GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Production-ready Alfa Disco Volante

Twelve months ago, Italian styling house Carrozzeria Touring (now known as Touring Superleggera) rolled out an eye-catching modern-day take on the 1952 Alfa Romeo C52 Disco Volante, and now the firm is following up with a production version for the 2013 Geneva motor show.

Whereas last year’s concept was merely a rolling chassis, the vehicle being shown this year is a fully working prototype, complete with a 4.7-litre V8 sourced from the Alfa 8C Competizione.

Touring Superleggera’s Disco Volante embodies the spirit of the 1952 original, but the car uses an 8C-sourced carbon-fibre chassis, clothed in hand-beaten aluminium body panels.

The mid-front mounted V8 (visible in this teaser pic) pumps out 330kW, which yields a claimed 0-100km/h split of 4.2 seconds and a v-max around the 290km/h mark. The Disco Volante’s dynamics should also benefit from its rear-transaxle layout, which makes for optimal weight distribution.

According to the official press release, it has taken just 10 months since the decision was made to proceed with the project to complete the whole engineering, development and manufacturing cycle.

The statement adds: “Many parts of the new body are made in carbon-fibre, adding aesthetic and structural value to the traditional hand-beaten aluminium panels.??“This is yet another testimony of advanced automotive design and custom coach building. Touring Superleggera is one of the rare firms offering the whole in-house productive cycle from the first sketch, all the way through surface engineering and structural analysis, style models and prototypes, to turn-key, low-volume production of special bodywork.”?

Although Touring Superleggera hasn’t elaborated on pricing or how you can actually obtain one, it’s believed the onus is on the would-be owner to first find and purchase an 8C (of which just 500 were built) to use as a donor car.

Once you’ve written out a suitably large cheque, Touring Superleggera then gets stuck into the estimated 4000 man-hours needed to convert the 8C into a Disco Volante.

Given the cost of the bespoke Alfa, and the fact the process of building one takes an estimated eight months, it’s likely most owners will more or less tuck them away in mothballs after taking delivery of their car.

In case you’re going to be at the Geneva show next week, you’ll be able to clap your eyes on the Disco Volante on the Touring Superleggera stand.

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