Category: Exotic Sports 
Price Range: No data available
Looks unbelievable, sounds even better. Huge speed, exquisite interior
Lifeless steering, very stiff ride, handling quite tricky on the limit
Better to look at than to drive, but still a wonderful experience. Shame it has no bearing whatsoever on any planned future Alfa production car
The simple truth is we don't know, because Alfa Romeo refused to let us drive the car on the road, restricting its activities instead to its Balocco test track. We're always suspicious of car manufacturers that prevent journalists from trying cars in their natural environment, but given that the 8C's ride quality was extremely firm, and bordering on the harsh even on Alfa's ultra-smooth track, we think we know why. Quite how it will cope with a typical British back road remains to be seen.
However you can't accuse Alfa of is pulling its punches with this car: it looks like a hard-edged performance machine and that is exactly how it behaves. This is no cruise-to-the-Med Grand Tourer, but a true supercar that demands a lot of its driver if it is to be driven properly.
Perhaps predictably. the Ferrari/Maserati engine provides the 8C's finest hour. For a start it sounds fabulous: outside it's loud, symphonic and glorious, but from within its voice is a magnificently malevolent snarl as you accelerate and a wonderfully evocative assortment of pops and bangs from the exhaust as you lift off the gas. None of this just happens: it's all been manufactured in sound chambers, but when you hear it, you'd not have it any other way.
And if you push the Sport button, not only does the engine become louder and the gearshift time halve to 0.2sec, the throttle also becomes more responsive to the touch of your foot. Get it right and it will hit 62mph in 4.2sec and keep going all the way to a claimed 181mph though, if it matters, Alfa says its real top speed is at least 186mph.
The gearchange is a reasonable example of its type. The upshifts are quite smooth if you lift off the gas and it blips the throttle for you on down changes. But while that 0.2sec change time might sound quick, it's light years away from what Alfa's colleagues at Ferrari are achieving with similar hardwear: a 599GTB is twice as quick to shift as the 8C, the Scuderia over three times faster... An automatic programme is fitted but, like auto modes on all manual gearboxes with electronic actuation, it's still a less than satisfactory arrangement.
But great Alfa Romeos have never kept their strengths for the straight line. Anyone who has driven anything from an Alfa 75 to an old Giulia Super or GT Junior will know their real magic lies in the way they come alive in the corners. Does the 8C do this? Bluntly, no.
It gets all the basics right: the steering is quick, the tyres grip tenaciously and, so long as you keep the stability systems engaged, it'll never throw you at the scenery. What it lacks is subtlety, those nuances of feel that distinguish a car that's great to drive from one that's merely good. Crucially, the steering offers very little feedback and, if you push the chassis to the limit, you find that while it is quite easy to guide the 8C into a corner, as you start to accelerate away, the nose is too willing to slide wide of your intended line. Aim to bring it back on course with a bootful of throttle and it will kick the tail out with some savagery. You can, of course, always leave the electronics connected and it will look after you, come what may, but this is a meant to be a highly focused driver's car and many owners will want to feel how it behaves when driven in a manner commensurate to that billing.
