Let's take a quick vote here. We won't be tabulating the totals, so we'll keep this unofficial, but we want you to be honest. How many of you, deep inside, wonder if you couldn't have made it as a professional racing driver? Maybe not the next Michael Schumacher, but at least a promising prospect. If only you had started out in karting at a young enough age, kept yourself in shape and found the sponsorship to fund what could have been a budding career.

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ALFA Romeo turned glamour and style up to the max with the show debut of the landmark MiTo.

Photographers found themselves fighting their way through the crowds to get a shot of not one but two cars on display at the 2008 British International Motor Show. This is the first time the sporty supermini has appeared in the UK

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Though Alfa Romeo unveiled the Mi.To back in March, we've only had a few images at which to stare in disbelief over how there's a part of the world that produces small cars this beautiful. Not so anymore, as Alfa has released over 40 new high-res images of the Mi.To today. Named after the place in which it was designed (Milan) and the place in which it will be built (Turin), the Mi.To is basically a Fiat Grande Punto wrapped in a skin that was inspired by the luscious 8C Competizione.

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It was only in December that we mention Alfa Romeo was planning to open a factory in the United States. We followed that story with another in March when Fiat also mentioned a possibility of Iveco truck production coming to the States. It was in that same month that Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne told the Financial Times that his company was in talks with major U.S. automakers about sharing production. On Saturday, Alfa Romeo brand chief Luca de Meo told a German magazine that talks were under way with Chrysler.

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Perfectly timed for summer, Italian sporting car manufacturer, Alfa Romeo, has extended the head turning Alfa Spider range with a limited edition version. Complete with £3000 worth of extra features at no extra cost, the Alfa Spider Limited Edition effortlessly unites the head and heart with dramatic effect.

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Alfa Romeo UK is to launch a special-edition, Prodrive-tweaked version of the Brera coupe in mid-June, according to reports on Italiaspeed.com.

Called Brera S, it will come with the 2.2 JTS or 3.2 V6 petrol engines only, and will feature specifically-tuned suspension, a number of lighter-weight components and unique trim detailing, with bespoke 19" alloy wheels and 'S' badging.

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The first example of just 41 Alfa 8C Competizione supercars destined for the UK, arrived here last week. The ultra-rare £138,500 hand-built Italian sportscar was collected by award-winning Manchester-based architect, Ian Simpson, from Alfa’s largest and longest established dealership, Mangoletsi, in Knutsford, Cheshire.

Visually arresting from every angle, the Alfa 8C Competizione looks every inch a supercar, with performance credentials to match. Under the bonnet a responsive 4.7litre V8 engine produces an awesome 450bhp. Channelled through a sophisticated 6-speed F1-style paddle shift gearbox to the rear wheels, the Alfa 8C Competizione produces enough power to launch its occupants from 0-62mph in just 4.2 seconds, and on to a top speed of 181mph.

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Ah yes, the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider. With only 500 units going into production (and of course the crazy price tag) we all probably could only dream of seeing it at the auto shows and sitting in it for a few minutes. But until then, Alfa has been kind enough to release some new images of the beauty.

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Just months before Alfa Romeo’s return to the U.S., the Italian brand has lost a major influence at the head of its design team. Frank Stephenson, 49, the American who helped Alfa Romeo’s styling reach the success of the 8C Competizione and the recent Mi.To hatchback, has left the company.

Stephenson confirmed his leave with AutoWeek, but did not comment on what his reasoning was.

“I have a few things I am looking at now, but I don’t want to go into them, but it’s something that I have instigated,” Stephenson said.


Rumors of Stephenson’s departure from Alfa Romeo have been circulating ever since Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne asked former Pininfarina design director Lorenzo Ramaciotti to join Fiat’s styling team. Ramaciotti has been in retirement since May of 2007.

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The Italians are coming, the Italians are coming! And when they get here in the guise of Alfa Romeo, they will be looking for a factory where the 8C and other cars wearing the cross and serpent can be built. Alfa is looking at two options regarding a U.S.-based factory: buy one of GM, Ford, or Chrysler's closed factories, or expand a Case New Holland factory.

