Do the hustle with the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante Spyder
Italian custom carmaker Touring Superleggera will only make seven of these exquisite roadsters, making for one special car indeed.
No, it's not a disco inferno. Italian bespoke carmaker Touring Superleggera shows us the first of seven hand-built Alfa Romeo Disco Volante Spyder at the Geneva Motor Show this year and all I can say is, "Hand me the glitter ball and let's go for a drive."
The Disco Volante Spyder uses the Alfa Romeo 8C as a donor car. It's all incredibly Italian.
Sorry, manual transmission lovers. This baby has a six-speed sequential automatic. Paddle shifters included.
Built on the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider, the Disco Volante Spyder is a masterpiece in carbon fiber. The front bumper and grille, hood, side skirts, trunk lid, windshield frame, rear cross member and convertible roof are all made from the light stuff, but the brass over at Touring Superleggera are surprisingly cagey about the total weight. The representative would only tell me that it weighs about the same as the donor car, but with a lower center of gravity. The 8C Spider comes in at 3,700 pounds, which seems high for a car with so much carbon fiber. Alfa's newer 4C, which is also full of the lightweight material, tips the scales at a more plausible 2500 pounds.
Whatever the weight, the chassis is powered by a 4.7-liter V8 engine, knocking out 450 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque. Power goes to the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential gear box with paddle shifters. With a top speed of 181 miles per hour, 62 mph comes in 4.5 seconds.
The Disco Volante Spyder is wearing some pretty massive platform shoes as well. The 20-inch forged aluminum wheels are wrapped in Pirelli PZero rubber, 245 millimeters in the front and 285 millimeters in the rear. For those of you not versed in metric, that's over 9.5 inches and 11 inches, respectively.
The company has sold three of the seven Disco Volante Spyders slated for production. One can be yours within six months of donor car delivery, at a price of if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-it.