Enchanting Alfa Romeo 8C for sale

For a company known for its gorgeous performance cars that would look just fine parked outside the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, Alfa Romeo doesn’t exactly produce them. Granted, the company has always been good at making regular cars look pretty good, and the occasional (often brilliant) Quadrifoglio model keeps its sporty image alive and well, but a dedicated performance car? You only come along once a decade, if that.

The most recent incarnation is the highly unexpected and extremely limited 33 Stradale: a stunning homage to its 1960s namesake and based on the underpinnings of the Maserati MC20 which, funnily enough, (although rumour has it) started life as an Alfa. It’s a hotly debated topic, but if the rumours are to be believed, Alfa’s version would have been a follow-up to the 8C with a matching name. It has reportedly been axed, along with the BMW M4-rivalling GTV coupe, in favour of more certain money-makers such as compact SUVs. Still, it doesn’t get much better than the MC20 and 33 Stradale in terms of consolidation pricing, but it does mean that the car we have here remains the most recent (and possibly last) V8-powered Alfa.

In terms of looks, it would have been a tall order to top the old 8C. It’s hard to believe that the Competizione concept debuted more than 20 years ago and that the Wolfgang Egger design would make it into the production model without any major changes four years later, in 2007. The name refers to the eight-cylinder competition cars of old, with the front-engined GT silhouette being a modern take on the many beautiful racers of the second half of the 1930s. But there’s a touch of the 1960s in there, particularly the near-Kammback and duck tail – and yet it still feels modern even today.

What’s more, the bodywork was crafted from carbon fibre, as only the most serious performance GTs of the era were. Slightly less lightweight was the steel chassis it was draped over, meaning the coupe isn’t quite as light on its feet as you might think at 1,585kg. Still, a roaring 4.7-litre, 450bhp V8 developed by Ferrari and assembled by Maserati meant there was more than enough grunt to propel it along, and a hellish soundtrack to boot. And then there were the carbon-ceramic brakes, limited-slip differential and (very much on-trend for 2007) a six-speed automated manual transmission. That’s quite the kit list for a car that, from the outside at least, looks tailor-made for prowling the streets of Saint-Tropez.

It’s fair to say that expectations were high for the 8C’s arrival, especially as Alfa Romeo had never built a supercar in the modern era. Unfortunately for the manufacturer, a damning TG review has been hanging over the 8C like a dark cloud for decades, with Clarkson describing the supercar’s handling as “terrible.” Ben Collins wasn’t too fond of the 8C either, naming it one of his least favorite cars from his time on the show. He also put the TVR Sagaris on that list, though, and having driven one myself recently, I’m not entirely sure what he’s talking about. At six or seven tenths, the Sagaris is magnificent, as I’m sure the 8C would be too.

Still, I didn’t drive the Sagaris at Stig speeds and I doubt many people would in the Alfa 8C. Not these days, anyway, when this 6,996-mile example will set you back £239,990 – around double what it was worth when new in 2009. That opens the door to plenty of V12 Ferraris, such as this 2016 F12 , or even this 812 Superfast . All very special cars, of course, but how often do you see an 8C speeding through the streets of London or revving relentlessly at a car meet? Almost never, and that’s a big win in our book.