Case New Holland, which is actually owned by Alfa, makes agricultural machinery and construction equipment. It already has 11 plants in the U.S., and Alfa could simply expand one of them to make cars. The plant, a location for which will be selected in May, will begin churning out Alfas in 2011 or 2012. At capacity, production is expected to be around 150,000 cars for the North American and European markets. Alfa Romeo will decide on the distribution network and particular vehicles to be made within three months, which makes it sound as if the Italians are definitely coming.

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If there’s one car out there that we’d do anything to acquire, Alfa Romeo’s 8c Competizione would easily top our list. Unfortunately, only 500 examples where built and, to our knowledge, they have all been spoken for. However, one of those 500 buyers decided to give this prized Italian beauty away on the Italian auction site, “AutoScout24”.

And to make things more interesting, the seller quotes that the specific example has received a power boost (he doesn’t give any details though), with the Ferrari derived V8 delivering a whopping 590 Hp, 140 Hp more than the stock version. Still, that doesn’t seem to justify the €380,000 or $600,000 USD (about double the retail price) that the seller is asking for.

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Since the news was announced that Italian manufacturer Fiat was seeking partnership for its production of Alfa Romeos in the U.S., most of the speculative matches have involved American carmakers.

But daily publication MF has cited sources close to Fiat that indicate that BMW is just as likely an ally as any of the U.S. domestic manufacturers. The daily claims that while the lion’s share of the attention has been focused on U.S. companies, with Ford being the name mentioned most often, a European company with production facilities in the country would seem to serve Alfa’s purposes as well.

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The worsening exchange rate differential between the strengthening euro and weakening U.S. dollar means importing European manufactured models to North America is now significantly more expensive than just a few years ago. It’s a problem Alfa Romeo has to juggle with as it attempts to re-establish itself in the U.S. next year, but it looks like the carmaker has a number of options up its sleeve to help ride out the storm.

One option officials are looking at is building a new plant in Mexico to supply North America with volume models like the 159 sedan and upcoming Mi.To and 149 hatchbacks. However, a cheaper and more realistic solution would be to utilize the unused capacity of an American carmaker.

Speaking with the Financial Times, Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne said he planned to start North American production of Alfa cars by 2011 or 2012. “I’ve always had the view that we had to produce in America,” he explained. Marchionne also revealed that Alfa will initially lose money on the cars it sells in the U.S. and is unlikely to become profitable until a suitable partner is found. “I can suffer the loss initially, as long as I know I’m going to be producing enough,” he lamented.

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Alfa Romeo has unveiled the Alfa Mito, a £12,000 sporting supermini that takes it straight back into Alfasud territory. Due to be officially launched in June, the Alfa Mi.To should start reaching buyers in Italy and the largest European left-hand-drive markets from July. UK customers can expect to see it in right-hand-drive just before the end of the year. There’s a good chance it will be shown at London’s motor show in July.

The new Alfa Mito, whose use of the first two letters of “Milan” and “Turin” mark the fact that is it designed in the first and built in the second, is based on highly modified Fiat Punto Abarth architecture. There had been much conjecture that the car would be called Junior, a name associated with past Alfas and widely used as a code-name during the car’s gestation. However, Alfa officials believe the tag would not work well in some markets.

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Alfa Romeo is returning to the US market in about a year, offering the zooty 8C Competizione and 8C Spider atop a range of less spectacular offerings. While the top-end 8Cs will probably be Italian emigres, the 149 and 169 sedans could be put together in Mexico. Alfa doesn't have a hard and fast decision yet, and could pick another site, even one in North America. Moving the labor to Mexico for the volume sellers might prove to be a wise move on Alfa's part. The dollar continues to take a beating, pushing up the cost of European items on US sales markets, and building somewhere else would sidestep some of those increased costs. Alfa is trying this idea in China, too, where Chery will assemble automobiles for that market.

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