The arrival in full production of the stunning new Alfa 8C Competizione is the most exciting occasion to take place for Alfa Romeo enthusiasts' across the world for many years. An uncompromising and dramatic high-performance sportscar it is steeped in all the finest traditions of the marque and its official unveiling at last month's Paris Mondial de l'Automobile was a moment that captured the world's attention. Four Alfisi from the Hungarian Alfa Romeo community Alfa Amore travelled to Paris to see the Alfa 8C Competizione in the flesh; this is a report of their thoughts of this new sports car:

This is the real Alfa L’amour. We have waited for several years and now…voilá! It’s finally here. We had a rendezvous lined up with the Alfa 8C Competizione at the 77th Mondial de l’Automobile in Paris. Our team visited the show’s only, private airtight room, where only celebrities, VIPs, and potential customers were allowed in to see the centrepiece attraction of the room and to sit in its sporty cockpit: the Alfa 8C Competizione.

Hundred of cars littered the halls in Paris this year for Europe's most-visited motor show, each trying to glitter more than the next as they vied for the public's attention. Mixed up with these car were lot’s of important world premières and flashy new concept models, however we all felt, that everybody was here simply because of the Alfa 8C. At the packed Alfa Romeo stand we have to search for the cars amongst the huge crowd…Alfa Romeo brought to Paris the Brera, the Spider, the brand new Alfa 147 hatchback with Q2 and the Black Line version of the elegant Alfa GT Coupé, but these models - each of them gorgeous sports cars in their own right - were at this show just as supporting players to the main act.

Aside from the two press days when the world's media clustered 'en masse' around the show's star exhibit, visitors were only allowed to see and take photographs of the Alfa 8C Competizione from outside the sharply rising walls of its glass-walled cage. Physically set apart from the rest of the show, this car registered its distain for its supposed rivals. For a brand new car, which is unbelievably exclusive, it is achingly elegant, sophisticated, and instantly it is an object of desire. It enchants you but not because of it’s brutality, but it’s sheer gracefulness. You cannot find on this car any unnecessary frills; it has perfectly clear, crisp lines which convey its menacing purpose; but at the same time you can find perfect details also, details which are missing from today’s world of car production.

The Alfa 8C Competizione was designed to be an all-time classic, so it proudly clashes with all of today’s weak design trends, it rides its own road. Chasing back to the marque's roots: this car’s tracing would be absolutely perfect and quite simply beautiful if it had arrived during any era of Alfa Romeo's long and rich history. Crystal-like fog lights with clusters of LEDs, the reminiscent scudetto-shaped engine hood, the skin-tight and sweeping carbon-fibre bodywork, its classic-shaped overall form...it is unnecessary to say anything further. Beauty and style just comes naturally to the cars of the famous Milanese brand, it is deeply-rooted in their DNA.
 

We went to the Paris Mondial de l'Automobile just because of this car, to see an important moment in Alfa Romeo's history, so we weren't to be stopped any glass wall. We received a fifteen minute rendezvous with it, sandwiched between the VIPs and customers. One of the French Alfa Romeo agency’s managers introduced us the Alfa 8C Competizione, asking us to be careful, because this is one of the 500 cars to be built, and one which will be sold to a delighted customer.

Properly speaking at first we didn’t really know where to sit and what to touch. Then quickly we are ensconced in the highly supportive driver’s seat. This is more than a sports seat it is a 'per se'  design work of art. First class finish leather seats can be ordered in four colours: black, red, beige and titanium. The show car's interior was in a glorious red, matching its exterior paint, the other available colours options were displayed on chunky sections of fabric - and each looked utterly desirable, this will be a very difficult choice for the prospective buyer to call.

The usual sporty materials featured on the dashboard: the stamp of carbon-fibre weave, swages of immaculately trimmed leather and superbly polished aluminium, all add to the blend. Everything is close to your hands, it is a cockpit fashioned for the driver. The absence of the gearlever was noticeable, its function replaced by the presence of the cambiocorsa system's operating tabs, which are positioned just behind the steering wheel. Between the two body-hugging racing seats we find leather-overlaid storage compartments, and located where the gearlever would be on a conventional car, nestling between slices of aluminium, are situated a cluster of press-operation switches for Engine Start-Stop, Hazard warning light, VDC, Sport Mode, and also the reverse’s switch. Behind the seats we find several neatly stored leather-finished luggage bags which have a 1930-40s style and which are attractively covered with the same colours as the interior.

The Alfa 8C Competizione's chunky door key is finished in red once again and has a fashioned style like those used on the Alfa 147 and the facelifted 156. Although at rest in the show's environment, if we had started the engine we would have heard the glorious sound of a new 4.7-lire V8 Ferrari-crafted engine, which is set to produce 450bhp. The Alfa 8C will be available in four different colours, Alfa-Rosso, 8C-Rosso, Giallo and Nero. There are circa 250 of these stunning sportscars still on sale, as during the motor show in Paris Alfa Romeo sold more than half of the 500 unit run at a price of about 134,000 euros plus taxes. We returned home and filled out a lottery slip…Report & Photos: Alfa Amore