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Alfa Romeo 8C based Disco Volante by Touring makes limited production

The Alfa Romeo Disco Volante (pictured) is going in to limited production The Alfa Romeo 8C is a beautiful – if flawed – supercar from Alfa, made even more individual by by Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera with their Alfa Disco Volante Concept in 2012. That Concept – which arrived at the Geneva Motor Show in 2012 – has now been updated for 2013 and is being put in to limited production for those with deep pockets to indulge in an Alfa even more rare than the 8C itself. The Disco Volante pays homage to the 1952 Alfa Romeo Disco Volante – based on the Alfa 1900 – and is built from aluminium and carbon fibre to keep weight in check, although under the skin remains pretty much Alfa 8C.

Alfa Romeo 4C Spider revealed: Geneva Motor Show

The Alfa Romeo 4C Spider (pictured) revealed in Geneva The Alfa Romeo 4C is the epitome of a modern ‘supercar’, with ultra light weight (for a production car) allowing the 4C to produce very good performance from its modest 17500cc engine. So producing an Spider convertible immediately raises the weight issue in a more dramatic way when the car’s abilities are so dependent on it low weight, but it seems the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider – previewed as a production car with a concept at Geneva today – has managed to keep the wight penalties of the convertible 4C down to a minimum. Thanks to a canvas roof and carbon fibre rollover bars, the weight penalty for the Spider is only about 60kg (around a 7 per cent gain) which shouldn’t hurt performance too much.

Jaguar XJ Diesel – The Swansong plaudit

The Jaguar XJ 2.7 Diesel has won the 'Greenest Luxury Car' Award And although one of the strengths of Jaguar has been its heritage it has, to a degree, also become its Achilles Heel. The first Jaguar XJs were a triumph when they were launched in 1968, and put Jaguar leaps and bounds ahead of the German competition, in the same way Jaguar had taken the world by storm with the E-Type a few years before. But things started to fall apart for Jaguar in the ’70s with the fiasco that was British Leyland, and by trying to emulate Porsche by making each iteration of the XJ an evolution of the original all they managed to do was cement in the public mindset the failings of the XJ.