The production Alfa Brera sportscar - which goes on sale in Italy this month - made its British public debut over the weekend during the 'Autosport International' motorsports show, held in the sprawling halls of the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre. The annual motor racing and rallying extravaganza provided the perfect opportunity for Alfa Romeo UK to showcase the exciting new sportscar, ahead of its late spring arrival in the English showrooms, and in front of an audience that truly appreciates high performance motoring, coupled with a strong sense of style, innovation and of course flair.

The Autosport International brings together all manner of racing cars, from the current crop of Formula 1 machines, though to humble go-karts, with the high-tech 'World Rally' cars, sportscars and dragsters thrown in for good measure. It has become a firm fixture on the 'show' calendar each January, and bills itself as the world's biggest motorsport show.

Into the heady mix of competition cars' comes a bend of the very finest of road-going sporting and luxury cars. This year these included Italian stunners such as the awesome 'F1 technology on the road' Ferrari Enzo, the V12 Lamborghini Murciélago supercar and the powerful V8-engined Maserati GranSport. Public debuts seen during the show included the new Prodrive P2 concept, as well as fresh offerings from Connaught and Virago.
 

And then there was the Alfa Brera, a real star in the halls of the NEC and a car clearly at home in this illustrious company. The new coupé, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro in conjunction with the Alfa Romeo style centre, is born of the tradition that breathed life into the good-looking, thoroughbred cars that, now as then, strike a magical balance between sense and sensibility, between technical culture and creative design.

At the Autosport International Alfa Romeo UK presented a single, top-of-the range Brera equipped with a panoramic glass roof with an electric blind (an exclusive optional feature). Aptly, it was the powerful Q4 version equipped with a 24 valve 3.2 V6 JTS power unit, a veritable jewel of automotive engineering that delivers maximum power of 191 kW (260 bhp) at 6200 rpm with a maximum torque of 322 Nm (32.8 kgm) at 4500 rpm.