This weekend, Alfa Romeo's gorgeous 8c Competizione has once again taken centre stage in a motor show, the occasion being Amsterdam's prestigious Autorai 2005.

During almost a year and a half since it was first unveiled to widespread acclaim at the 2003 Frankfurt IAA, the 8c Competizione concept has graced all the world's leading motor shows: Geneva, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Bologna and Sydney. And on Thursday it took its place for the first time at the 2005 edition of Autorai, the most important Benelux car extravaganza, held at the beginning of each year in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam.

Leading Dutch motoring publication Autovisie has assembled a 'Supercar Paddock' for the show. The magazine has brought together a series of cars that has excited its team, both dynamically and visually. In fact they include the new Cadillac CTS-V in the line-up, a car to which they awarded the title of 'surprise of the day', during their recent annual 'sports sedan' test.

The winner of Autovisie's 'Supertest 2004', the new Ford GT, was actually scheduled in for three days at the Rai on the stand, but it was unfortunately crashed at Le Mans recently by a Danish journalist, and thus its appearance had to be canned at the last minute.

The cars in the 'Supercar Paddock' are lined up back-to-back in their own individually fenced bays. The Alfa Romeo 8c Competizione has been joined in the hard-hitting line-up by the ultimate production supercar, the 6.0-litre V12-engined Ferrari Enzo, to provide the display with an overtly strong Italian sporting flavour.

The line-up of sports cars is completed by a Porsche Carrera GT, the locally-built Spyker C8 Laviolette, a Noble M400, an MG SV-R, a BMW M3-GTR, a Porsche 911 GT-3 Cup, the aforementioned Cadillac CTS-V, and finally a TVR T350C. Two cars due to appear were switched to elsewhere in the Rai's halls at the last minute, the new MG GT concept car and the Invicta S1-600, which have now wound up on the MG Rover and TVR/Morgan stands respectively.
 

The Centro Style designed and built concept has over the time interval since its Frankfurt IAA debut, evolved from being a dream car to a production-ready sportscar, now agonisingly waiting for a go-ahead. In the meantime a whole host of minor changes have been made to the first prototype, with the car now ready for the green light, a decision however that tragically becomes more and more distant by the day.

The flush-fitting automatic door entry handles have now been dispensed with in favour of a more conventional hinged arrangement. The alloy wheels, which previously comprised of eight chunky spokes, have been replaced with new, more complex wheels, while the beefy 4-pot brake calipers are now painted silver.

Inside the snug cockpit, a number of minor changes aim to enhance the finish. A new gearknob, which neatly blends aluminium with leather, matches the steering wheel. Likewise a more prominent alloy handbrake lever is firmer in the grip. Elsewhere, the cut-out that houses the superb interior door release cable, is now picked out in silver, while a silver trim now chases the lower edge of the storage bins, subtly matching the similar-coloured finisher which highlights the speakers. The steering wheel boss has also been cosmetically improved.

Careful improvements have also been made to the glass tailgate. The high-level brake light now has a cover which juts much deeper into the tailgate, while the flowing glass edge finisher sweeps neatly back on itself at the base of the curved screen.

by Edd Ellison, James & Paddy Granger in Amsterdam