2008 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider Price Review

2008 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider - Front Side

Furthermore, in the front we can find the characteristic Alfa Romeo stylings, with a new interpretaion of the “whiskers” and shield. Without forgetting, that this innovative range anticipates the elements and proportions of the future Alfa Romeo cars, always with complete respect for the historical legacy of the brand.

It’s worth underlining that to reach these top levels of areo-dynamic efficiency, solutions which don’t limit themselves to the design of the form have been adopted on the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider. All the surfaces and profiles of the uprights and windows, together with the form and positioning of the rear-view mirrors, have been optimized using computer models and tests in wind tunnels and real-life environments. As a result, air flows round the vehicle following it’s natural path, unhampered by corners and irregularities. The end result is a negative LC (lift coefficient) which like competition vehicles, contributes to stability at high speeds.

But the peculiarity of this vehicle, is the hooded top fitted with electro-hydraulic automatic control (controllable via a button on the dashboard). The hooded top of the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider is composed of two overlapping sheets: the external one is made with a multi-thread textile which can withstand the elements, whilst the interior has high sound-proofing qualities. Furthermore, the hooded roof-top, available in various colours, has been perfected aesthetically, aerodynamically and for acoustic comfort. It has also been perfected from a functional point of view, with specially developed film-reels to render more agile, rapid and secure any explanations of the functioning.

In the interior, the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider guarantees a sophisticated environment, thanks to the vast use of composite materials in the dashboard and internal panels, as well as the use of anatomical seats, produced in carbon fibres, that can be adjusted according to the physical characteristics of the driver (up to now, a feature only available to racing cars). Furthermore, for maximum possible personalization of the interior, the client can chose between different environments and aesthetic solutions. All distinguishable by the particular attention to detail and artisan workmanship: from the contrasting stitches, colour tone and exclusive matchings. The bucket seats are upholstered in Frau flower leather (an exclusive and innovative treatment of the weave, in which the leather is bound to a natural fibre, creating a look of great visual impact).

2008 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider - On The Road

2005 Spider concept

At the 2005 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Alfa Romeo unveiled the 8C Spider, a roadster version of the Competizione coupé. The Spider concept was built by Carrozzeria Marazzi. Production of the 8C Spider was confirmed by Sergio Marchionne on September 25, 2007. It was announced that the Spider would be built in a 500 unit production run and would cost around €20,000 (US$27,500) more than the coupe version.

2008 production version

Production of the 8C Spider began in 2009, in Modena, with Maserati in charge of building the cars. As previously announced, 500 cars will be built, each priced at €175,000 (US$241,000) excluding taxes. The production version was unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. 35 of 500 Spiders are going to United States.

Alfa Romeo claims that the 8C Spider’s top speed is 290 kilometres per hour (180 mph), which makes it slightly slower than the coupe version. The brakes on the Spider are Brembo carbon-ceramic units. The Spider has a two-layer electrically operated fabric roof. The windshield frame is made of carbon fiber to try to maintain a 50/50 weight distribution.

Every supermodel has her favorite catwalks. In the case of the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider concept car, the most notable appearances so far have included Pebble Beach (concours d’elegance), Goodwood (Festival of Speed), the Nrburgring (Oldtimer Grand Prix), and Arese. Arese? That’s the old home of Alfa Romeo, a tired and cluttered factory complex on the outskirts of Milan. When we arrived at the gate to take the lady in red carbon fiber out for a ride on the town, the clouds had opened up. Although the 8C does look pretty sexy with its tight-fitting black top strapped firmly into position, the angry Lombardian skies would have thoroughly soaked the flimsy fabric contraption in no time. Thankfully, the Italian car industry’s recent state of decay provided a dry and convenient alternative location in the shape of three gutted assembly halls. Stadium-sized, with concrete floor slabs and long lines of evenly spaced cast-iron supports, these industrial monuments to former glory days turned out to be the perfect setting for this remarkable Alfa Romeo styling exercise. Penned by in-house designer Wolfgang Egger, the 8C Spider was inspired by legendary Alfa sports cars from the golden ’60s such as the Giulia TZ and the 33 Stradale.

When I finally get in, I’m firmly secured in position by a clamshell carbon-fiber seatback and a merciless seatbelt. The aluminum pedals are well-spaced, but the clutch is too heavy. Unlike the production coupe, the 8C Spider concept isn’t fitted with the paddleshift Cambiocorsa transmission we know from various Maseratis. Instead, it features the traditional six-speed manual from the Maserati GranSport Coupe. These cogworks can only be described as the second-best choice. First gear refuses to stick most of the time, reverse is hard to find, and the considerable slack in the shift pattern suggests that this particular gearbox was filled with grappa, not gear lubricant. Thankfully, the 32-valve V-8 plays in a different league. Its sonorous sound track makes your eardrums go numb with emotion, its subtle vibrations tingle your spine, and its take-off performance is impressive enough to briefly make the two Alfa Romeo PR guys fear for their jobs.

2008 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider - Rear Side

The Italian brand has announced the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider price for the United States market. The Alfa Romeo 8C Spider will be built in a limited run of only 500 units, out of which 35 are scheduled for the North American market. Under the hood of the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider there’s a 4.7 liter 8 cylinder engine that’s good for 450 hp at 7.000 rpm and 354 lb-ft of torque. The engine of the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider has been coupled with a self-shifting 6-speed gearbox and is able to take the car from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.6 seconds.

A number of recent reports put the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider price for the United States just under the 300,000 USD mark.

There are no conflicts, however, with the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider, which is, as motoring cognoscenti agree, the most beautiful modern car ever to grace tarmac. The new Spider is the topless version of the 8C Competizione coupé — Alfa’s first supercar in more than a decade — and despite the chunky £174,000 price tag, the Spider’s limited production run of 500 has been snapped up faster than the latest must-have handbag in a January sale.

The Italian manufacturer is tapping into its two-seater, soft-top heritage, which includes the 1950s Giulietta Spider and the most famous car in the marque’s history, Dustin Hoffman’s Duetto from the 1967 film The Graduate. It is, however, this thoroughly modern 8C Spider, with its carbon-fibre body draped elegantly over a Maserati-derived steel chassis, that will be remembered as the most beautiful. Its curves leave you spellbound, and even the most articulate of commentators would run out of superlatives with which to describe it.

It is markedly masculine, yet there’s a certain femininity – the sort you observe only when a woman is painting her fingernails … naked. You’ll just have to trust me on that one.

Considering that this car that was conceived and designed only as a coupe (making its debut in concept form at the Frankfurt auto show in 2003), the 8C’s Spiderfication comes off superbly. Like a slightly shorter and curvier-than-average supermodel, there’s not a bad line to be found — and plenty of sinuous shapes to appreciate. Carbon-fiber body work bolts and bonds to a steel and aluminum tubular chassis. There’s additional bracing to compensate for the structural strength given up by the loss of its lid. While structural rigidity suffers by nearly 30 percent, the coupe was so strong to begin with that the Spider is a mostly body wiggle-free machine. Alfa bagged the notion of a retractable hardtop, citing high development costs, design compromises in the rear-deck area, and the more coachbuilt nature of a rich-looking soft top. Good call. Weight goes up by about 200 pounds.