin seats are surprisingly comfortable

A little later, the same class walks past as we prepare to set off on another run.

Almost all of them give a thumbs-up, a few shout “rev the engine” – we’re only too happy to oblige – and the class wag pipes up from the back: “Aston Martins are better!”

That aside, I like to think that, in 30 years’ time, Classic & Sports Car might revisit the Alfa Romeo 8C, and the owner will explain that they fell in love with the car when they saw a pair of them near Beachy Head while on a school trip.

Having driven a Competizione back from Brescia and a Spider from Stuttgart, marque specialist Richard has a good feel for the cars’ strengths and weaknesses.

He explains that most of them disappeared into collections when they were new, subsequently being used very little, and only in the past couple of years have they started to creep on to the market.

The Alfa Romeo 8C’s doors are made from carbonfibre

“Prices for the Spider and Competizione are getting closer,” Richard says. “They both initially depreciated by about 10% during 2010-’11, but coupés have risen about £10k per year since.”

“The Spiders – which were more expensive new – have appreciated slightly on their original showroom price.”

A quick check at the time of writing proved that you won’t find many for less than £140,000, and even the oldest are unlikely to show five-figure mileages.

“The motor has proven itself in the GranTurismo and Quattroporte,” Richard continues, “plus the Ferrari F430 and California.

“It’s a very strong, reliable unit and uses timing chains not belts. That’s good news for maintenance costs.

“Alfa Romeo wanted to build a car that was as emotive as possible – a stunning design mated to a powerful engine and constructed from modern materials. I think it undoubtedly succeeded – they really are wonderful.”

‘At 6000rpm you are making exceedingly good progress and basking in the savage noise’

Our run down here has taken in motorways, dual carriageways and swooping B-roads.

On all of them, the 8C has proven to be enormously entertaining, but it’s one of those cars that has a charisma beyond the sum of its parts.

Where a Ferrari or a Porsche might attract a degree of opprobrium, there’s none with the Alfa.

At the end of the afternoon, there is one last, slightly surreal, confirmation of its appeal.

As a Spitfire appears overhead – the Alfa’s V8 engine for once having to give best in the aural stakes – a wedding party arrives and the photographer asks if the bride and groom can be pictured with the cars.

With the 8C name, these Alfas had an awful lot to live up to, but I can think of few cars in which I’ve received such overwhelmingly positive attention.

And the best part is that we’ve still got to drive them home.

Images: Tony Baker

Thanks to: Richard Norris at Classic Alfa

This was first in our November 2015 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

Factfile

Alfa Romeo 8C

Sold/number built 2007-’10/1000 (all)
Construction steel platform, separate front and rear subframes, carbonfibre panels
Engine all-alloy, dohc-per-bank, 32-valve 4691cc V8, sequential multi-point injection
Max power 444bhp @ 7000rpm
Max torque 352lb ft @ 4750rpm
Transmission six-speed, electronically operated semi-automatic transaxle, RWD
Suspension independent, by double wishbones, coil-over dampers, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering power-assisted rack and pinion
Brakes ventilated discs, with servo and ABS
Length 14ft 4½in (4381mm)
Width 6ft 3in (1894mm)
Height 4ft 5in (1341mm, coupé)
Weight 3494lb (1585kg, coupé)
0-60mph 4.2 secs
Top speed 182mph
Mpg 17
Price new £110,000 (coupé)