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Plans to put the stunning Alfa 8c Competizione concept coupe into production have been scrapped |
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Written by http://www.eurocarblog.com/
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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.
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