Alfa Romeo Disco Volante returns to Geneva, this time in green and gold

Just about everyone loved the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante by Touring Superleggera that debuted at the 2012 edition of the Geneva motor show. The curvy coupe channeled the design of Alfa Romeos of the 1960s, namely the Alfa Romeo 2000 and 2600 penned by Touring, while appearing modern at the same time. The concept, finished in red at the time, drew praise for its good looks, enough to make just about everyone forget what sort of monster lived under that svelte bodywork: the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, powered by a 4.7-liter 450-hp V8 good for a 0 to 60 sprint of 4.2 seconds.

Admittedly, Touring Superleggera could have looked for one of Alfa Romeo's milder platforms when it came to finding a chassis for this coachbuilt limited production coupe, but the carrozzeria chose the hottest platform that Alfa Romeo had on offer to lend the car a pedigree which would assure that its performance would remain up to date for quite some time.

And it appears that Touring isn't about to let this design rest, which is fine with us. They're bringing a slightly tweaked version to this year's Geneva show, one that was likely built for an actual customer. We thought the original production prototype looked great in red as well as silver exterior colors, which we've already seen, but Touring still wants to show the world a Disco Volante finished in dark green with gold accents, which almost seem like Lotus' old John Player colors. (ED: Or the Bishop Don "Magic" Juan)

The Disco Volante is a bit color sensitive, with only lighter colors being able to bring out the curves and the surface details, but this dark green exterior color works far better than black would have. The gold details on the wheels and the beltline accentuate the barrel shape of the body nicely, without letting it seem slab-sided.

Touring Superleggera
This is the third appearance of the Disco Volante at Geneva.

There's a reason we keep seeing this Disco Volante at auto shows: Touring is selling examples of this car made to order. No, they haven't revealed the base price and we're quite confident there really isn't such a thing as a base price, as each example is hand-built to order and takes about 4,000 hours to complete.

But if you wanted an estimate, the 8C Competizione itself is just around $259,000. So just add the materials and the hours required to complete this example. As the old saying goes: if you have to ask... it's probably north of $500,000.

By Jay Ramey