It’s been almost a year and a half since we dropped a huge stack of knowledge on the Alfa Romeo 6C coupe, and little has changed since then. Plans still call for it to be sexy as hell (the rendering above shows an early styling direction), share underpinnings with a Maserati, and arrive in roughly 2017. But there has been one major development. Thanks to a recent report from Auto Express, we know exactly with which Maser the 6C will be twinned: the stunning Alfieri, a white-hot anvil of awesome dropped into the middle of this year’s Geneva auto show.
This dovetails quite nicely with our original report, in which we said that the 6C coupe (as well as a possible four-door-sedan version) would ride on the Maserati Ghibli‘s rear- and all-wheel-drive architecture; we just didn’t know the Alfieri was a thing at that point. The Alfieri and 6C version of the platform will be whittled down to a size more befitting sports cars intended to take on the Jaguar F-type and the Porsche 911.
Alfa Romeo will be going strictly rear- and all-wheel drive across its entire lineup, which allegedly will feature eight new products by 2018. (As for the other Alfa sports car you might have heard about, remember that the Mazda MX-5–based Spider was lost to Fiat.) Power in both the Alfieri and the 6C will come from a version of the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 currently installed in Maserati’s Ghibli and Quattroporte. Starter-kit 6Cs will pack at least 410 horsepower, but count on well over 500 for top-shelf versions.