Italian car producer Fiat negotiated in the last few weeks possible forms of cooperation with the U.S. Chrysler Group, said the general director of Alfa Romeo brand, Luca de Meo, German magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

At the end of March, the general director of Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, said the Financial Times that the group is ready to discuss with the big American manufacturers to automobile manufacturing Alfa Romeo in the United States.

Such collaboration would reduce costs Fiat, in the conditions in which European exporters are affected by the high cotatia euro, and would mark the return of Alfa Romeo brand on the American market, where it was withdrawn in 1995.

Alfa fans have been a bit disappointed that the Italian automaker reportedly decided to push back the debut of the highly anticipated upcoming Junior model past the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, and Bertone’s unveiling of the BAT 11 concept remains up in the air, but just the same, Alfa Romeo will have plenty to show us next week.

In addition to debuting the production – and we use that term loosely, considering only 500 will be made – version of the 8C Spider, Alfa will be unveiling updated versions of its unspeakably gorgeous Brera and Spider models.

Thankfully, the Italians know better than to attempt improving on a masterpiece, so Alfa hasn’t messed with the award-winning design to any great extent. Read more »

The undisputed star of Alfa Romeo’s Geneva Show stage will be the production version of the 8C Spider. The designers at Alfa’s Centro Stile have done an immaculate job in turning the 8C Comptezione into a Spider – we wouldn’t expect anything less from these guys of course.

As with the coupe, the Spider is powered the Ferrari/Maserati derived 4.7-liter V8 engine producing 450 HP and it is matched to a 6 speed robotic gearbox.

Now for the bad news; the 8C Spider will be produced in a mere 500 units and although Alfa hasn’t announced pricing, we’re gathering that we’d have to find two or three extra jobs in order to pay the instalments. Read more »